Exploring the predictors of Motivation and Attitude towards teaching: A study on Preservice teachers

A quality education is not a product but a process that must possess a quality teaching-learning process. It involves elements such as appropriate curriculum, learning environment, teaching learning materials etc,. The mere presence of these elements is inadequate because a competent teacher is required who can integrate all these elements with his pedagogical content and knowledge. A competent teacher requires not only the pedagogical content knowledge but needs appropriate levels of motivation and attitude towards teaching which are the drivers for any teacher to bring that quality teaching-learning process into the classrooms. So, it’s an attempt by the researchers to study the motivation and attitude of preservice teachers of RIE, Mysore towards teaching with an intention to analyse the predictors that are affecting their overall motivation and overall attitude towards teaching. The study employed a descriptive survey method where data was collected from 52 preservice teachers using “Attitude scale towards teaching developed by Umme Kulsum (2008)” and “Teacher Motivation Scale (1986) constructed by U.L. Narayan and standardized by Satya Rao (2008)”. The analysis included descriptive statistics to find the levels of motivation and attitude. Correlation and regression analysis was performed to analyse the predictors of overall motivation and attitude. Findings reveal that the best predictor of pre-service teachers’ overall motivation was interpersonal relations while the weak predictor was personal factors. With respect to attitude the best predictor of pre-service teachers’ overall attitude was the socio-psychological aspect of teaching while the weak predictor was the economic aspect of teaching.