Does Higher Education Curriculum Contribute to Prospective Teachers' Attitudes, Self-Efficacy and Motivation?

Abstract

In Croatia, another comprehensive reform of the education system is being implemented. Although it proposes anumber of reforms to the school system, we think that providing better training to future teachers during their studieswould further contribute to the quality of education. The initial education of elementary and high school teachers isconsiderably different in terms of the number of courses where teaching competences are acquired, i.e. teachingcourses, and the number of classes of these courses students take every week. Therefore, the initial hypothesis of thestudy was that students who take more teaching courses will prefer a democratic atmosphere, and will be moreintrinsically motivated, more self-efficient and more satisfied with their course of study as compared to students whotake fewer of these courses. A series of questionnaires was given to 383 students at teacher education institutions atthe University of Split to examine their academic self-efficacy, motivation, satisfaction with the studies and to assessthe quality of teaching atmosphere. The obtained results confirm the hypothesis that future teachers who take moreteaching courses prefer a democratic atmosphere and are intrinsically more motivated. When explaining futureteachers’ attitudes towards a democratic teaching process, the predictive role of self-efficacy and satisfaction withthe course of study was not determined.