Teacher motivation

Teacher motivation

1. 1. Unique motivational characteristics

   • Intrinsic component (internal desire to educate)
     • Two sources
       • The educational process
       • The subject matter
     • Basic human needs related to intrinsically motivated behaviour
       • Autonomy
       • Relatedness
       • Competence
         • Teaching efficacy (teachers' general beliefs about the possiility of creating student learnir)
         • Personal efficacy (teacher's personal appraisal of his own effectiveness as a pedagogue)
   • Social contextual influences
     • Two main categories
       • School-based extrinsic factors (micro level)
         • Organisational climate of the institution and immediate teaching environment
       • Systemic/societal-level factors (macro level)
         • General work ethos prevalent ath the societal level
   • Temporal dimension of teacher motivation
     • Contingent path
       • Closed path (hierarchy of advancement has a clearly defined final)
         • Decreases motivation
       • Open path (additional possibilities are possible as the individual moves along the career path)
         • Increases motivation
   • Negative influences on teacher motivation
     • Five factors
       • Stressful nature of teaching jobs
         • Long hours working with children and young adults
       • Inhibition of teacher autonomy
         • Normative constraints imposed on schools to bring teacher behaviour in line with some criteria of effectiveness
       • Insufficient self-efficacy (due to inappropriate training)
         • Reality shock when they face the truth in the classroom
       • Content repetitiveness and limited potential for intellectual development
         • No real opportunities from teaching to discover or acquire new knowledge, skills or abilities.
         • Teaching offers a closed contingent path
           • Few areas of advancement
             • Teachers feel they 'get stuck'

2. 2. Motivation of L2 teachers

   • Pennington's analysis of the motivation of EFL teachers
     • Five job faces (pay, promotion, co-workers, supervision, nature of the job)
       • Highest ratings
         • Co-workers and work
       • Lowest ratings
         • Promotion and pay
       • Conclusion
         • Teachers had reduced commitment due to: stress, low autonomy, poor resources, minimal work incentives.
   • Doyle and Kim's investigation
     • Analysis of
       • Social, cultural and political reasons which diminish teacher motivation and cause disatisfaction and low morale
         • Focus on three main themes
           • Intrinsic motivation
           • Factors leading to disatisfaction (salary, lack of advancement opportunities, lack of respect from school administration, unfavourable employment conditions. perceived gradual devaluation of teacher0s role)
           • Mandated curricula and tests
   • Shoaib's study of teacher motivation
     • Three levels where motivational change can be made
       • Teacher level (applying self-regulatory strategies, attending formal/professional activities, aiming for a further degree)
       • Managerial level
       • Ministerial/institutional level
     • Recommendations for enhancement of teacher motivation which are related to
       • Ministerial and institutional leadership
       • Pre-service training
       • In-service training and professional progress
       • Supervision
       • Management
       • Workload and curriculum
       • Facilities, resources and salaries
   • Kubanshiova's study of teacher motivation and teacher development
     • Attempted to explore conceptual change in language teachers
     • Notion of future possible selves
       • Ideal language teacher self (the identity goals and aspirations of language teachers)
       • Ought-to language teacher self (language teachers' cognitive representations of their professional responsibilities and obligations)
       • Feared language teacher self (what teachers fear they might become if they do not live up their own ideals or perceived responsibilities and obligations)
     • Conclusions
       • Fear of not meeting students' expectations may inhibit change when it is associated with an imminent threat to the teachers' identity goals
       • Contextual demands may produce detrimental tension depending on the teachers' internal appraisal of these conditions

3. 3. The relationship between teacher motivation

   • Teacher expectations and student achievement: the Pygmalion effect
     • Teacher's expectations about students' learning potential
       • Affect students' rate of progress, functioning as a self-fulfilling prophecy, with students living up or down to teacher's expectations
     • The Pygmalion effect
       • Involves
         • Negative expectations and these false beliefs about the students can become harmful
   • Teacher enthusiasm - learner enthusiasm
     • Teachers who love what they do and show by their passion and dedication that they enjoy their profession
       • Most influential teachers
     • Teachers strongly committed
       • Instil in students a similar willingness to persue knowledge
     • Passionate teachers
       • Committed, enthusiastic, and intellectually and emotionally energetic in their work
       • Make students feel more intrinsically motivated
         • Enhances students' enjoyment and interest in the lesson and the material
   • Interactive relationship between teacher and student motivation
     • When analysing student and teacher motivation, we cannot ignore
       • The bi-directional nature of teacher and student motivation
       • The complex interactions with contextual factors