Person and Situation Contributions to Teacher Motivation for Professional Development

• In Event: 46.062 - Why Teacher Motivation Matters: Implications for Instructional Practice, Professional Engagement, and Well-Being

Abstract

Although there is general consensus regarding the features of PD programs that are more or less likely to be successful in producing behavioral and attitudinal changes conducive to improved student learning and achievement (e.g., Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; Penuel et al., 2007), systematic analyses and empirical evidence focused on teachers’ motivation to participate and be engaged in PD (PDM) is virtually absent from the discourse surrounding teacher PD. We present results of an anonymous national survey in the U.S. that describes middle and high school teachers’ (n = 816) PDM. In addition to teachers’ general level of PDM and its relation to PD participation, we examined the network of variables with which PDM is potentially associated, including (a) retrospective PD experiences, (b) PDM and prospective features of PD, (c) teacher characteristics, (d) teaching-related emotions, and (e) school context variables and teacher wellbeing. Theoretical frameworks include expectancy-value and achievement goal theories.

Among the results is clear evidence that most teachers have high levels of PDM given a mean of 5 on a 0 (none at all) to 6 (extremely) scale. As expected, the 75% of teachers who had participated in PD during the previous year indicated being more motivated; they reported that participation was a positive rather than a negative experience and judged it to be useful for increasing their teaching effectiveness. Teachers who engaged in PD because it was required reported having had a more negative experience and judged PD less effective. Those with higher PDM reported experiencing more positive and less negative emotions during PD, had more positive PD experiences, and were more likely to participate in the future. Among the teacher characteristics examined, PDM was higher for those who chose teaching to provide a societal benefit, less for those who did so for intrinsic and least for extrinsic reasons (cf. Watt & Richardson, 2007). PDM was most highly related to teachers’ mastery and less so to a performance approach to teaching, and related to secondary teachers’ personal sense of responsibility for student motivation and achievement. PDM was directly related to teachers’ higher sense of personal accomplishment, and among those reporting being less emotionally exhausted and under less stress. Regarding context, higher PDM was reported by teachers in schools characterized by stronger principal-collegial leadership and those with fewer school problems.

Evidence is consistent with reviews of PD prac¬tices (e.g., Avalos, 2011; Timperley, Wilson, Barrar, & Fung, 2007). In general, results indicate that teachers in general are more positively motivated to engage in PD than is often assumed. Understanding and measuring the malleable factors that increase PDM suggests ways to improve teachers’ PD experiences and the likelihood they will enact recommended instructional practices that facilitate student learning and performance. Results indicate a clear need to take PDM into consideration when planning and evaluating the consequences of PD, as well as PDM’s potential contributions to the teacher motivation literature in general (Richardson, Karabenick, & Watt, 2014).

Authors

• Stuart A. Karabenick, University of Michigan

• AnneMarie M. Conley, University of California - Irvine