Emotional experiences of undergraduate students as motivation to become Physics teachers

Abstract

Recently, in the Science Education community, it has been a growing collective concern about the influence of affective aspects on the intellectual activity of individuals, particularly, in learning and making decision. In this study, we investigate the influence of the affective dimension in the decision to pursue the Physics teacher carrier by undergraduates of Santa Catarina State University and São Paulo University. The research was guided by the following questions: (1) What influence the affective dimension has in the decision to pursue a career as Physics teacher? (2) What are the key emotional experiences that motivate the choice of career as Physics teacher? (3) What events drive these emotional experiences? Those issues were investigated through a questionnaire applied to 68 undergraduates in Physics. Our results showed that positive emotional experiences and the interest of undergraduates formed an important part of their motivations to become physics teachers. We use Silvia’s model attribution-expectative to explain how such momentary experiences contributed to develop a lasting interest on the subjects studied.