The authors apply current influential models from the motivational literature to develop the comprehensive factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-Choice) scale, to measure factors influencing the choice to teach for beginning preservice teacher education candidates. They validate the scale using 2 large cohorts (N = 488; 652) and describe the factors that teacher education candidates identified as most important in their decision to teach. Furthermore, the authors examine longitudinal relationships for participants who have now completed their teaching qualification (N = 294) to determine how entry motivations relate to exit levels of teaching engagement and professional development aspirations. The study makes several important theoretical contributions: The authors extend the values component of the expectancy-value motivational framework, go beyond high school students to examine career choices of adults, and specifically examine the domain of teaching as a career choice. The new FIT-Choice measure provides a theoretical and analytical framework to help guide future investigations in this area. Understanding teacher candidates' motivations for choosing teaching has implications for teacher education planning and curriculum design, teacher recruitment authorities, and government and intergovernmental planning and policy decisions-especially when many Downloaded by [Tufts University] at 10:15 07 October 2014

In this large-scale Australian study, we profile the background characteristics and teaching motivations for individuals entering teacher education across three major established urban teacher provider universities in the Australian States of New South Wales and Victoria. Our recently developed and validated ''FIT-Choice'' (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) Scale determines the strength of influence for a range of motivations from individuals choosing teaching as a career. Findings build upon and extend previous literature relating to reasons for teaching as a career choice, which have not systematically applied current motivational models to developing explanations. Participants were the entire cohorts (N51,653) of first-year pre-service teacher education candidates at three universities in Sydney and Melbourne. Results provide a profile of a large sample of pre-service teachers whose decision to enrol in a teacher education program has been made at a time when the mass media and the general public have increasingly looked upon teaching as a poor career choice. Our new theoretical approach allows us to recommend strategies for teacher recruitment campaigns, based on a comprehensive understanding of individuals' motivations for choosing teaching.

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