Factors Influencing Mathematics Teaching as a Career Choice (FIMT-Choice): An Instrument Development and Validation

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Carmelo W. Madinno

Abstract

The study developed and validated an instrument that  assess the motivations of secondary mathematics pre-service  teachers (SMPTs) in choosing mathematics teaching as their  career, hereto referred as Factors Influencing Mathematics  Teaching as a Career Choice (FIMT-Choice). The study adopted  items from Factors Influencing Teaching as a Career Choice  (FIT-Choice) instrument by Watt and Richardson and calibrated  or added items suited to the local area. The notion that content  mathematics could be among the motivations of secondary  pre-service teachers in choosing math-teaching career was also  considered. The study generated 56 final items in the FIMT- Choice instrument, which were validated among 171 secondary  mathematics pre-service teachers (SMPTs) in two prominent  teacher education institutions in the Cordillera Administrative  Region, Philippines. Statistical tools such as Cronbach’s Alpha,  Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure  of Sampling Adequacy and the Principal Component Factor  Analysis were used to establish the reliability and validity of the  instrument. The results suggest that the SMPTs consider 10  valid and reliable constructs in choosing mathematics teaching  as their career. Particularly, the SMPTs separate the  mathematics, the teaching, and the combined mathematics teaching aspects      in their motivations      in entering the  mathematics-teaching career. Thus, the FIMT-Choice Scale assess  more specific areas of motivations in choosing mathematic- teaching as a career among SMPTs compared with the  FIT-Choice Scale by Watt and Richardson. Hence, the FIMT- Choice Scale is a more precise instrument in exploring the  motivations of SMPTs in entering the methematics teaching  career.

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