An Overview of Student Teachers’ Academic Intrinsic Motivation

Student teachers’ desire to learn is affected by a variety of motivational factors. In this study, the ffect of some internal and external variables on Academic Intrinsic Motivation (AIM) was explored. First, the validity and reliability of the scale of AIM was determined, then the effect on AIM of variables such as grade levels, academic grade point averages, learning environments, and the desire to be a teacher were examined. The research was carried out with 780 student teachers in the fall semester of 2012-13, and a survey model was used for the study. The AIM scale and personal information forms were used to collect data. In order to determine the construct validity of the AIM scale, item analysis, as well as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods, were employed, respectively. In the second phase of the study, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were used for the independent variables.