Motivation to Teach: A Mixed Method Study

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the motivation to teach of the teachers and to determine the factors that affect motivation to teach. Convergent parallel mixed design was used in the study. The study sample included 157 teachers who were selected with the convenience sampling method. A data collection instrument that consisted of three sections was used to collect the study data. In the first part of the instrument, questions about personal variables and school stakeholders (administrator, colleague, student and parents) are included. In the second part, "Teaching Motivation Scale" developed by Kauffman, Yılmaz-Soylu and Duke ( 2011) and adapted into Turkish by Ayık, Ataş-Akdemir and Seçer (2015) takes place. In the third part, there are two open-ended questions created by the researcher. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, one-way analysis of variance, and content analysis were used to analyze the study data. In the study, it was observed that quantitative and qualitative findings were generally consistent. It was determined that attitudes and behavior of school administrators, students, colleagues, and parents towards the teachers and attitudes and behavior of the students towards the course were the factors that affected the motivation to teach of the teachers. It was determined that the marital status and professional seniority of the teachers did not affect the motivation to teach of the teachers. While quantitative findings demonstrated that gender affected extrinsic motivation to teach, there was no qualitative evidence that gender affected motivation to teach. In the study, various recommendations such as supporting teachers, appreciation of their work, and showing respect were presented in the study to improve the motivation to teach of the teachers.