Exploring Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Pedagogical Preferences, Teaching Competence and Motivation

The issue of preparing qualified and motivated teachers equipped with all the essential pedagogical and content knowledge and language proficiency has recently become a top priority in many countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The main aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of teaching practice on pre-service teachers' perceptions of their pedagogical preferences, teaching competence and motivation for choosing teaching as a future career. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to have a better understanding of the phenomenon. A five Likert scale questionnaire and a focus group interview were used to collect the necessary data. The questionnaire was distributed and collected from 30 senior prospective female teachers in both elementary and early childhood education programs in a university in the UAE, while the interviews were conducted with only 12 volunteered student teachers. The study's results revealed positive views about the two groups' pedagogical preferences, teaching competence and motivation. Many of the statistically significant results were in favour of the elementary group. Overall, a considerable number of results revealed that prospective teachers view teaching practice experience to have an impact on their pedagogical preferences, teaching competence and motivation. The study concluded with some implications and/or recommendations for future research.