Educare Februari 2015.indb EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 111© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs about Teaching as a Profession ABSTRACT: Teaching is a main goal of teacher education students. Teacher education students must be well prepared in order to be ready for their future career as teachers. The study aimed at examining pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs about teaching in Umm-Alqura University as a profession. The study attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the type of reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers decisions to become teachers?; (2) What are the types of beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; (3) Is there statistical significant difference between pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs to become teachers?; (4) Is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; and (5) Is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers? The participants were 321 male and female students enrolled in the fall semester of the academic year 2013 in Umm-Alqura University, in both the education and scientific colleges. About 187 participants were from the college of education and 134 participants were from the college of science. The data were collected by distributing three questionnaires. One for demographic characteristics, another one for the students’ reasons behind choosing teaching as a career, and a third one was for the students’ beliefs about choosing teaching as a career. Results showed significant differences between gender, major, and the interaction between them regarding their reasons and beliefs about teaching as a career. KEY WORDS: Reasons, beliefs, teaching, teacher education students, pre-service teachers’ reasons and beliefs, Umm-Alqura University, and teaching as a career. About the Author: Dr. Mohamed Khaliefeh Alshraideh is an Associate Professor at the Curriculum and Instruction Department, College of Education, Umm-Alqura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. For academic interests, the author can be contacted via e-mail at: shraideh@yahoo.com How to cite this article? Alshraideh, Mohamed Khaliefeh. (2015). “Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs about Teaching as a Profession” in EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, Vol.7(2) February, pp.111-122. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press and UMP Purwokerto, ISSN 1979-7877. Available online also at: http://educare-ijes.com/pre-service-teachers-reasons- and-beliefs/ Chronicle of the article: Accepted (November 21, 2014); Revised (December 29, 2014); and Published (February 28, 2015). responsibility with its instructors to help students change these negative attitudes to positive ones, in order to help them to become efficient teachers. Students usually get their information from the teacher, the teacher who once was a student. This helps the students to get the information better, because the teacher-student relationship here is dynamic; and teaching is considered bidirectional and challenging. The main goal of such relationship is learning. Teaching can be defined as a process of communicating information in order to bring a positive change in the students behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, etc. (Aydin, 1993; Leach, 2000; and Alkhulai, 2008). Any student, who enters this field in order to become a teacher, will go through different experiences in the classroom before INTRODUCTION Teaching is a main goal of teacher education students. Teacher education students must be well prepared in order to be ready for their future career as teachers. Preparing students means preparing them academically and educationally (Aldeoan, Ghazi & Abdalqader, 2007; and Zara, 2009). Students’ preparation was defined as developing students’ attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed for and by the students to get them do their job in the future. John Lott (2008) defined students’ preparation as preparing them vocationally, culturally, and educationally. The main reason behind this preparation is that students join the university with different attitudes toward teaching. These attitudes might be positive or negative. Therefore, it is the university’s MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH, Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs 112 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com going to schools and practicing the job. These experiences will usually create a basis for the beliefs and reasons that the future teachers hold (Clark & Peterson, 1986; and Sönmez, 2001). The term “beliefs” used in this study is a concept that usually goes with terms like “attitudes, values, judgments, opinions, dispositions, implicit theories, preconceptions, and perspectives” (Pajares, 1992:308). B. Torff & R.J. Sternberg defined beliefs as: [...] propositions and networks of ideas that a teacher holds to be reasonable, whether those propositions are expressed by teachers or are held implicitly and inferred from statements and actions. Elements of beliefs include conceptual categories that define what is reasonable or important to notice, empirical claims, prescriptive guidelines, and educational values (Torff & Sternberg, 2000:148). Therefore, this study aimed at examining pre-service