Preservice Teachers' Motivation is Associated with Changes in Classroom Motivation (Klassen, Wang, & Thompson-Lee)

Preservice teachers’ motivation fluctuates as experience is gained and feedback is received from influential sources. Previous studies have explored changes in preservice teacher motivation over time, but rarely as a function of performance on classroom simulation tasks. We explored how performance on a series of classroom simulation tasks was related to changes in preservice teachers’ self-efficacy, career intentions, and perceived fit with the profession. The level of performance on classroom simulation tasks significantly predicted changes in self-efficacy, career intentions, and person-vocation fit, even after controlling for baseline levels of the constructs, as well as gender and age. Change in outcome variables was progressively more pronounced after the second and the third classroom simulation session.