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Measuring teacher motivation: a scale and findings from northern Nigeria
- 1. A scale and findings from northern Nigeria Measuring teacher motivation Sept 2016
- 2. EDOREN 2 50% of grade-3 pupils could not name the first letter of their name Only one in every ten grade-3 pupils demonstrated basic listening comprehension skills on a grade-1 level story On average, a grade-3 pupil could name or sound out 6 letters in a minute (Source: TDP 2014 baseline - Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara) Context: Low learning outcomes
- 4. Sept 2016 4 How teachers spend their time in a lesson
- 5. Motivation in a programme theory of change Teacher Development Programme in Nigeria: aims to improve teaching through teacher training, materials, ongoing support, ‘trainer in the pocket’ – Theory of change: TDP materials and support can improve teacher motivation by raising teacher self-esteem – Suggested mechanism: Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 5 Teachers acquire some new skills Visible progress in students’ learning outcomes Improved self-esteem More motivated Work harder Attend regularly Attend training and keen to learn more Boosts / sustains the effect of a short training intervention through a self-reinforcing cycle
- 6. Measuring motivation 3 main issues with the existing scales: Some motivation questions not appropriate for northern Nigeria context Some clearly relate to factors likely to influence motivation rather than the condition of being motivated Often focused narrowly on self-efficacy / locus of control ideas: – belief that something is within my control goal setting, activity choice, willingness to expend effort, persistence We define teacher motivation as the propensity of teachers to start and maintain behaviours that are directed towards fulfilling their professional goals, and in particular towards achieving better learning outcomes for the school’s learners We combine self-efficacy-related items with ideas from elsewhere: Bennell (2004) ‘will-do’ vs. ‘can-do’ / Bennell and Akyeampong (2007) scale specifically for use in developing countries Intrinsic Motivation Inventory: e.g. interest, enjoyment, usefulness, pressure Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 6
- 7. Measuring motivation Commonly scales mix up aspects from different theoretical frameworks Teacher Efficacy Scale Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 7
- 8. Measuring motivation Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 8
- 9. A model of motivation for programme evaluations Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 9 TDP intervention better pedagogic / content knowledge / skills better interaction between teachers can do: external factors less limiting better learning outcomes for students will do: more motivated, engaged Self-efficacy (external + internal efficacy) intrinsic motivation commitment
- 10. Added complication: teachers can’t always read well Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 10
- 11. Scale revised for use in subsequent surveys Most recent version: ESSPIN (Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria) - Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Lagos This paper uses data from ESSPIN Composite Survey 3 (2016): 735 schools, 3588 teachers We focus on northern states (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano) Sept 2016 11 Data and background
- 13. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 13 ESSPIN motivation scales Several revisions leading to 4 factors, with good reliability: – satisfaction: the value I place on my role as a teacher (‘interest and enjoyment’) – skills: the perception I have of my competences and skills as a a teacher (≈can do / self-efficacy) – engagement: how engaged and committed I feel I am to my work as a teacher (≈will do / pressure/tension) – collegiality: how I see the extent of commitment and collaboration among my colleagues (≈teacher-teacher interaction) Cross-correlations Items EAP reliability Satisfaction Skills Engage- ment Satisfaction 6 0.83 1 Skills 12 0.88 0.65 1 Engagement 4 0.66 0.25 0.24 1 Collegiality 6 0.8 0.46 0.59 0.06
- 14. Sept 2016 © 2011 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 14
- 15. Using the scales: research questions How does teacher motivation vary geographically (rural/urban, by state) and between male and female teachers? Does training (in-service and pre-service) influence teachers’ self-efficacy, engagement and satisfaction? Are ‘skills’ (can-do) important for engagement (will-do)? Do teachers whose content knowledge is stronger assess their own scores more highly? Are more ‘engaged’ teachers more active in their lessons? Do students with more motivated teachers learn more? Sept 2016 © 2011 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 15
- 16. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 16 How does motivation differ by state?
- 17. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 17 … and by training, qualification, and sex?
- 18. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 18 Does teachers’ perceived ‘skills’ reflect their content knowledge?