teachers reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a career. Getting teacher education students’ to reflect on their beliefs about teaching will allow them to think more about teaching and the advantages and disadvantages of the educational process. This study will allow students examine some of the social issues and questionable educational practices that require change. Educational beliefs can then easily appear to “change”, so that teachers, educators, and researchers will begin to abandon old and inappropriate beliefs and set new, progressive, and more effective ones (Pajares, 1993; Kavcar, 2005; and Rentzou & Ziganitidou, 2009). M. Temizkan (2008) showed that teachers’ attitudes towards their profession are usually related to their happiness in their profession, dedicating themselves to that profession, being aware that their profession is socially necessary and important, and believing that they need to continuously improve their profession and themselves. M. Temizkan argued also that “learning experiences of prospective teachers should be organized in a way that they will establish positive attitudes towards the profession of teaching” (Temizkan, 2008:468). The term “reason” in this study can be defined as purpose, aim, objective, reason, cause, and motive are all terms for a circumstance (or circumstances) which brings about or explains certain results. A reason is an explanation of a situation or circumstance which made certain results that seems possible or appropriate. The cause is the way in which the circumstances produce the effect, that is, make a specific action seem necessary or desirable, a motive is defined as “underlying psychological processes that impel people’s thinking, feeling, and behaving” (Fiske, 2004:14). According to A. Moran et al. (2001), the reasons for entering the teaching profession, according to previous research, are classified into three categories: Extrinsic, Intrinsic, and Altruistic. Extrinsic motivation includes the benefits which offer good remuneration and having holidays with one’s own children etc. Intrinsic factors may be understood as entering the profession for job-related factors like the nature of the job, providing an avenue for life-long learning; the perceived good job fit, the many opportunities that the job appears to offer and so on. The third category of motives termed as altruistic factors goes beyond any tangible benefits that the teaching profession has to offer. Instead, those motivated by altruistic reasons to join the career have a deep passion to teach, a great love for children and desire to make a difference to the lives of their students. K.C. Goh & L. Atputhasamy (2001) in Singapore revealed that it was the altruistic motives (“love for working with children”) that were dominant. When a person thinks of becoming a teacher, he/she should has in mind all the complexities, paradoxes, and tensions that exist in the simple act of teaching. Teaching is not an easy profession, one has to put all the effort he/she has in the act of teaching with all of these complexities, paradoxes, and tensions, a teacher’s work shapes the daily life of his or her classroom. The teacher usually works toward changing the lives of his/her students. The successful teacher is the teacher who is able to make the poor students good and the good students successful (Ayers, 2001). Due to the important role of the teacher, it is important to focus on when and how teachers establish their beliefs about teaching EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 113© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com and their reasons for teaching. The time of the student spends on getting his/her bachelor’s degree during his/her four years of study plays an important role in the development of these beliefs and reasons (Richter et al., 2010). Students choose to become teachers for different reasons. Many people choose teaching because of their love for children. L.F. Weiner (1993) did a study where she compared students enrolled in the Teaching and Curriculum Program at Harvard and 53 student teachers at an Urban College, in terms of their reasons, regarding why they joined the teaching profession. The study showed some of the reasons were that they wanted an opportunity to be creative, enjoyed work with young people, and also desiring a socially useful job (Weiner, 1993). In another study, S.A. Stiegelbauer (1992) asked 203 students accepted at the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto, Canada, about their reasons for entering the profession. The answers included making a difference to students and society; being models for their students, viewing teacher- student interaction as one of the mutual growth and continuous learning for both; and also creating a positive learning environment (Weiner, 1993). Therefore, it can be seen that becoming a teachers requires one to put all the effort needed to achieve the goal of teaching. Especially, when knowing why they entered this filed and what are they looking to do to make the change required. