Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
net/publication/311927167
CITATIONS READS
0 123
1 author:
Mary Burns
Education Development Center
50 PUBLICATIONS 181 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Mary Burns on 28 December 2016.
Policy implications
Teacher motivation is critical from a policy perspective.
Motivated teachers have lower rates of absenteeism
and attrition (i.e., leaving the profession) than
unmotivated (or demotivated) teachers. Absenteeism,
and particularly attrition, result in teacher shortages
and loss of instructional time, both of which stress the
entire education system. Fewer teachers teaching
mean larger classes which can exacerbate resource
issues, adversely impact educational quality, and
negatively influence student learning outcomes
(especially in critical subject areas such as STEM).
Teacher shortages, especially in rural areas and poor
communities, exacerbate regional inequities, and many
times, tensions. Additionally, teacher attrition places
enormous financial burdens on educational systems —
for example, in the U.S., $2.2 billion annually (Alliance
for Excellent Education, 2015).
Program implications
Teacher motivation is also important for the
advancement and implementation of educational
reforms. Motivated teachers are more likely to embrace
and enact specific educational reforms and support
educational reform and progressive legislation in
general (Jesus & Conboy, 2001).
From an implementation perspective, intrinsically
motivated teachers undertake and complete
professional tasks—such as transferring what they
have learned in professional development to their
Effects on Students
Motivation is also linked to practice. Teacher motivation
is seen as a good predictor of teaching quality
(Chalmers, 2007) and caring for students (Noddings,
2001). Both of these components—quality (and the
bundle of behaviors that form part of quality) and care
are the core of effective teaching (Ferguson et al.,
2015). Indeed, research on teacher effectiveness
suggests numerous linkages between teacher
motivation, teacher effectiveness and student
motivation. Motivated teachers are more likely to
motivate their students to learn and help them learn
more effectively. In essence, motivated teachers
motivate their students.
References
Abadzi, H. (2015). Training the 21st-century
worker: Policy advice from the dark network of
implicit memory. Retrieved from
http://www.ibe.unesco.org/sites/default/files/reso
urces/wp-16-
training_21st_century_worker_eng.pdf
Alliance for Excellent in Education. (2014). On the
path to educational equity: Improving the
effectiveness of beginning teachers. Retrieved
from http://all4ed.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/PathToEquity.pdf
Burns, M. & Guajardo. J. (2014, February).
Teacher motivation in low–income contexts.
Global Partnership for Education, Education for
All Blog. Retrieved from
http://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/teacher-
motivation-low-income-contexts
Chalmers, D. (2007). A review of Australian and
international quality systems and indicators of
learning and teaching. Sydney, Australia: Carrick
Mary Burns
(mburns@edc.org)
is a senior learning
technologist at
Education
Development
Center. She works
on issues around
teacher quality and
teacher professional development across the globe—
contributing to policy and research, designing teacher
professional development and support programs, and
teaching and coaching primary, secondary and
university instructors. Mary speaks Spanish, French
and Portuguese and has published widely on teacher
professional development and instruction.