Assessment of Teacher Motivation, Psychometric Properties of the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST) in Spanish Teachers

Abstract

The lack of motivation among teachers is of increasing concern. Consequently, identifying motivations for their teaching performance can help to improve the quality and effectiveness of educational systems. The aim of this article was to translate the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST) into Spanish, an instrument aimed at exploring teachers’ motivation and analyzing its psychometric properties. A non-probabilistic sample of 369 teachers (71.3% women) with an age measurement of 44.93 years (SD = 9.58) was used. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were applied. The AFE suggested a first solution of four factors that explained 80.57% of the variance in the model. Likewise, a new factor analysis was generated with the extraction of a fixed number of factors indicated in the theoretical review, explaining 86.20% of the total variance. It was concluded that the WTMST is a scale that has evidence of validity and reliability, and that can be considered a valuable contribution to the evaluation of teacher motivation regarding specific tasks in Spanish-speaking populations.