- 19. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 19 Satisfaction and engagement are also strongly correlated with test scores in English and maths
- 20. Explaining teachers’ motivation: regression analysis (Sample: 1923 teachers. * p <.05) Sept 2016 © 2011 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 20 Satisfaction Skills (I) Skills (II) Engage- ment (I) Engage- ment (II) Kaduna 45.8* 18.0 10.6 52.3* 54.4* Kano 22.1* 19.5* 17.3 2.2 4.4 Rural -2.9 -7.2 -5.8 -19.0* -19.8* Female -11.1 -4.7 -4.1 9.9 9.4 Training 0.7 -4.0 -4.3 9.5* 9.0* Qualified -9.6 4.8 3.5 4.6 5.2 Years of experience -0.1 -0.3 -0.4 -0.1 -0.1 English / maths test 0.1 Skills -0.1* R-squared 0.020 0.011 0.014 0.102 0.121
- 21. Using teacher motivation to explain outcomes We attempt to fit models to explain the following outcomes: – Teacher-level Proportion of time teachers spend on ‘positive interaction’ (e.g. explaining rather than chanting) Proportion of time teachers spend doing something (e.g. not just leaving students to copy from the board) – School-level Average proportion of teachers absent each day Proportion of classes with teachers in them at start of school day and after the morning break Motivation does not seem to influence these outcomes after controlling for other school characteristics (rural/urban location, state) Sept 2016 © 2011 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 21
- 22. Sept 2016 © 2016 Oxford Policy Management Ltd 22 Conclusions Teacher motivation appears to be important, but measuring it is not easy Satisfaction and skills scales are worse in Jigawa than Kaduna and Kano Engagement is better in Kaduna than Jigawa or Kano Teachers in rural schools have particularly low engagement compared to urban teachers Teachers who received in-service training are more engaged But overall, our models seeking either to explain teacher motivation or to use teacher motivation to explain their behaviour, have limited predictive power Unobserved factors may include: – Community support for teachers – Relationship with the head teacher – Salary and deployment policies Teachers’ behaviour may be constrained by their knowledge / skills more than their attitudes
Editor's Notes
- By way of background it’s worth showing some of the problems with low learning outcomes in northern states. These are some findings from an earlier evaluation in 2014, where we tested children in primary grade 3 in three northern states, Jigawa, Katsina and Zamfara. We found that half of those children could not name the first letter of their own name. When we presented the children with a set of letters to read or sound out, many of them could not read any of the letters, and on average they correctly named 6 letters. Only one in ten of the children we tested could demonstrate basic comprehension skills on a story that is pitched at primary 1 level.
- The reasons for the low learning outcomes are obviously complex and relate to the difficult circumstances teachers are working in in northern Nigeria. But part of the issue seems to relate to what is sometimes called teacher time on task, or the amount of time that teachers spend actually teaching students. In the recent survey we did earlier this year in 6 states, we found that on average only around 60% of the classrooms had teachers in them on time in the morning, and a similar proportion after the break in the middle of the school day. This was generally worse in the northern states Jigawa, Kaduna and Kano, where you can see only around half of classes were attended. We also asked head teachers about teacher absenteeism, and found that on an average day around 20% of teachers were not present. Source: analysis of ESSPIN CS3 data (2016)
- As well as not always being present in class, these studies have found that teachers are often not very engaged with teaching when they are in the class. Here you can see the results of a lesson observation exercise where we’ve categorised what the teacher was doing. Teachers do spend a lot of time explaining things – although we think that category may have been interpreted rather broadly by the observers. However they also spend a substantial proportion of the time not really doing anything, or for example marking work while students copy from the blackboard, as shown by the black bars here.
- There are a large number of existing scales based on the different theoretical viewpoints around motivation, and many of them mix up insights from different theories. See next slide for a self-efficacy example. Bennell (2004) to some extent bypasses the existing research and distinguishes will-do vs. can-do. Arguably, the self-efficacy literature focuses too much on the can-do factors and not what seems to be a more central issue in motivation: willingness, commitment.
- Gibson and Dembo Teacher Efficacy Scale (long form – 22 items) Source: http://anitawoolfolkhoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/TES22-1u195b1.pdf
- Bennell and Akyeampong (2007) combine this scale with a more detailed, semi-qualitative interview on teachers’ conditions, with questions like ‘Why did you decide to become a teacher?’ ‘Would you still make the same career choice again?’, ‘How adequate is your pay?’ Not the rather direct question ‘Teachers in this school are well-motivated’, and that several others are about factors likely to lead to good motivation rather than the condition of being motivated itself.
- Teachers who received in-service training are more engaged. Encouraging for IST programmes, although the direction of causation remains unclear.