Assessing student teachers' agency and using it for predicting commitment to teaching

In this paper, we focus on the professional agency of student teachers in the initial teacher education context. Based on the ecological model of teacher agency, a questionnaire was developed for a self-reported assessment of student teachers agency in three domains: planning of teaching and learning activities, teaching diverse ability students in the same class, using ICT in teaching. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used to validate the structure of the instrument in all domains using data from 168 student teachers. The findings confirmed that student-teacher agency could be described through three dimensions (iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative) in all studied domains. In addition, we found, using path analysis, that agency in two domains predicted student-teacher commitment to teaching.