Analysis of the motivational features of the choice of the teaching profession by students

Abstract

The relevance of the present study is determined by the demand of the state and society for training pedagogical personnel who are highly motivated for professional activity and chose their profession consciously. Thus, the first premise of the conducted study lies in the need to improve the quality of pedagogical training in the Moscow metropolis. The second premise is the need for the scientific study of the structure of personality and the interrelation of its components presented by personal values and the motives behind the choice of profession. The study aims to identify the correlation of personal value orientations and motives for choosing a future profession in students of the pedagogical faculty of the Moscow City University. The study methods include projective methods (a survey and essays) and standardized methods (Rokeach’s Personal Values Survey, Schwartz’s Value Survey, and “Test of life-meaning orientations” by D.A. Leontiev). The study confirms that personal values correlate with the motives for the choice of profession in pedagogical faculty students. A high correlation between the motive behind choosing the teaching profession and personal values is found in the orientation on interaction with people and on oneself, awareness of one’s professional choice, and social and cultural conditioning. In the categories of gender and financial status, the motives for choosing a profession do not correlate with students’ personal values. The novelty of the study lies in the identification and empirical verification of the scientific method for determining students’ involvement in the future teaching profession. The significance of the study is found in the fact that it reveals a new technology for vocational guidance of applicants of pedagogical university training programs. Moreover, implementation of the study results may increase the effectiveness of the design of students’ education in improving their professional motivation. The presented research makes a scientific contribution to the study of a person’s activity and independence in self-realization in life, the freedom of choice and responsibility for it, for one’s decisions and actions, as well as in the study of the values of future teachers.