Development and validation of a questionnaire measuring teachers’ motivations for teaching in higher education

Abstract

A lot of research has been done into the motivations in teachers in primary/ secondary education and into student motivation. However, teachers' motivations for teaching in higher education are rarely studied. A growing interest exists though in the professional development of teachers in higher education, of which motivation is an important aspect. This article, therefore, focuses on the development and validation of a Dutch questionnaire for teachers' motivations for teaching in higher education. The questionnaire is based on three earlier developed questionnaires, including the following motivational aspects: efficacy, interest, and effort. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted with the data of 231 higher education teachers. The results of our explorative study showed that after modifications, including the removal of two out of three efficacyaspects ('outcome efficacy' and 'teaching efficacy'), this instrument is sufficiently reliable and valid to use in educational practice and research. Future research into the use of the questionnaire in different contexts is desirable.

Teachers’ Innovative Behaviour: The Importance of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction, Intrinsic Motivation, and Occupational Self-Efficacy

“…Konermann, 2011;Visser-Wijnveen, Stes, & Petegem, 2012). The internal consistencies of these scales in this study varied from .89 (Occupational Self-efficacy, eight items) to .91 (Innovative Behaviour, eight items).…”

Perceptions of university teachers about teaching and the quality of pedagogy in higher education: a study in Portugal / Percepciones de los profesores universitarios sobre la enseñanza y la calidad de la pedagogía de la educación superior: un estudio realizado en Portugal

“…Aspectos motivacionales como la eficacia, el interés y el esfuerzo son algunas de las dimensiones descubiertas en un estudio holandés cuyos objetivos eran analizar las motivaciones de los profesores en el ejercicio de la docencia en la educación superior (Visser-Wijnveen et al, 2012). Hace muy poco, Bexley et al (2013) llevaron a cabo una encuesta a gran escala en universidades australianas con el objeto de explorar actitudes, motivaciones y planes profesionales de los académicos australianos.…”

What do distance language tutors say about teacher motivation?

“…Overall, we might be justified in claiming that student-related factors impact on teachers' instrumental motivation to teach. With regard to teachers' self-related motivational factors, relevant studies suggest that interest and efficacy (including personal, outcome and teaching efficacy) in the teaching profession are highly correlated with teaching motivation (Visser-Wijnveen et al, 2012). Interest in teaching activities may contribute to teacher professional engagement, which is found to be 'the best index of teacher motivation' in a study of elementary and secondary school teachers' motivation in Portugal (Jesus & Lens, 2005, p. 127).…”

“…Previous research into teacher motivation has been mostly concerning teachers in primary and/or secondary education, as pointed out in Visser-Wijnveen, Stes, and Van Petegem (2012), with a noticeable paucity of attention given to university teachers' motivation. Moreover, it is teacher motivation in general that is the focus of research in this field, and according to Dörnyei (2005) and White and Ding (2009), there is an acute dearth of literature on language teachers' motivation.…”