Exploring How Student Teachers' Motivation Change in Free Teacher Education Program

Teacher attrition has remained a serious issue, which has drawn enormous researcher's attention. This study explores how teaching motivations of pre-service students have changed in the first three years of their situated Free Teacher Education Program (FTE Program), which is a courses-based education. 180 FTE students from two different grades (the first-year and third-year undergraduates) filled an online questionnaire that measured their motivations toward a teaching career. We compared the two cohorts on teaching motivations, which have been categorized into five specific aspects, extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation, altruistic motivation, social status, and fallback career. This research reveals that during the first three years of the FTE Program, there was a decline in FTE students' teaching motivations (extrinsic, intrinsic, altruistic motivation, social status), whereas an increase in motivation of fallback career. We list several potential reasons behind these changes and generate some insights for teacher educators and policymakers on how to improve pre-service students' teaching motivations and preserve their determinations towards teaching as a life-long profession.