Investigating the Impact of the Learning Context for Pre-service Teachers’ Motivation

This quantitative study investigated pre-service teachers' motivation in a teacher education program and was guided by the well-established framework of Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985).The study examined three research questions: (1) To what degree are German pre-service teachers motivated to learn in their teacher education program?; (2) Can their motivation be predicted by their perceived learning context?; and if so, (3) Is the perceived learning context still a significant predictor after controlling for participants' extroversion?109 pre-service teachers enrolled at a German university voluntarily participated.Data were collected by a questionnaire assessing pre-service teachers' motivation to learn in their program, their perceived learning environment, as well as their extroversion.The analyses revealed that pre-service teachers are autonomously motivated, which considerably depends on the perceived learning context.Moreover, the perceived learning context is still a significant predictor of pre-service teachers' motivation after controlling for extroversion.The findings provide some practical implications suggesting how to instruct pre-service teachers at universities.