Book Description
Abstract: Student motivation is an important topic in teacher education and educational psychology. Although there is considerable research on what influences student motivation there seems to be a disconnect between theory and practice. One potential reason for this disconnect may be due to underlying beliefs about motivation. This dissertation attempts to uncover what pre-service teachers believe about student motivation throughout a teacher education program using the newly designed Teacher Beliefs about Student Motivation survey. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in order to create a reliable survey that was used to perform a two-factor multivariate analysis of a multivariate case. Time was used as the repeated factor and level of intended licensure was used as the non-repeated/grouping factor. Significant differences emerged as a result of level on the mastery sub-scale and as a result of time on the how teachers motivate and individual characteristics sub-scales. No significant differences emerged as a result of the interaction of time and level. These findings add to stage-environment fit theory research, suggesting that differences between elementary, middle, and high school teachers may exist at the pre-service level. This study also supports conceptual change literature and provides insights for teacher educators when presenting motivational research to pre-service teachers.