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY The research questions, examined in this paper, dealt with the following: (1) What are the type of reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers decisions to become teachers?; (2) What are the types of beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; (3) Is there statistical significant difference between pre- service teachers’ reasons and beliefs to become teachers?; (4) Is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on reasons that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers?; and (5) Is there statistical significant difference, α ≤ 0.05, on beliefs that influenced the pre-service teachers’ decisions to become teachers? The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers reasons and beliefs about teaching in Umm-Alqura University in Mecca KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) as a profession. M. Cochran-Smith & K. Zeichner eds. (2005:52) wrote, “We assume that beliefs and attitudes are the lenses through which teachers enact and interpret their daily work, and also the filters through which they use knowledge to construct practice”. Therefore, from this perspective, it is important to investigate how pre-service teachers view their reasons for entering teaching, and their beliefs about teaching. It also examined how students’ gender and college affect their reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a career. Being in the field of teaching for a long period of time, inspired the researcher to examine why pre-service teachers want to become teachers, and to examine their beliefs about teaching in order to help develop their understanding of the teaching profession. Also students understanding their goal of becoming a teacher, how they perceive themselves as teachers, and how they perceive teaching as a profession can help both research and practice better understand the career choice at the individual level. This may also help those students become successful teachers who enjoy and love their work. LITERATURE REVIEW The researcher reviewed studies and articles on the subject of students’ reasons and beliefs behind choosing teaching as a career. The review of the literature revealed various reasons and beliefs for joining the teaching profession. Generally, there are three categories of motives or reasons: extrinsic (tangible rewards), intrinsic (intangible rewards), and altruistic (selfless contributions to young lives). According to A. Moran, et al. (2001), each of the three categories contributed to affect the motivation of each individual. D. Odeleye (2009) conducted a study on the senior secondary students in order to find out MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH, Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs 114 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com their attitudes towards the teaching profession. The researcher examined if gender, location, and school type may affect students’ attitudes towards teaching as a profession. The data was collected by distributing a fifteen item questionnaire on a sample of 250 participants from both private and public schools. The findings showed that the students had positive attitudes towards the teaching profession (Odeleye, 2009). A study was conducted by A. Güneyli & C. Aslan (2009) on prospective teachers to determine their attitudes towards the teaching profession in light of their gender, classes and socio economic level, and their reasons for choosing the teaching profession. The study was done on 117 participants using a 5-point Likert type attitude scale. The results showed a significant gender difference in favor of female prospective teachers towards the teaching profession. No significant difference between attitude scores was observed for the effects of class and socio-economic level (Güneyli & Aslan, 2009). An interesting study was also done by A. Duncan (2009), where he did an interview with a number of Virginia’s Curry School of Education University students and why they wanted to become teachers. The interview showed that they wanted to become teachers for different reasons. Some said that they were influenced by their parents’ profession, who believed that it is one of the toughest professions and that they can make a change. Others said that it was a job that they had loved since they were young. Others indicated that since the situation was very bad in schools, it would be better, instead of talking about it, to get involved and try to improve (Duncan, 2009). A study conducted by M. Marshall (2006) on why people decide to become teachers and spirituality had anything with to do it? To answer this research question, two researchers interviewed 18 first-year undergraduates, during a program evaluation of an elementary teacher education program at a Catholic institution, had three questions related to spirituality, the decision to teach, and what makes a good teacher. The study results showed that pr-eservice teachers had always wanted to be teachers; they wanted to make an impact or help others; they were inspired by their own teachers; they were recognized as talented and explicitly advised by their teachers to consider teaching; and they had prior teaching experience or experiences working with children that confirmed or made them realize that (Marshall, 2006). Another study was done by B. Harms & N. Knobloch (2005), where they surveyed graduates who were certified to teach agriculture in secondary education chose teaching as a career. The participants were twenty-nine student teachers from four different universities in a Midwestern state. The results of