Motivation and Teaching Phase
Bahar Kızıltunalı, Turkey
Bahar Kızıltunalı has been a teacher and admnistrator for over 30 years. She has been invited to take part in conferences and focus groups at many prestigious universities, including Oxford and Cambridge in the UK and Brazil. She has undertaken training in Total Quality Management and worked as a fully qualified Quality Inspector for City and Guilds for a certain period of time . She has worked closely with leading experts in the field of ELT and has a wide range of contacts within the world of ELT both in Turkey and abroad. One of her particular areas of expertise is testing. Having developed testing programmes for different institutions, she has also worked closely with many respected experts in this field. She also holds a Diploma in ELT Mangement.
E-mail: ulku61@gmail.com
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Background –The University and its Preparatory Programme
Introduction
Teachers’ view of experience
Questionaire
Face to face interviews
Findings
Conclusion
References
Teaching is a life-long profession. Once involved in teaching, it is very unusual to change professions. Teaching English as a foreign language was, in the past, different in that for some it provided an opportunity to travel for a short time, visit many countries along the way and experience different cultures before settling down to one’s ‘actual profession’. However, times are a changing. Nowadays, many people enter the TEFL world as a chosen career, and tend to stay in one location longer than they used to. Instead of short term gain, they are now looking for longer terms career objectives, such as management positions, teacher training positions . Furthermore, for speakers of English as a Second Language, teaching English in their home country, especially in the field of tertiary education, often offers long term stability and employment, concurring with a level of academic status, not offered by other teaching positions. As a result of the above factors, the tenure of English language teachers is lengthening on average, and we now see many teachers with over 20 years’ experience in this field.
This study is aiming to investigate whether such a situation is actually advantageous for students and teachers, and especially it will look at whether working for many years can actually have a negative effect on the level of teaching offered. The study also sets out to investigate whether experience can actually be a demotivating factor. Does length of service, lead to complacency, or does foster an increased sense of loyalty to the institution and as a result increase the motivation levels of the teaching staff? This study explores the relationship between the teaching ‘‘experience’’ and “qualities” such as maintaining energy level and motivation, how each teacher views their own background, and how they view their experience
The study will demonstrate if experience in teaching brings complacency that will result in negative impact on the profession of teaching.
In order to investigate the above hypothesis, various forms of evidence, survey methods (questionnaire) and anecdotal methods (focus group interviews) were analysed. For the purpose of this study a group of 30 teachers were selected. They were selected to cover both genders, a variety of age groups and also a range of teaching experience both inside and outside the school.
Firstly, a group of teachers, by means of a questionnaire, were asked how they themselves believe experience and length of service affects their motivation levels and performance in the classroom.
While designing the questionnaire Hezberg's (1959) two-factor theory of motivation was referred to as he puts forward a set of extrinsic conditions such as salary and job security. So these were also included in the questions.
Secondly, some of the teachers who had completed the questionnaire were selected and held face-to-face interviews to get more detailed comments on the topic. Unfortunately this is a small sample but this was unavoidable as the majority of staff members were on annual leave. However, even with this small sample, it was possible to come to a sound conclusion as to whether, indeed, length of service is either a motivator or demotivator.
The study will take as its basis the experience of an English-medium university in Turkey. The university offers a preparatory year for students who arrive at the university without a sufficient level of English to progress to their departments. It is this school that we will concentrate on exclusively in this study. Many of the current staff in the preparatory school were recruited at the time of its establishment. Obviously over time , the whole dynamics of the school have changed
Mixed into this set of teachers, was the new blood. Most of these younger teachers had studied some form of English teaching or linguistics at university. Then there were the foreign native-speaker teachers, who came from many different cultures and many different backgrounds, all with many different things to offer.
Such a melting pot of different levels of experience of course can add to the dynamics of a school’s staff.
Part 2 of the study sets out to investigate whether experience can actually be a demotivating factor. Does length of service with one institution, lead to complacency, or does indeed foster an increased sense of loyalty to the institution and as a result increase the motivation levels of the teaching staff?
This study aims to investigate how each teacher views their own background, and how they view their experience. As stated by the opponents of tenure argue (http://teachertenure.procon.org/), does job protection make the removal of poorly performing teachers so difficult and costly that most schools end up retaining their bad teachers? They contend that tenure encourages complacency among teachers who do not fear losing their jobs. Can it actually be the case that after a certain length of time doing the same job, people get jaded, complacent and start to count down the days to retirement? Can it also be true, that finding oneself employed by the same institution for many years, increases their level of security of tenure to the point where they believe that however they perform, they will never get rid of me?
For the purpose of this study a group of 30 teachers were selected. They were selected to cover both genders, a variety of age groups and also a range of teaching experience both inside and outside the school. Unfortunately this is a small sample but this was unavoidable as currently the majority of staff members are on annual leave. However, even with this small sample, it was possible to come to a sound conclusion as to whether, indeed, length of service is either a motivator or demotivator.
