Middle School Students’ Motivation to Pursue a Career in Teaching: Psychometric Validation of the Becoming-A-Teacher Expectancy-Value-Cost Scale

Abstract

Students are more likely to pursue teaching careers when their expectancies for success and task values for that profession are high. Middle school students make their initial career choices, but little, if any, research to date has examined middle school students’ expectancies, values, and costs in relation to becoming teachers. This is, in part, due to only a few instruments measuring middle school students’ expectancies, values, and costs, necessitating the development and validation of instruments that measure these motivational factors. We modified the Expectancy-Value-Cost (EVC) Scale, originally published by Kosovich and colleagues in 2015, to pertain to middle school students’ beliefs about becoming teachers. To validate this becoming-a-teacher EVC Scale, we tested it with 1,609 middle school students. There is evidence of internal-consistency reliability overall and across grade, race, and gender. We found evidence of internal (factor) structure, concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity, indicating that the instrument measures expectancy, value, and cost as intended. Additionally, there is evidence of measurement invariance by grade, race, and gender, suggesting that the instrument’s measurements are fair and unbiased. Based on these analyses, the becoming-a-teacher EVC Scale represents a practical instrument for providing a quick snapshot of middle school students’ motivational profiles pertaining to their teaching career choices.