the study showed that 24 out of 29 pre- service teachers in the study planned to become teachers another career choice was related to intrinsic and extrinsic career choice motives. Pre-service teachers choosing formal education as a career had intrinsic motives. On the other hand, pre-service teachers who anticipated careers in non-formal education had extrinsic career choice motivation. Moreover, pre- service teachers who planned to pursue formal education careers were more efficacious than their peers, who planned to pursue non-formal education careers or were undecided about their careers (Harms & Knobloch, 2005). It is clear from the presented that students enter the field to teach for different reasons. It also obvious from the studies above that students male or female, no matter what the socio-economic status is choose teaching for different reasons, and they all hold different beliefs behind choosing teaching as a career. METHOD About the Participants. The participants in this study were 321 students enrolled in the fall semester of 2013 at the Umm-Alqura University in Mecca KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), in both the education and scientific colleges. The total number of participants were 321 students consisted of 189 female students and 132 male students. Table 1 shows the participants demographic characteristics. About the Instruments: Demographic Questionnaire. The purpose behind using the demographic questionnaire was to collect data about the participants’ gender and college. First, Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire. EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 115© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com Table 1: Sample Distribution According to Gender and College Total Major Gender EducationScientific 1328052Male 18910782Female 321187134Total Appendix I: Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire Below is a list of possible reasons why someone might decide to become a teacher. How important is each reason in influencing your decision to think about becoming a teacher? Please indicate your answer for each item by checking the appropriate box. Extremely important Very important Fairly important Not very important Not at all \ important Reasons 1. Teaching offers good job security. 2. The job offers opportunities to socialize with colleagues. 3. The level of pay is quite good. 4. There are long vacations. 5. I enjoy the subject I will teach. 6. My employment as a teacher is assured after graduation. 7. I want to help children succeed. 8. Teaching is a noble profession. 9. Teachers have a respectable social status. 10. I like the activity of classroom teaching. 11. I have a personality that is suited for this job. 12. Previous jobs that I had influenced me to become a teacher. 13. I can get a job as a teacher in any part of the country. 14. The subject I will teach is important to me. 15. The subject I will teach is an important subject for students. 16. Being a teacher can help improve society. 17. Being a teacher can lead to other jobs in the future. 18. Family members influenced me to become a teacher. 19. Other people influenced me to become a teacher (e.g. previous teachers, friends). 20. It can help me to get a job teaching in another country. 21. My experience as a student has given me a positive image of the job. Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire (RTQ) was to investigate the pre-service teachers reasons for choosing teaching as a career, adapted from C. Kyriacou, A. Hultgren & P. Stephens (1999), a self-completion instrument of 21 items, investigating pre-service teachers reasons for choosing the teaching career. Participants were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = “not important at all” and to 5 = “extremely important”), the importance of specific reasons for their choosing teaching as a career. See appendix 1. MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH, Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs 116 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com Table 2: Reliability of the Reasons of Teaching Questionnaire with its Sub-Scales Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient)Sub-Scales .87Reasons related to the subject matter taught .69Reasons related to job benefits .88Reasons related to identity issues .87Reasons related to meaningful relationships .72Reasons related to holistic views of profession .83Reasons related to opportunities .95Total Appendix 2: Career Statements Questionnaire Here is a list of statements about teaching as a profession or what someone might consider important in teaching. There are no right or wrong answers, because each teacher candidate has his/her own concerns, opinions or values about education. Please read carefully the statements below and indicate (check) your level of agreement for each statement. No Statements Strongly disagree Disagree Agree Strongly agree 1 If I had to start all over I would choose teaching again without any hesitation. 2 For me, teaching is a lifelong career. 3 I look forward to meeting my first students as a classroom teacher. 4 I believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to dispense knowledge. 5 I feel anxious about meeting my first students as a classroom teacher. 6 I believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to facilitate learning. 