While designing the questionnaire I referred to Hezberg's (1959) two-factor theory of motivation as he puts forward a set of extrinsic conditions such as salary and job security. So these were also included in the questions.
When it came to the face to face interviews, 9 candidates from the sample were selected.
The first candidate is a female native speaker, who has been teaching within Turkey for 11 years and at the university for 5 years. 7 of the interviewees were older Turkish teachers who have extensive years of teaching experience within the university and within other institutions in Turkey. The final teacher interviewed was a young American teacher who has limited experience and all within the university.
What is apparent from these findings is that most of those asked believed themselves to have a high level of motivation with over 85% of those asked saying they are either sufficiently motivated or highly motivated. Furthermore, all of those asked believed their level of motivation had a positive effect on their performance in the classroom. Although this study does not prove that the relationship between teacher motivation and student achievement has a positive effect, the correlation between teacher motivation and student self-esteem has been shown by Peck, Fox, and Morston (1977). “Teachers with strong positive attitudes about teaching had students whose self-esteem was high. Students seem to recognize the effectiveness of teachers who are satisfied with their teaching performance.” Rothman (1981) also suggests that this association exists because teachers serve as more than just educators; they are role models. The benefits of teacher motivation for both teachers and students points to the importance of studying how teachers feel about work.
What the interviewed showed overall was that the longer serving teachers perceived that their motivation was not reduced despite the years they had been teaching, although the answers to subsequent questions did suggest that they tended to follow their own agenda rather than follow the overall mission statement and objectives of the institution. They believed that their experience was sufficient to render them efficient motivated teachers.
Interestingly the native speaker with 11 years’ experience seem to suggest that she had experienced a decrease in her level of motivation, but went on to explain that with the experience she had become more confident and therefore did not feel the need to put as much effort into planning the lessons as she had done at the beginning of her career. She also stated that she was still very keen to provide interesting and productive lessons for the student and actually felt that her classroom management and rapport with the students was at a high level, although her lessons may in some way be less creative than before. On the other hand the new teacher while highly motivated felt that he still had a lot to learn and was very keen to take on board all opportunities for personal development offered by the establishment, and indeed he felt that the institution offered a very good and up to date method of instruction which offered the students an optimum chance of success
What is apparent from these findings is that most of those asked believed themselves to have a high level of motivation with over 85% of those asked saying they are either sufficiently motivated or highly motivated. Furthermore, all of those asked believed their level of motivation had a positive effect on their performance in the classroom. Although this study does not prove that the relationship between teacher motivation and student achievement has a positive effect, the correlation between teacher motivation and student self-esteem has been shown by Peck, Fox, and Morston (1977). “Teachers with strong positive attitudes about teaching had students whose self-esteem was high. Students seem to recognize the effectiveness of teachers who are satisfied with their teaching performance.” Rothman (1981) also suggests that this association exists because teachers serve as more than just educators; they are role models.
In addition, while such things as length of service, management support, and opportunities for personal development had a positive effect on their motivation, it was student motivation and behaviour in the classroom which had the major negative effective on their motivation. Another interesting fact that came out of this question was that salary and working conditions were rated very positively when it came to increasing motivation. The following questions suggested that an increase in salary was the most important factor in increasing motivation positively, followed by an increase in the level of student intake while changing the materials taught was seen to be the least important factor in increasing motivation positively. While 40% of those asked neither agreed or disagreed with the idea that they felt less motivated the longer they taught, 47% of the responders did believe this to be true. Furthermore 66% believed that length of service did have an effect on their teaching ability, but unfortunately it is not possible to know if this means it has a positive or a negative effect on their ability to teach. The majority of those who completed the questionnaire believed it was a good thing to work for the same employer for a long time, however only a minority believed they had to be constantly challenged in order to keep their levels of motivation high.
Motivation and length of service
What can be seen from the research carried out is that overall it appears that the majority of teachers believe themselves to be motivated when it comes to teaching. This does not appear to differ greatly with length of service. Also, according to the evidence collected, working for the same institution doesn’t seem to adversely affect their motivation.
Another important factor that may have to be taken into consideration is the fact that teaching is often seen as not just a job but a profession. Good teachers will always enter the classroom believing that what they have planned to do is the best that they can do for their students. Rapport also plays such an important part in teaching.
Comment on the study
This has been an interesting study, as the main belief behind this study was that there was a reduction in motivation within the teaching staff, especially amongst those who had been teaching for a while. What it in fact it has shown is that the majority of the teachers who has been in the profession for a long time do feel motivated when in the classroom.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1990. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row).
Hezberg F (1959) Motivation-Hygiene theory
--(1959) Two-factor theory of motivation
http://teachertenure.procon.org/
J. Undergrad. Sci. 3: 147-154 (Fall 1996)
Peck, Fox, and Morston (1977)
Rothman (1981)
Sylvia, R. D., and T. Hutchinson. 1985. “What makes Ms. Johnson
teach? A study of teacher motivation.”
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
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