The Future of Education

A Canadian research on the oral communication competencies of undergraduate teacher in preschool and elementary education in Quebec (Viola, Messier, Dumais and Meunier, 2015) revealed the importance of continuing research on motivational factors related to public speaking of these students. Considering the importance of said competencies for professional development and the role of universities in assisting in its development, we have looked into the motivational profile of students in initial teacher training regarding oral communication. This longitudinal study of four years will allow the observation of the interrelation between motivational factors (self-efficacy, expectancy-value, motivation and the belief about static intelligence) and their role in the students’ perseverance in school. To do so, a survey designed and validated by our team is given out to undergraduate students in education of two Canadian universities (n = 619) for each of their four years program. The survey in question and the two first years’ study’s results will be presented in this conference, which will allow to draw a portrait of the students’ motivational profile from the beginning of their undergraduate degree and shed some light on its evolution after one year into the program which include a 2 to 4 weeks internship.

Keywords: Self-efficacy, motivation, expectancy-value, static intelligence, undergraduate teacher, oral communication;