Exploring the relationships between prospective Turkish teachers' hopes, motivations and professional plans

Abstract

Based on a sample of 851 prospective teachers from Turkey, this study examined the relationships between prospective teachers' dispositional hopes, teaching-specific hopes, the sources and motivational forces of these hopes, motivations for teaching, and professional plans about teaching. Hierarchical cluster analyses profiled participants' dispositional hopes and their sources, and teaching-specific hopes, together with their sources and motivational forces. Multivariate analyses of covariance investigated relationships between educed clusters, motivations for teaching, and professional plans. Results showed that prospective teachers' profiles could be significantly described in terms of dispositional and teaching-specific hopes, sources, and motivational forces. Prospective teachers' dispositional hopes and their sources related to motivations for teaching and, to some extent, professional plans. Teaching-specific hopes together with their sources and motivational forces, related more than dispositional hopes, to all aspects of motivations for teaching and professional plans.