ABSTRACT
Motivation has been used to encourage teachers, ensure job satisfaction as well as students themselves to increase students' academic performance in secondary schools. Although research on motivation is extensive, few researchers have examined teachers' perceptions of teacher motivation and its impact on student achievement. This study aimed to assess teacher's satisfaction and motivational factors as correlate to students’ academic performance in secondary schools. A cross sectional research design was adopted where data were collected by using interviews, documentary review and survey questionnaire to a sample of 71 teachers selected by using simple random and purposive sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed by using descriptive statistical analysis by using SPSS. Basing on the findings, the study revealed that, there is a significant correlation between teachers’ motivation and satisfactionand academic performance of students in secondary schools. Furthermore, the study found that factors influencing motivation of teachers are salaries, free accommodation, free meals, allowances, recognition and so on. This study concluded that socio-economic characteristics of teachers like age, income of teachers also influences their motivation and satisfaction. Finally, the study recommended to the schools to improve teachers’ salaries and other incentives, but also the society and parents in general should be involved in a student development.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Research on teacher motivation has developed and expanded since the late 1990s, and the past decade has witnessed a marked increase in literature in the area of teacher motivation research across various social cultural contexts. A significant step forward was the release of the special issue on motivation for teaching by Learning and Instruction in 2008 with the focus on relating the current motivational theories to the domain of teaching which has been called a “Zeitgeist of interest” by Watt and Richardson (2008). As a big contribution to the application of motivational theories in the new research domain of teachers in their career choice, education studies and professional commitment, the special issue was an important impetus to setting the agenda for future teacher motivation research.
According to World Bank (2016) over the last decade, research from many different countries has demonstrated the important role played by teachers in increasing students’ learning and improving their academic performance. Studies From countries as different as the US and Indonesia have shown the enormous benefits that follow from having adequate and effective teachers working in a country’s schools. In Indonesia, a value-added analysis of student learning outcomes found that the more teachers know, the greater the improvements in the learning competencies of primary and junior secondary students. In the US, better teaching in elementary and secondary schools has been shown to increase students’ college participation rates, raise their subsequent earnings, and improve other long-term outcomes.
Providing teachers with good quality professional development opportunities has been shown to be an effective way of increasing their competencies and improving student learning outcomes in many different settings. A series of systematic reviews have been undertaken recently to assess the impact of different interventions on student learning outcomes in developing countries.
The large-scale Australian study conducted by Richardson and Watt (2006) was one of the most significant researches in the field of pre-service teacher motivation studies based on expectancy value framework. Their interest in pre-service teachers’ motivation to teach derived from the increasing teaching shortage reported in the UK, the US, Australia, Asia and other European countries (OECD, 2005). Richardson and Watt (2006) conducted a three-phase comprehensive study planned with the same participants of pre-service teacher candidates across three Australian universities from their entry into teacher education, at the point of graduation from teacher education program, and two years after graduation. Based on expectancy-value theory, they (Richardson &
Watt, 2006; Watt & Richardson, 2007) developed the FIT-Choice model to guide their systematic investigations into the factors influencing pre-service teachers’ choice to teach. In the FIT-Choice framework, antecedent socialization and perceptions of previous experience were presented on the first part of the model, followed by a context of the choice of teaching career combining constructs of task perceptions, self-perceptions, values and fallback career.
The need to address teacher motivation also derives from teacher shortage reported by many western countries including the US, Australia and some other European countries like the UK, Germany and Norway Kyriacou&Kunc, (2007) A renewed research interest in teachers’ motivation to teach and to remain teaching in the past decade has highlighted possible causes of the existing and potential teacher shortages as early teacher attrition, teaching force ageing, imbalance of high demand with less reward, limited career opportunities, less job security and low prestige (OECD, (2005)
Watt et al., 2012) suggested the significance of teacher satisfaction and motivation research is also self-evident as it is a crucial factor closely related to a number of variables in education such as student motivation, educational reform, teaching practice and teachers’ psychological fulfillment and well-being. Therefore, it is helpful for administrators to determine how to attract potential teachers and how to retain them in teaching.
