CAREER MOTIVES, ITS CHANGE DURING TEACHER EDUCATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE PERCEPTION OF PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF STUDENT TEACHERS

Teachers’ career motives are investigated in several studies, comparing school types, countries and subjects, analyzing their effects on progress and satisfaction during teacher education. There are few longitudinal studies on possible changes of the motives and their impact on further professionalization. This paper investigates on changes of career motives and their effect on the perception of the relevance of professional requirements, the competence in coping with them and their challenge. Results show, that career motives change during teacher education; intrinsic motives increase, altruistic and biographic ones and the motive of work with children decrease. Career motives, differentiated by distinctive patterns, shape the perception of professional requirements. Student teachers with less favorable patterns of career motives change their motives towards a better fit to the professional requirements. Coping with challenging and realistic requirements during per-service periods supports changes towards a better fit with the requirements of the profession.