A Man Who Knows What He Wants — The Moderation Effects of Professional Identity on Career Self-Efficacy, Outcome Expectation, Learning Burnout, and Career Hope in Preservice Teachers

[LANGUAGE=”English”] The common expression a man who knows what he wants emphasizes the notion that individuals should be certain about their goals and not be limited by others or be unenthusiastic; this trait is essential in career planning. Owing to the influence of Confucian culture and the practice of attaching importance to academic achievements in East Asian countries, teaching jobs are considered honorable. Therefore, many Taiwanese college students are inclined to become teachers.In Taiwan, college students who aspire to become full-time teachers must enroll in a teacher education program, complete this program successfully, and pass a teacher certification exam. Therefore, preservice teachers also function as students at teacher education centers and complete relevant courses. Preservice teachers hope to teach in the future; however, their departments often allure them into pursuing careers related to departmental expertise. Hence, preservice teachers may have to choose between teaching or department-related profession — a situation we called professional identity dilemma. Regardless of their choice, they must invest time in both the teacher education program and their departmental coursework. Furthermore, because of the uncertainty related to passing the teacher certification exam, many preservice teachers experience learning burnout and feel hopeless regarding their careers.A review of studies on social cognitive career theory indicated that career self-efficacy has been determined to be the most predictive variable in studies on career development. Accordingly, we believe that preservice teachers with high competence in career-related decision-making experience low levels of learning burnout and high levels of career hope. Expectancy-value theory proposed by Wigfield and Eccles (2000) states that the willingness of individuals to invest in learning depends mainly on their expectation of success and the value of learning. If preservice teachers expect that they can become teachers successfully and if becoming a teacher is consistent with their values, they tend to invest in learning and persevere. Therefore, this study argues that expectation would function as a mediator of motivation.On the basis of both social cognitive career theory and expectancy-value theory, this study evaluated the mediating effects of preservice teachers’ outcome expectations on their career self-efficacy, learning burnout, and career hope. Specifically, the study invest