Students Motives and Satisfaction with Studies in the Area of Natural Sciences and Their Willingness to Continue Studies in Teacher Education

• Authors: Katrin Poom-Valickis , Tiina Elvisto
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Natural sciences teachers have a key role to play in creating knowledge and skills. However, Estonian students' interest in studying natural sciences and their willingness to continue studies in teacher education have decreased. This study was designed to assess: 1) how clear the students' motives to study natural sciences was; 2) how the clarity of motives relate to student satisfaction with their studies and 3) how student satisfaction with studies relate to their interest in continuing studies in teacher education. The participants of the study (N=92) were natural sciences students at Tallinn University. The data was collected using an adapted Learning and Studying Questionnaire by Entwistle et al. (2002) and questions designed by the authors of the study. The SPSS programme was used to analyse the data. The results of the study show that carefully planned curriculum selection and positive learning experiences increase student willingness to choose teacher education.

Keywords

EN

education for sustainable development; teacher education; natural science area; student motives; student satisfaction

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 41-50

Dates

published

2009-01-01

online

2009-12-23

Contributors

author

Katrin Poom-Valickis

• Tallinn University, Estonia

author

Tiina Elvisto

• Tallinn University, Estonia

References

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• Retrieved June 25, 2007, from
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• Sterling, S. (2001). Sustainable education. Re-visioning learning and change. Green Books for the Schumacher Society, UK.
• UNESCO. (2003). Decade of Education for Sustainable Development. Framework for a draft international implementation scheme. Retrieved April 20, 2009, from
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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10099-009-0039-9