A Longitudinal Examination of Pre-service Primary School Teachers’ Readiness for Teaching, Teaching Motivation, and Mathematics Teaching Competencies

Abstract

This study aimed to track the readiness for teaching, teaching motivation, and mathematics teaching competencies of pre-service primary school teachers throughout the four years of their undergraduate education at a faculty of education in Istanbul, Türkiye.

A longitudinal method was employed, and data was collected from pre-service teachers enrolled in a faculty of education in Istanbul, Türkiye. A positive moderate correlation was found between readiness for teaching and mathematics teaching competencies in the first, second, and fourth years, while a significant high correlation was found in the third year.

According to the results obtained in the research, there is a significant relationship between these variables. The fact that teacher candidates feel ready for the teaching profession as a result of the education they receive, their motivation to teach is high and they see themselves as competent in teaching mathematics may be related to the education they receive at universities.

This research is limited to monitoring the teacher candidates' readiness for teaching, motivation to teach, and mathematics teaching competence during the four years from the year they started the faculty of education until they graduated from university.

The results of the research are important in the context of questioning teacher education.