In 1998, Massachusetts instituted a $20,000 Signing Bonus to address concerns about the supply of quality teachers. This article reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study of the experiences of 13 of the original 59 recipients of the Signing Bonus, and analyzes their responses to various incentives embedded within the Massachusetts Signing Bonus…

Like Gertrude Stein's rose, a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. And if one does it right, there is no job more honorable, more fulfilling, more necessary to the betterment of the world. Teachers are the people who love the acquisition of knowledge. Teachers teach because they love learning. In this article, the author discusses what it means to…

Careers in education offer a unique kind of immediacy intensity, and intimacy. There is a need in this growing field for talented and committed people with a wide range of skills. Teaching, counseling, nurturing, instructing, sharing, growing--these verbs describe the nature of a career in education, regardless of the age of the learner with whom…

The relationships between measures of anxiety, concerns, and attitude toward teaching and selected personal and academic characteristics of 260 beginning education students were investigated. Relationships were found between these measures and basic academic skills, earliness of decision to enter teaching as a career, relative assurance of…

Selected students entering five alternative teacher preparation programs at Michigan State University were interviewed about their perceptions of their role as teachers. Opinions were solicited on: (1) reasons for career choice; (2) choice of program; (3) classroom rules; (4) time allocations for instructional activities; (5) allocation of time to…

The annual survey conducted by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, found that freshmen continue to be preoccupied by material wealth and career success. Liberal stances on policy issues, new interest in teaching careers, and heightened fears of AIDS were also noted. (MLW)

A variety of alternative careers for physical education majors are outlined, including athletic clubs, health clubs, fitness clinics, sport resorts, gerontology, infant development, rehabilitation, and commercial, sports-related business. (JMF)

Familiarity with impressive teachers contributes to students' decisions to become teacher. This article describes activities, content, and outcomes of a course designed to provide undergraduates with a structured opportunity to observe and become acquainted with exemplary teachers. (IAH)

Utilizing Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) data from 1966 to 1988, this article reports results of an analysis of changes in freshmen interest in teaching and the characteristics of the freshmen whose career interests are explored. (IAH)

Profiles those who enter the profession of education and identifies factors motivating them to consider teaching as a career. Finds that future teachers "wanting to make a difference in their lives and the lives of their students" and that low pay and doubts about oral communication skills are major concerns. (DMM)

The present study explored reasons behind graduates' decisions to pursue teaching as a career, in a 1-year pre-service teacher education program at an Australian university, located in Melbourne (N=74). A survey collected data about respondents' reasons for choosing teaching as a career, with open-ended questions eliciting rich qualitative data to…

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to examine career persistence and job satisfaction of beginning teachers. Design/methodology/approach: Four hundred and fifty-one tenth grade students from a nationally representative sample, who aspired to be teachers, were examined over a ten year period regarding their career choices. Students who…

The primary purpose of this investigation was to ascertain for a group of prospective teachers (N=563) the extent to which selected measurements of their cognitive, affective, and personal characteristics accounted for or explained the variance of the "scores" associated with 15 of their motives or reasons for becoming teachers. From a…

This pilot study addressed questions related to teacher recruitment of college graduates. The first part of the study reports the findings of a mail survey designed to gauge the plans of graduating seniors at Columbia College and Barnard College. Part two reports on the findings of a follow-up mail survey of those seniors who said they would…

This study examined selected characteristics of students entering the teaching profession. Student attitudes regarding the teaching profession, student reasons for selecting teaching as a career, and student reasons for attending Northeastern State University (NSU) in Oklahoma were included. Relationships between selected personal and academic…