Recruiting sufficient numbers of high quality teachers is an international problem, with shortages especially acute in STEM-related subjects. The goal of our research programme is to develop scalable and effective research-informed interventions that can raise the interest and confidence of university students to consider teaching as a career. With the support of funding from the ESRC, we are developing and testing a motivation theory-informed ‘serious game’ called TeachQuest designed to engage STEM undergraduates in solving authentic challenges faced by first-year teachers. I will start the talk by highlighting the scale of the teacher recruitment crisis in England and present work from 2021-2023 that developed teacher recruitment interventions now implemented by the DfE. Next, I will outline how we are developing TeachQuest and discuss the challenges of integrating motivation theories with player engagement. Finally, I will present some of our early results from the testing of TeachQuest in the UK.

Zoom link: us02web.zoom.us/j/85842854046?pwd=dVpCemVmcWZFemdTV2ZhaE4xZXJhZz09