Why do students choose a teacher training program? A comparison between sport students and mathematics students

The motivation for taking up ateaching degree is considered as apersonal requirement for professional development in relevant research. Being based on the question concerning the homogeneity of the students' motivation for choosing ateacher degree, this article deals with the question why sports students decide to start participating in ateacher training program. Furthermore, the article faces potential specifics of sports students' voting decision for ateacher training program, comparing it with the teaching profession of mathematic students. In all, 405 teacher training students with the subject sports were compared to 964 teacher training students with the subject mathematics regarding their motivation for choosing ateacher training program. Consistent with other findings, the intrinsic facets of motivation are more distinct among sport students as well as mathematics teacher training students than the extrinsic facets of motivation for choosing acourse of study. The sample comparison shows meaningful differences with regard to different facets of the motivation for choosing adegree in education. Therefore, the students' beliefs in their own skills have aminor importance among sports students than among mathematics teacher trainees regarding their choice of study. Simultaneously, sport students assign more importance to the perceived low difficulty of ateacher training program and the financial utility than mathematics teacher training students. For the belief in their ability and the anticipated lower difficulty of the study, it is also shown that the observed difference between the subjects is stronger for male sport students than for female sport students.