Identifying teachers’ motivational profiles and their changes from teacher education into practice: A longitudinal study

In the present study, we examined teachers’ self-efficacy and enthusiasm as two motivational constructs and assessed how they are organized and change over time, using a sample of 662 participants from the end of pre-service teacher education up to two years after entering the teaching profession. We first used latent profile analyses to identify teachers’ motivational profiles. Quantitative motivational profiles were found for those concluding their teacher education, enabling low, medium, and high motivation to be distinguished. Two years after entering the profession, these profiles were no longer clearly identifiable. To investigate the change in the motivational variables, we applied a latent change score model. Finally, we examined whether social support from colleagues, a resource, could explain the change in motivational variables. A significant decrease over time was found for self-efficacy for classroom management and enthusiasm for teaching, while enthusiasm for the subject increased. No significant change was detected for general self-efficacy. Additionally, we found no evidence that social support influences these changes.