Abstract:

Teacher education is a programme linked to developing teacher proficiency and competence that would aid and permit the teacher to meet the profession's requirements and face the challenges therein. This study compared social studies' student teachers' career aspirations and learning outcomes at a University in North-central Nigeria, based on their course of choice at the entry point. The design was a longitudinal survey that looked at respondents' interest variables over an extended period. The research started in 2016 to 2020, spanning four years from 100 to 400 levels. Eighty student-teachers served as the final sample for this study. The researcher employed the use of pro forma with a 0.83 reliability index to elicit information. Data analysis was done using frequency and percentages to answer research questions, while hypotheses were tested using chi-square at 0.05 alpha level. Findings indicated that most students who chose social studies had a lower terminal class of degree than their counterparts who originally did not apply to study social studies. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the learning outcomes of social studies student-teachers irrespective of their entry-level choice of discipline. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that government should make the teaching profession profitable and rewarding for teachers by revisiting their conditions of service to attract the best brains into the profession. In addition, counsellors need to provide counselling support services for student teachers so that they can have maximum satisfaction with their course of study for improved outcome

Keywords:

Career Aspirations, Learning Outcome, Student-Teachers, Teacher Education.