The authors apply current influential models from the motivational literature to develop the comprehensive factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-Choice) scale, to measure factors influencing the choice to teach for beginning preservice teacher education candidates. They validate the scale using 2 large cohorts (N = 488; 652) and describe the factors that teacher education candidates identified as most important in their decision to teach. Furthermore, the authors examine longitudinal relationships for participants who have now completed their teaching qualification (N = 294) to determine how entry motivations relate to exit levels of teaching engagement and professional development aspirations. The study makes several important theoretical contributions: The authors extend the values component of the expectancy-value motivational framework, go beyond high school students to examine career choices of adults, and specifically examine the domain of teaching as a career choice. The new FIT-Choice measure provides a theoretical and analytical framework to help guide future investigations in this area. Understanding teacher candidates' motivations for choosing teaching has implications for teacher education planning and curriculum design, teacher recruitment authorities, and government and intergovernmental planning and policy decisions-especially when many Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 10:15 07 October 2014

In this large-scale Australian study, we profile the background characteristics and teaching motivations for individuals entering teacher education across three major established urban teacher provider universities in the Australian States of New South Wales and Victoria. Our recently developed and validated ''FIT-Choice'' (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) Scale determines the strength of influence for a range of motivations from individuals choosing teaching as a career. Findings build upon and extend previous literature relating to reasons for teaching as a career choice, which have not systematically applied current motivational models to developing explanations. Participants were the entire cohorts (N51,653) of first-year pre-service teacher education candidates at three universities in Sydney and Melbourne. Results provide a profile of a large sample of pre-service teachers whose decision to enrol in a teacher education program has been made at a time when the mass media and the general public have increasingly looked upon teaching as a poor career choice. Our new theoretical approach allows us to recommend strategies for teacher recruitment campaigns, based on a comprehensive understanding of individuals' motivations for choosing teaching.

Latent growth models estimated developmental trajectories for adolescents' math and English self-perceptions (perceived talent, success expectancies), values (intrinsic, utility) and task perceptions (task difficulty, effort required). A longitudinal cohort-sequential study included 1,323 participants spanning Grades 7 to 11, with Occasion 1 mean ages 13.19, 12.36, and 14.41, respectively, for Cohorts 1, 2, and 3. Self-perceptions and values declined through adolescence, and ratings about difficulty and effort required increased. Gender differences favored boys for math and girls for English, with little evidence for gender intensification or gender convergence hypotheses. Explanations reference socialization and social-cognitive developmental theories and features of the curricula, with domain-specific patterns implying domain-specific explanations. Existing research is extended by modeling a broadened set of social-cognitive constructs within the Australian context.

This study investigated adolescents' developmental trajectories of mathematics interest and explored related effects of gender, family, and school context. Latent growth curve modeling was used to analyze longitudinal data of N 5 3,193 students (51% female) from grades 5 to 9 from all 3 ability tracks of the German state school system. Annual assessments involved student questionnaires on interest in mathematics, perceptions of classroom characteristics (classroom values for mathematics, mathematics teacher enthusiasm), as well as parent questionnaires regarding family values for mathematics. Results indicated a downward trend of students' mathematics interest that plateaued in later years, with high variability in mean levels, but little variability in the shape of the growth trajectories. Boys reported higher mathematics interest than girls, but similar downward growth trajectories. Students from the lowest ability track showed more favorable interest trajectories than students from the middle and highest tracks. Family values and classroom characteristics were positively related to within-person levels of interest over time and to average individual levels of interest, but not to growth parameters. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 20(2), 507-537 r