Motivation of childhood and primary teachers during initial university education

Abstract

The motivation of Teacher Training students is key for any educational system. In order to improve their motivation we have carried out a study of specific personal characteristics of the students of the degrees in Childhood and Primary Education in Andalusia and we have related it to their level and type of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic). We use a mixed design; we carried out a documentary research, we designed a questionnaire ad hoc and an interview. Specifically 996 questionnaires were analyzed and 56 interviews. The constructs of the questionnaire have been validated using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, and for bivariate analysis we have carried out the corresponding parametric and non-parametric tests. Among the main results, we have identified significant differences between the types of motivation and certain academic, family and socio-economic variables. We concluded the importance of favoring intrinsic motivation in future teachers by applying appropriate programmes of vocational guidance, to make a choice with regard to the qualification on a personal and reasoned level as well as the involvement in volunteer activities.