Bitesize blog: Motivating teachers for effective professional development

The EEF’s recent guidance report, Effective Professional Development (2021) provides a blueprint for delivering or seeking out high-quality, impactful professional development. The report organizes the fourteen mechanisms that underpin effective PD into four categories:

1) Building knowledge

2) Motivating teachers

3) Developing teaching techniques

4) Embedding practice

Here, I zoom in on ways of motivating teachers, using self-determination theory (SDT) to consider how high-quality PD can help teachers and support staff to flourish.

Extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation

Jenny, an experienced teacher, currently teaches bottom-set groups. Her head of faculty has signed her up to a PD programme on ‘stretch and challenge for pupils aiming for GCSE grades 7, 8 and 9’.

Whereas extrinsic motivation means someone is spurred on by external factors (e.g. rewards or sanctions), intrinsic motivation describes people motivated by the inherent satisfaction they experience when striving to achieve a goal. Rather than seeing these as binary opposites, we can view them as part of a continuum of motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000a).

This continuum shows how the way goals are regulated and the source of motivation influence the state of motivation we can achieve. Where the source of motivation is wholly or partly external, we can only achieve a state of external regulation, introjected regulation or identified regulation.

In the example above, Jenny’s professional development is externally regulated. Whilst many PD opportunities are signposted by senior and middle leaders, the programme recommended here is not necessarily linked to Jenny’s everyday practice. She teaches bottom-set groups, which are less likely to feature students aiming for the highest GCSE grades.

What could our example look like if Jenny’s HOF aimed for an integrated regulatory style? The two might meet and reflect on Jenny’s strengths and challenges in relation to her current classes. Jenny may be interested in learning more about the special educational needs of some of her students. Together, a PD programme might be selected that is more congruent with Jenny’s interests and context.

What could our example look like with intrinsic motivation achieved? The whole context would be different. According to SDT, three conditions are required for us to enter and maintain states of intrinsic motivation (Ryan and Deci, 2000b):

1. Autonomy

2. Feelings of competence

3. Connectedness

To develop a community of intrinsically motivated teachers, we need to give autonomy to our colleagues, whilst still ensuring their feelings of competence are maintained, and supporting them through a meaningful, professional social network (Hewitt and Wright, 2019). It is this flourishing culture of professional development – with colleagues seeking out opportunities to develop because they enjoy doing so – that has the potential to radically transform schools.

References

EEF (2021) Effective Professional Development: Guidance Report. Available at: https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/eef-guidance-reports/effective-professional-development/EEF-Effective-Professional-Development-Guidance-Report.pdf?v=1635355217

Hewitt, D. and Wright, B. (2019) Engaging, Motivating and Empowering Learners in Schools. 1st edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. Available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07C9MY99H/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_G6KB5EG96V10VC8E0J5J

Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2000a) ‘Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions’, Contemporary educational psychology, 25(1), pp. 54–67

Ryan, R.M. and Deci, E.L. (2000b) ‘Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being’, The American Psychologist, 55(1), pp. 68–78