Cogneau (2011) indicates that the issues facing teacher motivation in Africa have historical origin in that the colonial powers both French and British had different policies for the education sectors for the continent. According to the French colonist for example, education was provided in the French language only and the education was also secular. The teachers in rural areas and those in the urban region took home the same pay according to the French policy.
On the other hand, countries that were under the British colony considered missionary education as an integral part of their curriculum. The payable cost of education was given a subsidy by the state which helped the British colony attain a higher primary schooling rate than the French colony. In the British colony, teachers working in the rural areas were given a different pay from those working in urban regions (Cogneau, 2003).
According to Claeys (2011) the key mandate of the teacher is to assist the learner to use and apply concepts by giving instructions and presentations in the classroom. This role is always formal and continuous that usually happens in a school setting or in any other place where formal education is disseminated. There are more duties that are associated with being a teacher than just executing lesson plans, other responsibilities that teachers attend to include being surrogate parents, disciplinarians, mentors, counsellors, role models, planners and many more.
As a result of these responsibilities teachers play an important part in shaping the behaviour and future educational successes of learners. For the teacher to exhibit enthusiasm while executing these responsibilities he/she must be attracted to the teaching profession and be well trained.
It is generally assumed that motivation influences people’s attitude and performance at work the workplace. Hence, it is right to say that the motivation level of the teacher directly influences his/her desire to participate in the instructional processes and urge to share the already acquired knowledge with their learners. It really does determine whether or not the teacher gets involved in the teaching learning process. Dalton et al (2011) it is constructive to embrace the fact that teacher’s motivation is affected by a diverse range of factors including compensation, classroom performance, the training they receive, future prospect of promotion, the perception of the community about them among others.
According to Anderson (2001).The teacher is mainly responsible for the learners‟ attention and interest towards classwork and as a result he/she is a key to the formation of the desired academic behaviours in the learners; formation of such behaviour in the learners can be attributed to the level of teacher motivation. The educational performance of any generation is directly proportional to teacher’s performance. It is therefore mandatory for any country that pays attention to its economic growth to have a keen interest on the factors that affect teacher motivation as this has direct influence on the quality of the educational results which in turn will influence the country’s human resource.
Teachers’ motivation is one of the important factors in realizing educational objectives in achieving high student academic performance since low Teachers’ motivation might lead to low student performance in academics. Thus the learning environment and Teachers’ motivation upon knowledge development relatively need more attention in schools (Juma, 2011). This is because the quality teaching staffs is the cornerstone of student academic success. However without teachers’ motivation educational institutions will continue to boost poor results since the poor academic performance in most secondary schools can be attributed to teacher motivation among other factors (Matoke et al., 2015).
In this case, satisfied and motivated teachers are more likely to motivate students to learn in the classroom, to ensure the implementation of educational reforms and feelings of satisfaction and fulfilment; teachers may be influenced through various factors like timely payment of salary and wage, job satisfaction, fairness in the teacher promotion system, reward system, better working conditions, providing the required physical facilities like laboratories and verbal encouragements for students (Nyakundi, 2012).
According to Alarm and Farid (2011), motivation of teachers is very important as it affects the students directly. This fact is supported by Marques (2010) in her conclusion that motivation and performance of student in academics are interdependent. Dornyei (2001) further states that, teacher efficacy affects students directly as there is strong correlation between teacher efficacy and students’ academic performance hence a desired impact by the students can occur with the help of the teachers.Teachers have the biggest impact on the success and flaws of student’s performance because their teaching motivations are instrumental in helping them teach (Asabi et al., 2013). This means that low motivation of teachers can affect the performance of students academically.
In this case, there is no wonder that an effective teacher has been conceptualized as one who produces desired results in the course of his duty as a teacher toward academic achievement of students (Uchefuna, 2001).Therefore, it is imperative in such type of scenario that teachers may experience motivation or demotivation which may affect negatively or positively the performance of the students in examinations in private secondary schools (Gitonga, 2012).
