Changes In Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Teacher Motivation Before And After The Teaching Practicum

Teacher attrition has been a serious problem in the field of education(Dai&Guo,2020).In order to address the problem of teacher attrition and promote the quality of teaching and learning,education policy makers,curriculum designers,and teacher educators emphasize the importance of improving the teacher motivation of pre-service teachers.Researchers’ attention to pre-service teachers’ teacher motivation are limited to the relationship between teacher motivation and practice school,the factors that affect teacher motivation.However,limited attention has been paid to the pre-service teachers’ teacher motivation change and its influential factors.Therefore,in order to make up for the gap in relevant research,this study prepares two research questions:(1)What are the changes in teacher motivation of pre-service EFL teachers before and after the teaching practicum?(2)What are the factors for the teacher motivation change of pre-service EFL teachers?An understanding of the changes and the influential factors of the pre-service EFL teachers’ teacher motivation has the benefits for both the teaching practicum and pre-service EFL teachers.Based on D(?)rnyei and Ushioda’s(2011)definition of teacher motivation,Watt and Richardson’s(2007)FIT-Choice model,this study adopts a mixed method to explore the changes in pre-service EFL teachers’ teacher motivation before and after the teaching practicum,and the factors influencing the changes in pre-service EFL teachers’ teacher motivation.The participants are 44 pre-service EFL teachers of the two-year postgraduate Master of Education program in a comprehensive university.The questionnaires are exploited as the instruments of the study alongside with the semi-structured interviews.The most significant findings of the study are concluded as follows.Pre-service EFL teachers’ overall teacher motivation was at a medium level before the teaching practicum,but after the course,their teacher motivation reached a medium-high level,realizing a significant advance in four dimensions of teacher motivation,namely ’socialization influence’,’task perception’,’self-perception’ and’values’.The factors influencing the changes in pre-service EFL teachers’ teacher motivation include two dimensions:social factors and personal factors.Social factors include modelling,feedback and social interaction.Personal factors include teacher efficacy,self-regulation and self-reflection.These factors have contributed to the increase of the teacher motivation of pre-service EFL teachers.Based on the above-mentioned research findings,this study offers some implications for the teaching practicum school and pre-service EFL teachers.The teaching practicum school should provide more opportunities for pre-service EFL teachers to be engaged in the real classroom teaching.The pre-service EFL teachers are encouraged to have a deeper insight into their teacher motivation and maintain their positive motivation.