1. Introduction
The changes in current technological and scientific areas also bring about a change in the expectations and needs of individuals. At the point of meeting these expectations and needs, the motivation of the individuals appears as a crucial subject to be approached. The concept of motivation strongly felt at every stage of life is vital to be addressed in the educational institutions whose input and output are human, social benefits are quite high and by this aspect which are non-profit and constitute a different structure than others [
1]. From the point of view of education, motivation is students’ active participation in a subject that they need to wonder about and become interested in. As it is seen, the most prominent feature of motivation is its leading individuals to specific purposes and activating them in the pursuit of these goals [
2]. When the concepts of motivation in education are considered, the motivation and willingness of a student who is in the learning process usually comes to mind. However; rather than learning, desire and enthusiasm which are required to teach are important, too [
3]. The reason is teachers’ appearance in person, enthusiasm, and motivation in teaching process similarly affects the learning process of students. According to Brophy, the biggest reason for failure in a school environment is the lack of motivation of teachers and students [
4]. To implement teaching and learning processes in a proper way, the teachers’ willingness is required; that is to say, the teacher must be highly motivated, eager, enthusiastic, innovative, modern, and inspiring. Besides, according to research done by Atkinson [
5], it is stated that rather than their professional competence, teachers’ motivation levels play a significant role on students’ learning. Consequently, educational institutions’ capability to provide education of a desired quality is closely associated with the willingness and success of the teachers. Teachers working more efficiently and willingly depend on the process of motivation, though. This situation reveals the necessity that teachers and prospective teachers in these institutions should be motivated for their profession and their current level of motivation must be increased. In other words, one of the basic components of the phenomenon of education is that the teachers take significant responsibilities of training individuals in a qualified manner in accordance with the requirements of this era. Being able to perform these responsibilities and advancing the quality of the education system necessitate their motivation to be high in their profession (teaching) prior to service. However, the uncertainties about candidate teachers’ appointment, in other words, whether they can perform their profession or not, and the thoughts about that teaching profession loses its prestige for the public, because candidate teachers consider these unpredictable situations as source of danger and perceive negative events about the future as threats and unacceptable situations.
Due to human nature, mankind wants to be sure of the future and to guarantee it [
6]. When individuals think they cannot reach their achievable long-term goals, despair starts to grow and they find themselves in an ambiguous situation [
7]. Uncertainty emerges when an event that develops unexpectedly affects individuals negatively. Generally, uncertainty is defined as ambiguity of expressions, variability of conditions, or various interpretations and views that may be contradictory at times [
6]. Uncertainty is an event that is a threat for people, because uncertainty deprives people of how they can act in a given situation and the confidence they have in knowing what they can expect from their physical and social environment. For this reason, people look for ways to remove uncertainty or reduce it to a tolerable level or manage it cognitively. In order to manage uncertainty and renew, the point of view must be changed, so much so that the uncertainty as expressed by MacLeod et al. [
7] is that there can be a number of different consequences of a particular choice but the probabilities of these different outcomes are unknown.
Consequently, being unable to predict the results, to understand the system, to carry out any idea or those ideas’ self-refutation of themselves might push the prospective teachers to uncertainty. At this point, the question of whether the prospective teachers have a high-level of teaching motivation and desire to teach in this uncertainty arises. In this regard, the need for defining the relationship between the attitude of prospective teachers towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching comes in view.
The results of the research aiming to determine the effect of education students’ attitudes towards uncertainty on their motivation in teaching as they are teachers of the future and can have both a router and decisive function for decision-makers and practitioners. By examining on what level prospective teachers’ states of being uncertain affects their teaching motivation, this study will help to create awareness on this issue in relevant institutions and organizations. Additionally, the obtained results will contribute to the planning of psychological assistance to be able to be given to career counseling services for prospective teachers.
The Purpose of the Study
The overall objective of this study is to determine the relationship between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching. For this purpose, answers are sought out for the following questions:
On what levels are prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching?
Is there a significant relationship between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching?
Do prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty predict their motivation in teaching significantly?
