Teachers’ motivation to engage in professional development is considered to be one of the most influential determinants of teacher change, (Bell & Gilbert, 1994; Smith & Gillespie, 2007) and has a direct influence on teachers’ classroom practices (Anderson, 2002; Guskey, 2002). So investigating teachers’ personal desire and motivation to enhance their professional lives is an important aspect in teachers’ professional development (Grundy & Robison, 2004). In examining Life Sciences teachers’ perceived motivation for participating in various qualification-driven upgrade programmes, eight items were put on a five-point Likert scale, where 1 represented ‘completely false’ and 5 represented ‘completely true’. Teachers’
responses are summarized in table 5.7.1 below.
148 Table 5.7.1: Perceived motivation for pursuing qualification-driven CPD programmes in percentage, mean and standard deviation
Percentage of teachers
Items
SD D N A SA Mean Std. dev
1. Improve subject matter knowledge 0.9 0.0 1.9 8.5 88.7 4.84 0.54 2. To get an accreditation 2.9 1.0 4.9 21.6 69.6 4.54 0.88
3. To get promotion 32.4 9.8 20.6 23.5 13.7 2.76 1.46
4. Received a bursary from Department 73.1 1.1 3.2 3.2 19.4 1.95 1.63 5. To keep up to date with curriculum changes 4.8 1.0 1.0 21.2 72.1 4.55 0.95 6. To take responsibility for my own learning 4.0 2.0 6.9 16.8 70.3 4.48 1.00 7. To upgrade my knowledge and skills 0.0 1.0 0.0 8.7 90.4 4.88 0.40 8. To be a better Life Sciences teacher 1.0 0.0 1.0 6.7 91.3 4.88 0.50
For the majority of the participants, taking up CPD courses was intrinsically driven. As shown in Table 5.7.1 above, teachers’ responses to the items on the scale indicated a strong internal desire and motivation to engage in continuous learning. ‘Becoming a better teacher’
was of high importance for the teachers, with 91% of teachers strongly articulating this. The need to upgrade knowledge and skills for Life Sciences teaching was another influencing factor when teachers register for upgrade programmes, with 90% of the teachers expressing this strongly.
Consistent with the DoE’s acknowledgement of teachers’ poor subject matter knowledge,
‘Improving subject matter knowledge’ was another motivating factor for teachers to sign up for higher studies, indicated strongly by about 89% of the teachers. The need to improve content knowledge was further affirmed by teachers when responding to the content-specific needs which are presented in the next section. The need to improve curriculum knowledge was a compelling reason for teachers to take up higher education studies.
About 70% of the teachers claimed that they enrolled for structured CPD programmes because they believed that learning is part of their professional responsibility.
The variation (standard deviation =1.46) in teachers’ responses to item 3 ‘To get promotion’, suggested that whilst some of the teachers may have been seeking promotion following completion of qualification upgrade programmes, others were not. Similarly, teachers were not driven by any monetary incentives when they registered to higher institutions because
149 only a handful of teachers (about 20%) were recipients of the subsidy from the Department of Education.
It was also evident from teachers’ responses that there was a strong requirement for many of them to get certification. About 70% of the teachers acknowledged strongly that that they needed accreditation, and that teacher unions were playing an important role in motivating teachers to get qualifications.
Teacher unions usually advise teachers that are not qualified to register so that they are not taken out of the system. As few of these teachers are really intrinsically motivated and usually take long to complete their studies, just as long as they can show that they are registered and so that they do not have to leave the system.
(Subject Advisor)
Whilst Subject Advisors had no direct mandate in getting teachers to register for qualification programmes, as seen from the extract below, some of them were also taking the initiative to encourage teachers to improve their knowledge and skills.
Although we don’t really have much influence in getting teachers to engage in continuous professional development such as to register with institutions, but we show them the good side of studying. As Subject Advisors we tell teachers about the importance of having knowledge first. Teachers need to register for themselves because one of the seven roles of the educator is that they must be a lifelong learner.
We can easily support someone who is also supporting themselves. (Subject Advisor)
Whilst some of the Life Sciences teachers were driven by external forces to register for higher studies, the bulk of teachers had an intrinsic determination to advance their knowledge and skills. With the majority of the teachers indicating the desire to become better teachers, an inference may be drawn that these teachers have reached Maslow’s level of ‘esteem needs’. As articulated by Maslow, ‘esteem needs’ develop as a result of people seeking to improve their self-confidence. As stated by Wlodkowski (1999), it is the deep social responsibility, i.e. need for competence and being effective at what one does that drives learning among adults. Aspirations of becoming ‘better teachers’ thus clearly suggested teachers’ desire to improve their confidence and competence in teaching the new curriculum.
This also implied that majority of the teachers have reached the ‘self-actualisation’ level of
150 Maslow hierarchy, suggesting a sense of autonomy and self-directedness on the part of teachers. The South African Council for Educators (SACE) also has a mandate to support the system in developing autonomous and confident teachers by way of allocating Professional Development points for any self-initiated professional development, school-initiated and externally initiated professional development activities. At the time of writing, principals and deputy principals as the first cohort were going through the CPTD orientation and sign-up process to start earning professional development points. The second cohort comprising teachers is to follow at a later stage. Having teachers that exhibit an intrinsic impetus to engage in continuous professional development, coupled with incentives to take up CDP courses will go a long way in ensuring the development of an autonomous teaching force.