A Study On Teacher Career Maturity Of Normal School Students

The degree of career maturity refers to the level of individuals'professional development at certain career stages. It shows in both the content and process of one's profession choice. In the process of career choice, we look into individuals'professional ability as well as their professional attitude. Teaching is highly professionalized, so it is imperative to nurture career maturity of prospective teachers.Based on the particularity of teaching profession, this study develops a measurement scale to analyze the relationship between career maturity of teaching and the general. Through measuring the degree of the career maturity of pre-service teachers and the cohort of"cost-free"pre-service teachers in northeast China, we have explored the impacts of self-concept and self-surpporting on the career maturity. The findings are summarized as follows:1. The factor analysis results indicate that the attitude factor of career maturity of pre-service teachers can be divided into four dimension, they are internal orientation, decisiveness, independence and external orientation. Whereas the"compromise"dimension which is originally designed according to the general career maturity theory, displays a significant negative correlation both with the total score and other dimensions, so need to be deleted.2. The questionnaire for career maturity evaluation of teaching has proved its credibility and effectiveness. It can be used to assess career maturity of domestic pre-service teacher.3. Attitude factor of pre-service teacher career maturity has significant positive correlation with that of the general, while the capability factor not. When we use"high-low"to compare the total score of teaching and the general, it shows that subjects that scores high in certain type of test tends to display random distribution in another. It indicates that the career maturity evaluation of the general cannot directly be applied to the teaching profession and needs to be adapted.4. Either in the total or factor evaluation (attitude and capability), pre-service teachers'score significantly higher than other undergraduates', which differentiates the teaching profession from the others. 5. In terms of the attitude factor, pre-service teachers from provincial normal universities and those key ones score about the same, but on the capability factor, the former score higher.6. The score of career maturity evaluation goes higher with more years in university; girls score higher than boys; students from rural areas higher than ones from urban areas; students whose parents received more education tend to score lower.7. In terms of the capability factor, pre-service teachers in northeast China show a solid knowledge base of teaching, but short of teaching practice.8. The"cost-free"pre-service teachers show slower developmental rates on career maturity. Regarding the attitude factor, they only score high in"decisiveness"but very low in the others.9. Qualitative research shows the features of pre-service teachers with higher career maturity: firm choice on teaching profession; high intrinsic motivation; strong career planning; commitment in teaching preparation. Family background is a key impact on their career choice. We find that when there are teachers in the family, students tend to be more certain about their choice. The teachers who have left strong impression on students also have positive impact on the students'career choice.10. Self-concept has an impact on the attitude factor of pre-service teachers, while self-surpporting on the capability factor.