Lucy CrehanInternational Education Consultant Education Development Trust

@lucy_crehanlucycrehan.com

Exploring the impact of career models on teacher motivation: An exploratory study

Problems with the administration of teacher careers: The single salary structure

• A lack of professional accountability: factors used for promotion don’t correlate with teacher effectiveness, and high-quality teaching is not recognized.

• The flat salary structure makes the profession less attractive, affecting its ability to attract the most able. 

• A lack of career progression opportunities exist for teachers who do not wish to leave the classroom

• A limited sense of self-determination and control over their careers among teachers

The psychology underlying teacher motivation: Herzberg’s dual factor theory

Motivating factors:Advancement. Responsibility.

Recognition. Work itself. Achievement.

Hygiene factors:Company policy. Working conditions.

Supervision. Salary.

The psychology underlying teacher motivation: Teacher job satisfaction

“The broad consensus among occupational psychologists in developed country contexts is that pay on its own does not increase motivation. However, pecuniary motives are likely to be dominant among teachers in those low-income developing countries (LIDCs) where pay and other material benefits are too low for individual and household survival needs to be met. Only when these basic needs have been met is it possible for ‘higher‑order’ needs, which are the basis of true job satisfaction, to be realized” Bennell and Akyeampong (2007)

The psychology underlying teacher motivation: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Autonomous Controlled

Intrinsic motivation

External regulation

Integration Identification Introjection

• Provide opportunities for promotion within the classroom

• Incentivize continuous improvement

The challenge: organizing teacher careers so that they…

• Encourage, not undermine intrinsic motivation

• Allow for advancement, recognition, and growth (or mastery, relatedness and autonomy)

Merit pay or career ladders?

“There are two ways to go about building stronger links between pay and performance: one is through merit pay schemes, the other is by introducing a rigorous professional certification system. Each is based on quite different assumptions about how incentives work and how they link to improved student achievement” Ingvarson (2012) - Australia

Several countries are taking or planning to take the career-ladder approach already

Only three career ladder programmes have examined the impact on student outcomes• Arizona: standards based, criterion-referenced, and had multiple, external ‑

evaluators involved in promotion decisions. Reduced the drop-out rate, improved the graduation rate, and improved student scores, compared to districts that did not take part.

• Missouri: standards-based, but didn’t apply different standards at different levels. Teachers were assessed only by administrators in their own school. Slight improvement in maths results, none in reading. Evaluators put this down to a lack of rigour in the application of the evaluation procedure.

• Portugal: nation-wide career structure in which teachers had to pass an evaluation to move from lower to higher pay scale. This evaluation was points-based, and norm-referenced, putting the teachers in competition with one another. Student scores actually decreased after the introduction of the programme.

Design and implementation emerging lessons so far:

• Appraisal should use multiple sources of objective, valid, and reliable evidence of performance, and be carried out by more than one (trained) evaluator.

• There should be clarity around what teachers need to do or show to earn a promotion. Using standards rather than ‘points’ focuses attention on improving teaching.

• Extra responsibilities should be present, but not too demanding

• Career ladders should be structured so that they are ‘criterion referenced’ and don’t put teachers in competition with peers in the same school.

• Restructuring pay, rather than adding new roles in addition to the single salary structure, is more financially sustainable (if agreed with unions)

• Teacher buy-in is essential, and unions should be consulted in the design phase