4. Discussion
In this study, the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty are at a moderate degree. The scale used to determine this contains items related to negative attitudes towards uncertainty, which shows prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty are negative at a moderate degree. Because individuals do not have knowledge about the future, the ones showing positive attitudes towards uncertainty shape their behaviors by thinking about how the decisions they make and choices they go for may come to a conclusion rather than how they end in, so in their present time, they organize and make use of the situations they may face in the future on their minds [
14]. Individuals with a high tolerance for ambiguity are stated to be more successful and willing in solving complex problems, while those with less tolerance for ambiguity tend to escape from these kind of problems [
15]. However, Sargut [
16] stated that individuals significantly have a tendency to avoid uncertainty in Turkish culture. Macit [
17] also concluded that the female and male students’ average rate of avoidance from uncertainty is high in the research that he conducted on university students. In their research aiming to determine the level of uncertainty avoidance of prospective teachers studying at variable departments of the Education Faculty in terms of different variables, Korkut and Keskin [
18] found that the participants’ level of uncertainty avoidance was at a moderate degree. Uncertainty avoidance is considered equivalent to a show of negative attitudes towards uncertainty. Thus, the results of these studies are consistent with this study’s result “that prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty are negative at a moderate degree”. It was stated that knowing prospective teachers’ attitude towards a particular topic will be helpful, especially for decision-makers and practitioners to take the necessary measures to solve the problems [
19]. Hence, it might be said that the present study in which the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty is determined to be significantly negative, is likely to bring important contributions to resolving the problems encountered in this area.
In this study, it was determined that teaching and the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the prospective teachers were at a moderate degree. Ayık and Ataş [
20] also found that prospective teachers’ motivation in teaching is at a moderate degree. In Sözen’s [
21] research, it was stated that motivation levels of English teachers working in primary and secondary schools in Turkey was low. As having an contradictory aspect to this result, in Ergen’s study, the motivation levels of primary school teachers were found to be “largely satisfied” in terms of teachers’ perceptions [
22]. At the end of their research, Dereli and Acat stated that the prospective teachers’ motivation for teaching profession was often high, and they experienced very few problems [
23]. It was seen that the results of these studies identifying the level of motivation in teaching seem to vary. In the view of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation dimensions, in the study done by Ayık and Ataş [
20], it was observed that prospective teachers had higher perceptions in dimension of intrinsic motivation than extrinsic motivation. In this study, it was concluded that prospective teachers’ intrinsic motivation was by a slight difference higher than their extrinsic motivation as well. Indicating that motivation sources have an effect on the profession of teaching and separating these resources as internal and external, in his study, Yazıcı [
24] stated that sources of intrinsic motivation were more effective than sources of extrinsic motivation. In light of these findings, prospective teachers’ having high intrinsic motivation might be considered as the indicator that they will perform their jobs willingly and fondly and they will become successful at their profession.
At the end of the research, it was found that there was a moderate degree, negatively directed relationship between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching; the attitude towards to uncertainty was observed to be a significant predictor of teaching motivation. This result indicates that prospective teachers’ negative attitudes towards uncertainty affect negatively teaching motivation, namely, when the prospective teachers’ level of uncertainty increases, their level of teaching motivation decreases. If there is uncertainty in people’s lives, this situation creates a negative impact on both their psychological well-being and subjective well-being [
25]. In a study, the level of life satisfaction of prospective teachers who study at their department in order not to be unemployed were found to be low and their depression scores were higher [
26]. In the research carried out by Şar et al. [
27] it was concluded that the levels of life satisfaction of the prospective teachers waiting to be appointed were low. Prospective teachers’ efforts remaining inconclusive to be appointed and uncertainties experienced in appointment procedure were stated to bring about an emergence of despair and low level of life satisfaction. Indeed, Kırımoğlu [
28] concluded that prospective teachers’ thoughts about being unable to be appointed after graduation raises their level of desperation in his study. The fact that prospective teachers’ despair scores were high was interpreted as the likelihood of their future-oriented expectations such as finding a job after graduation, appointment to the target profession to come true were low, and in this case when they think about the future, they experience greater despair. That the level of despair of the prospective teachers who chose their profession unwillingly and had low expectations for future were higher, and their levels of life satisfaction were lower, was stated in the results of various studies [