7 I believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ social growth. 8 I believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ moral growth. 9 I believe students learn best through direct instruction. 10 I believe that students learn more from asking questions than from listening to the teacher. 11 I believe that students learn best through active participation in cooperative learning activities. 12 I believe that punishment is necessary to maintain order in schools. 13 I believe that one of the most important roles as a classroom teacher is to foster students’ emotional growth. 14 I believe that teachers are born, not made. 15 I believe that teaching is a very difficult job to do well. As for the reliability and validity of the instrument, it was ensured by distributing the instrument to a number of university Professors. Who all agreed on the items with no further changes. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained for the total number of 21 questionnaire items was (α = .95) suggested that the total items maintained a high internal consistency. In addition to the overall internal consistency, Cronbach’s coefficients for the subscales (i.e. factors) representing types of reasons for teaching were also calculated as: Reasons related to subject matter taught (α = .87); Reasons related to job benefits (α = .69); Reasons related to identity issues (α = .88); Reasons related to meaningful relationships (α = .87); Reasons related to holistic views of profession (2 items, α = .72); and Reasons EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 117© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com related to opportunities (α = .83). These values also suggested a high internal-consistency for the subscales obtained (Pop et al., 2008). It can be seen from the table 2 that Cronbach alpha was between .69 and .95 for the questionnaire items as a whole along with its subscales. Which were listed in M.D. Pop et al. (2008), as the following: (1) Reasons related to the subject matter taught, i.e. “enjoying their subject matter”, “believing their subject matter is important for students”, the items that measure this scale were 14, 15, 5, and 13; (2) Reasons related to job benefits, i.e. “job security”, “long vacations”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 6, 1, 9, and 4; (3) Reasons related to identity issues, i.e. “personality suited for teaching”, “wanting to help children succeed”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 11, 12, 10, and 7; (4) Reasons related to meaningful relationships, i.e. “past school experiences”, “family influences to become a teacher”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 19, 20, 18, and 21; (5) Reasons related to holistic views of profession, i.e. “viewing teaching as a noble profession”, “viewing teaching as an opportunity to help improve society”, the items that measure this scale were two items, 8 and 16; and (6) Reasons related to opportunities, i.e. “opportunities to socialize with colleagues”, “teaching leading to better jobs in the future”, the items that measure this scale were three items, 17, 2, and 3. Second, Career Statement Questionnaire. Career Statement Questionnaire (CSQ) was used to investigate students’ beliefs about teaching. The CSQ, was adapted from A. Saban (2003), is a self-completion questionnaire of 15 items exploring participants’ perception of teaching as a profession. Participants rated each statement on a scale of 1 to 4 (1 = “strongly disagree” and 4 = “strongly agree”) to indicate the level of their agreement with the teaching career statements provided by the questionnaire. See appendix 2. As for the reliability and validity of the instrument it was ensured by distributing the instrument to a number of university Professors. Who all agreed on the items with no further changes. Reliability coefficients were calculated based on participants’ responses in the present study for the “Career Statements Questionnaire” and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient obtained was α = .93 for the total number of 15 questionnaire items. The three subscales obtained were: pre-service teachers career orientation views (α = .72); perception of student growth and development (α = .77); and orientations toward instruction (α = .82), based on ten items of the questionnaire since the other five have. Five items were eliminated due to their low loading factors. These sub scales were taken from M.D. Pop et al. (2008). It can be seen from the table 3 that Cronbach alpha was between .72 and .93 for the questionnaire items as a whole along with its subscales. Which were listed in M.D. Pop et al. (2008), as the following: (1) Perception of teaching career, i.e. “beliefs about career commitment”, etc., the items that measure this scale were three items, 2, 1, and 3; (2) Perception of student development, i.e. “students’ emotional, social, and moral growth”, the items that measure this scale were three items, 7, 13, and 8; and (3) Perception of learning, i.e. “belief about active learning”, the items that measure this scale were four items, 11, 10, 6, and 4. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The data was collected in the fall semester of 2012. Three questionnaires were distributed to the students. The first was a demographic questionnaire. The second was the reasons for teaching questionnaire, as shown in an appendix 1; and the third one was the career statement questionnaire, as shown in an Table 3: Reliability of the Career Statements Questionnaire with its Sub-Scales Internal Consistency (Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient)Sub-Scales .72Perception of teaching career .77Perception of student development .82Perception of learning .93Total MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH, Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs 118 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com appendix 2, that included the students beliefs about teaching as a career. Data analysis was then conducted using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to calculate the means, standard deviation and t-tests, and two-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) in order to arrive at the answers of the research questions. The following sections present the results and the discussion of the results obtained in this analysis. First, results dealing with the pre-service teachers reasons for becoming teachers. The means and standard deviations were calculated for the pre-service teachers reasons to become teachers as shown in table 4. From the table 4, it is clear that the total mean for the dimensions of the RTQ (Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire) was 3.59. Examining the table carefully the dimensions fell between 3.48 to 3.73. Taking in mind that the dimension of reasons related to meaningful relationships took the first place on a mean of 3.73; where as the second was reasons related to job benefits on mean of 3.64; third was reasons related to holistic views of profession on a mean of 3.57; fourth was reasons related to the subject matter taught on a mean of 3.54; and fifth was reasons related to identity issues and last was reasons related to opportunities on a mean of 3.48. Second, results dealing with the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching. The means and standard deviations were calculated for the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching as shown in table 5. From the table 5, it is clear that the total mean for the dimensions of the CSQ (Career Statement Questionnaire) was 2.99. Examining the table carefully the dimensions were between 2.95 to 3.09. Taking in mind that the dimension of perception of teaching career took the first place on a mean of 3.09; where as the second was perception of student development on mean of 2.99; third and last was perception of learning on a mean of 2.95. Table 4: The Means and Standard Deviations of the Pre-Service Teachers’ Reasons to Become Teachers Standard DeviationsMeansDimensions on the RTQ (Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire) 1.043.54Reasons related to the subject matter taught 1.233.64Reasons related to job benefits 1.043.51Reasons related to identity issues 1.073.73Reasons related to meaningful relationships 1.113.57Reasons related to holistic views of profession 1.023.48Reasons related to opportunities .973.59Total Table 5: The Means and Standard Deviations of the Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs to Become Teachers Standard Deviations MeansDimensions on the CSQ (Career Statement Questionnaire) .683.09Perception of teaching career .762.99Perception of student development .742.95Perception of learning .652.99Total Table 6: Pearson Correlation of Teachers Reasons for Becoming Teachers and Beliefs about Teaching BeliefsReasons .871** .000 321 1 321 Reasons: pearson correlation Sig.(2-tailed) N 1 321 .871** .000 321 Beliefs: pearson correlation Sig.(2-tailed) N EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 119© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com Table 7: Means and Standard Deviation of Pre-Service Teachers’ Reasons on the RTQ (Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire) According to Gender and Major EducationScientificMajor Gender SDMeansSDMeans 21.674.307.686.11Male 20.572.1922.674.05Female 20.973.0919.278.75Total Table 8: Two-Way ANOVA Results to Measure the Interaction between Gender and Major on Pre-Service Teachers’ Reasons for Becoming Teachers Source Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Gender 3749.892 1 3749.892 9.420 .002 Major 3525.569 1 3525.569 8.856 .003 Gender * Major 1849.595 1 1849.595 4.646 .032 Error 126191.389 317 398.080 Total 1961240.000 321 This study agrees with the results of the study by N. Ahsan & T. Anjum (2012) that explored the Pakistani teachers beliefs, perceptions, and values related to their teaching-learning situations. From the 163 responses, that related to teachers beliefs, they classified the results into four categories as: (1) Beliefs about themselves as professionals and individuals, attributes 51%; (2) Beliefs about their knowledge, training needs, 23%; (3) Beliefs about roles, pedagogic, and management skills, 12%; and (4) Beliefs related to students, administration, curricula, parents, and society at large 14% (Ahsan & Anjum, 2012). This indicates that teacher’s beliefs about teaching start with the teachers themselves, then, with the students’ development, and last is their beliefs related to students, content, and others. Third, results showing the relationship between pre-service teachers reasons for becoming teachers and beliefs about teaching by using