engleski

Motivation and personality of preservice teachers in Croatia

The study presents results on the relations between personality traits and motivation for teaching profession in Croatia defined by FIT-Choice theoretical framework (Watt & Richardson, 2006). Empirical evidence in the last two decades supports the notion that personality is significantly predictive of career choice variables such as vocational interests (Tokar, Fischer, & Subich, 1998). A number of studies in the field have explored relations between personality and vocational interests using two broad theoretical frameworks. One of them is the five-factor personality model, while the other is Holland’s model of vocational interests, with social interest type being typical for the teaching profession (Holland, 1997). The interpersonal orientation of the social interest type is congruent with two interpersonal dimensions of the five-factor model: extraversion and agreeableness. This theoretically meaningful congruence between personality and vocational interests has been supported by meta-analyses revealing moderate relations of social interests to extraversion, and modest relations to agreeableness (Barrick, Mount, & Gupta, 2003). However, research in the area of teacher professional development lacks studies that would relate basic personality dimensions to the aspects of motivation for the teaching profession. The aims of this study were to assess the relations between motivation for teaching and basic personality dimensions defined by the five-factor model. The sample in our study consisted of 374 first-year students of teacher education programs for classroom teachers in Croatia. We sampled the largest university in Zagreb, a middle-range university in Rijeka, and a small university in Zadar, in order to ensure the representativeness of the sample of Croatian student teachers. We administered Croatian version of the FIT - Choice scale to assess motivations for the choice of teaching professions, while personality was assessed with BFI personality inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). To gain a more detailed understanding of the role personality traits play in motivation for a teaching profession, separate multiple regression analyses were conducted with the five personality traits as predictors and eight FIT-Choice factors as dependent variables. Personality dimensions provided a set of theoretically meaningful relations with the specific motivational factors determining the choice of teaching profession. In line with previous studies, personality traits better predicted intrinsic compared to extrinsic motivation. Two interpersonal dimensions, extraversion and agreeableness, were significant predictors of intrinsic career value, but also of satisfaction with the choice of teaching. Extraversion also predicted ability, whereas agreeableness had positive relations with social utility value motivations for teaching. In addition, conscientiousness was an important predictor for social utility value, intrinsic career value and perceived ability. The results of the present study have some practical implications. A finding that more extroverted, agreeable and conscientious individuals are likely to be more intrinsically motivated for teaching could be useful in vocational counselling. In addition, preservice teachers who have different personality traits have somewhat different motivations for becoming teachers and thus could differentially benefit from their preservice teacher education.

motivation for teaching; five-factor model; FIT-Choice scale; pre-service teachers

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