29,
30]. Besides, in the research of Şar et al. [
27], it was found that when the levels of intolerance to uncertainty of prospective teachers waiting to be appointed increase, their levels of life satisfaction decrease. Additionally, prospective teachers’ continuous experiences about uncertainty about dates and quotas in the process of teacher appointment conducted by the Ministry of Education were referred to increase their scores of intolerance to uncertainty in the study. Studying with university students in our country, Sarıçam [
25] stated that individuals’ level of intolerance to uncertainty affects negatively their level of happiness and this situation led to a long-term anxiety problem in his study. There is also research results showing a positive correlation between intolerance with high anxiety and concern [
31,
32]. In addition to these studies, it was stated that individuals who are able to show a positive attitude towards uncertainty can enact their willpower to do their job as an inner attitude by putting anxiety and concern aside [
33]. In his research Tınaztepe [
34] confirmed that the perception of uncertainty explains significantly the emotional well-being of the employees on work. These inferences illustrate the impact of uncertainty on motivation. This situation supports the research conclusion that “the attitude towards uncertainty is a significant predictor of teaching motivation”. Uncertainty, which was indicated to increase the level of prospective teachers’ anxiety, concern, and despair in the results of other research, was put into the literature with the result of its reducing effect on motivation in teaching.
Additionally, stating that there is a negatively significant relationship at a moderate degree between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the research results show that the attitude towards uncertainty is a significant predictor of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. According to this result, prospective teachers’ negative attitudes towards uncertainty affects negatively both their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In the same way, positive attitudes are stated to trigger people’s motivation for their jobs and tasks [
35]. Motivation is related to many variables in the individual’s internal and external world. These variables may affect positively or negatively the motivation of individuals [
36,
37]. One of these variables for prospective teachers is uncertainty in the outside world. As environmental factors, uncertainty might be seen as determinant of extrinsic motivation. The effect of uncertainty on extrinsic motivation appeared at the end of the research, too. In addition to this, the result that uncertainty also affects individuals’ intrinsic motivation arising from their needs was reached in the research. This situation may be interpreted as increasing the level of motivation provided through the factors of extrinsic motivation may positively affect the motivation provided through the factors of intrinsic motivation as well. That is to say, internal and external factors are required to be in a quality completing each other in order to ensure motivation. In this regard, it can be said that ensuring only internal factors will not be sufficient to motivate prospective teachers without providing external factors such as uncertainty.
6. Conclusions
Research results show prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty are negative at a moderate degree. In addition to these results, in this study it was determined that teaching, intrinsic, and extrinsic motivation of the prospective teachers were at moderate degree. And also, in this study, it is concluded that prospective teachers’ intrinsic motivation is by a slight difference higher than their extrinsic motivation as well.
In the research, it is found that there is a moderate degree, negatively directed relationship between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their motivation in teaching; the attitude towards uncertainty was observed to be a significant predictor of teaching motivation. This result indicates that prospective teachers’ negative attitudes towards uncertainty affect negatively teaching motivation, namely, when the prospective teachers’ level of uncertainty increases, their level of teaching motivation decreases.
Additionally, stating that there is a negatively significant relationship at a moderate degree between prospective teachers’ attitudes towards uncertainty and their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, the research results show that the attitude towards uncertainty was a significant predictor of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
According to these results, factors that may cause uncertainty in prospective teachers should be reduced or eliminated. Therefore, the teacher appointment may be built up to expected levels. Reformative works should be done on behalf of teacher employment. Student recruitment for teacher training programs should be approached with a different point of view within the context of supply/demand balance. Counseling services on uncertainty management should be provided to the prospective teachers. Factors motivating teachers and prospective teachers and the order of priority of these factors might be determined. The reflection of the state of uncertainty that the prospective teachers experience in the process of preparation for exams on prospective teachers’ academic achievement might be investigated. The decrease or increase in the motivation of prospective teachers and teachers through various internal and external factors may also reflect on their classroom attitudes. Thus, the effects of their teaching motivation on students’ attitudes and motivation in the classroom may be examined, too.