Teachers of secondary schools in Tanzania for years have been regarded as the essential catalysts for school improvement, the driving force and the main resource in the development and academic performance of students as they are sources of knowledge and agents of change. In this case, this study is basically intended to assessteacher's satisfaction and motivational factors as correlate to students’ academic performance in secondary schools.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Academic performance of students toward achieving educational goals is very important in development of any nation. The achievement is mostly attributed to qualified and motivated teachers. Asabi (2013) and Gitonga (2012) revealed that, the success or failure of students academically depends on the qualification and motivation factors of teachers like better terms and conditions of service which affects their morale in teaching.
But, according to Magina (2010), it is quite clear that there are growing concerns that teachers are de-motivated, which is reflected in deteriorating teaching performance and other learning outcomes. The negative academic performance of students toward educational goals could be associated to the low motivation of teachers in secondary schools.According to Akinwumi (2000), some private schools’ teachers appear to be more motivated than in public schools, but recently, private school teachers in Tanzania have been blamed for low student’s academic performance. This is because teachers’ effectiveness may be determined by the grades the students obtain in their examinations. According to Afe (2001), teachers’ effectiveness and motivation have been shown to have an influence on the grades the students obtain in their examinations and in their academic achievements.
Also, they play a crucial role in educational attainment since the teacher is ultimately responsible for translating policy into action and principles based on practice during interaction with the students. According to URT (2012), reported that, regardless of secondary schools to have qualified teachers to provide education to students but still their motivation has been deteriorating at an alarming rate.
There are number of efforts taken by private schools owner in improving the learning environments. Ensuring teacher’s job statisfaction andmotivation is among the effort taken into consideration. However, teachers continued being dissatisfied with their work environment meaning that teachers are not well motivated to the extent they can get committed to their professionalism to enhance student academic performance. According to Zalwango (2014), this situation could results to poor students’ academic performance.This situation also, raises some questions of how actually, could the motivation of teachers have impact on the performance of students. This study therefore, aimed to assess teacher's satisfaction and motivational factors as correlate to students’ academic performance in secondary schools.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to assess teacher's satisfaction and motivational factors as correlate to students’ academic performance in secondary schools. Specifically, the objectives include:
- Assess the influence of teachers’ socio-economic characteristics on student academic performance.
- Determine teachers’ perceptions on the factors that influence their satisfaction and motivations toward student academic performance.
- Determine the relationships between teachers satisfaction and motivation and student academic performance.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This project is designed to tackle the following reach questions;
- What is the influence of teachers’ socio-economic characteristics on student academic performance?
- What are the teachers’ perceptions on the factors that influence their satisfaction and motivations toward student academic performance?
- What is the relationship between teachers satisfaction and motivation and student academic performance?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study the hypothesis is to be tested at 0.5 alpha levels.
HO1: There is no significant relationship between teachers satisfaction and motivation and student academic performance in secondary schools
HA1: There is asignificant relationship between teachers satisfaction and motivation and student academic performance in secondary schools
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will help the policy makers to strive to improve Teachers’ motivation and satisfaction in order to enhance student academic performance in secondary schools. This study will also help both government and private school owners to understand the influence of teachers` satisfactionand motivation on student academic performance. It would also enable teachers to structure students` education to make them more effective in helping to improving the efficiency of their academic performance. Also, it would be a source of information on how teachers can engage in productive means to ensure the meaningful performance of students academically.
It will also identify major strategies for improving secondary school human resources management and administration. It will in particular identify strategies that will help to improve teacher morale and working conditions, at the same time counteract the factors that lower academic performance,
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
TEACHER MOTIVATION: refers to reasons that emanating from individuals’ intrinsic values to choose to teach and sustaining teaching, and the intensity of teacher motivation which is indicated by effort expended on teaching as influenced by a number of contextual factors.
TEACHER SATISFACTION: refers to the main factors of job fulfilment among teachers such asSalary, social status, advancement, ability utilization, good working conditions and relations, and creativity and security.
ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: is the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has attained their short or long-term educational goals. Completion of educational benchmarks such as secondary school diplomas and bachelor's degrees represent academic achievement
1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
This study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction which contains the background, research problems and objectives. The second chapter is the literature review and the third chapter is the research methodology. In the fourth chapter, the researcher analyses the data and discusses the results. The fifth chapter is the last chapter which presents the summary, conclusion and recommendations.