persons’ correlation. The result is shown in table 6. Looking at the table 6, the coefficient .871 shows that there is a strong relationship between pre-service teachers’ reasons for choosing teaching as a career and their beliefs about teaching as a profession. Fourth, results dealing with differences between pre-service teachers’ reasons for becoming teachers due to gender and major and the interaction between them. The means and standard deviation were calculated for the gender and major on the reasons for teaching questionnaire RTQ (Reasons for Teaching Questionnaire) as shown in the table 7. The table 7 shows differences in the means between the groups and to check if these differences were statistically significant a Two- Way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was done as shown in table 8. The table 8 shows statistically significant differences on (α ≤ 0.05) in pre-service teachers’ reasons to become teachers on the interaction between gender and major. And the significance is in the favor of the male scientific students and this could be due to the fact the those students in particular are not into teaching so they think so much of the reasons to become teachers before they begin their journey in education. This was shown in a study done by Guoyuan Sang et al. (2009), where their results of ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)’s analysis showed that male and female teachers had significant differences in their beliefs about teaching [F (1, 818) = 10.221, p = 0.001, h 2 = 0.000), where male teachers adopt beliefs a significantly higher extent. This could be due to the fact male always look for jobs other then teaching, so when they enter the field they hold MOHAMED KHALIEFEH ALSHRAIDEH, Pre-Service Teachers Reasons and Beliefs 120 © 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com different beliefs (Sang et al., 2009). A study carried by The National Education Association survey, cited on Edutopia (http:// www.ehow.com, 17/10/2014) showed also that the females as a group are more drawn than men to careers that involve working with elementary and preschool children. It was showed that more men than women stated that salary is a significant factor in them pursuing other, often more lucrative careers than teaching. Fifth, results dealing with differences between pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching due to gender and major and the interaction between them. The means and standard deviation were calculated for the gender and major on the career statement questionnaire CSQ (Career Statement Questionnaire) as shown in the table 9. The table 9 shows differences in the means between the groups and to check if these differences were statistically significant a Two- Way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was done as shown in table 10. The table 10 shows statistically significant differences on (α ≤ 0.05) in pre-service teachers’ beliefs about teaching due to the interaction between gender and major. And the significance is in the favor of the male scientific students and this could be due to the fact the those students in particular are not into teaching so they think so much of the beliefs about teaching before they begin their journey in education. CONCLUSION Results showed significant differences between gender, major, and the interaction between them regarding their reasons and beliefs about teaching as a career. The limitations of this study were that it was only carried out in one university; that is Umm- Alqura University in Mecca KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and on the sample chosen and in the semester it was done. Therefore, the results can’t be generalized except to similar universities. It is recommended that more studies be done on students’ reasons and beliefs about the teaching profession taking other factors such as the students’ age, year of study, place of study into account. Findings from this study may also provide a useful basis for further exploration of why people choose teaching as a career, and how these pre-service teachers understand their choices for their reasons and beliefs. It is also recommended that a qualitative study be carried out through in- depth interviews with the participants.1 1Statement: Herewith I declare that this article is my own original work, not product of plagiarism, and not yet also be reviewed and published by other scholarly journals. Table 9: Means and Standard Deviation of Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs on the CSQ (Career Statement Questionnaire) According to Gender and Major EducationScientificMajor Gender SDMeansSDMeans 10.143.857.149.92Male 9.443.7610.444.17Female 9.643.809.746.40Total Table 10: Two-Way ANOVA Results to Measure the Interaction between Gender and Major on Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Source Type III Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. Gender 639.341 1 639.341 6.968 .009 Major 787.612 1 787.612 8.584 .009 Gender * Major 603.213 1 603.213 6.574 .011 Error 29086.661 317 91.756 Total 677457.000 321 EDUCARE: International Journal for Educational Studies, 7(2) February 2015 121© 2015 by Minda Masagi Press Bandung and UMP Purwokerto, IndonesiaISSN 1979-7877 and website: www.educare-ijes.com References Ahsan, N. & T. Anjum. 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