A critical paper submitted to the class on School Administration and Management: Theory & Practice under Prof. Gin Yap-Aizon (ED 221).
“If you have to ask me the keys why Singapore system is successful – we have very good teachers, we have very good school leaders!” These are the words of Lee Sing Kong, dean of the National Institute of Education who speaks passionately about Singapore education. Springboarding from these words, I ask the question of how we can replicate the same outcomes in terms of teaching commitment and performance among our own teachers. Apparently, teachers anywhere as part of mankind are governed by the same universal theories of motivation. Although, an important particularity I remember though is cultural inclination of Filipino teachers to prefer the positive-affective-negative-cognitive approach as far as receiving feedback is concerned which could be a factor for motivating teachers. (Prof. Aizon, ED 221 class)
Theories of Motivation
Abrahom Maslow categorized motivation drivers according to needs categories that fall into an hierarchy. The baser needs include physiological and safety and security then moves up to belonging and esteem to the higher order needs of self-actualization. Only when the basic lower level needs are satisfied can higher order needs be pursued. Hence, if any of these needs are not met then the person gets demotivated. In the following table, I have applied this Maslownian hierarchy to how I perceived they are satisfied at SHS-AdC.
(Table 1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in SHS-AdC Context)
MOTIVATIONAL NEEDS | ||
Needs
|
Provided or not provided in schools through
| |
SELF-ACTUALIZATION
|
Professional Development opportunities – trainings, masteral studies, benchmarking and educational tours
Promotion
Goal Achievement
Spiritual Development Programs – Spex, recollections & retreats, Spiritual Direction
| |
ESTEEM
|
Loyalty Awards
Position Titles and Labels
Office/Space assignments
Merit recognitions/ Status symbols
Parking Space allocations
(Autonomy-influence, authority, decision-making), EIP – tablet, MacPro
| |
BELONGING
|
Subject Area Assignment/Work Teams
Mentoring Group
Friends, Colleagues
Informal Affiliations – Prayer groups, Cliques/Barkada,
Ceremony sponsorships – ninong/ninang
| |
SAFETY & SECURITY
|
Tenure
Housing
Occupational Health & Safety
Medical Insurance & Benefits – Principal & Dependents
Sick Leave
PERAA
Due Process
| |
PHYSIOLOGICAL
|
Salary
13th month
Allowances
Uniform
Tuition benefit for dependents
SSS, Medical Insurance
|
Coop membership & savings
Availability of Transportation Service
Merit pay/increases/Christmas bonus
Honoraria
Vacation Leaves
Flexi Schedules
|
|
| ||
In one of the gatherings of Principals in a conference sponsored by a publishing company in Mactan last February 19 this year, the question was raised as to what motivates educators and their leaders. Recurrent in the discussion is the issue of pay as something good and satisfying if principals have more of it. However, in our small group composed of mostly sister of the Society of St. Paul, running a chain of St. Paul schools, they were saying that beyond monetary motivation for teaching, the greater goal of mission and finding personal meaning on the mission drives the passion of people to continue the work. Teaching for several years, sister Norma, SPC, a nun on her 60s and assigned in Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, narrates that she has been in the work for more than 20 years, at salary way below the scrimping private schools in the city or in the public school system, is getting. The same sentiment is echoed by the whole group that indeed, sometimes if the pay is never really enough, many serve in mission schools or in causes that matter to society, causes that are in the main service or civic oriented. Clearly, a sense of commitment to the mission propels the motivation of many teachers and administrators in the Catholic schools.
Maslow’s theory does not fully explain the condition such as Sr. Norma portray where a sense of mission seem to be her greater driver in persisting in teaching and leading in a remote town in Zamboanga where pay definitely is not economically competitive compared to what we are getting in our school. In the same way as, the motivation that drive our Jesuit partners to take on mission-schools’ work in areas such as Culion in Palawan or Zamboangaita in Bukidnon.
Herberg’s two factor theory, which moves forward Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can better explain probably this. Herberg considers two major category’s of needs – maintenance and satisfiers. Maintenance or hygiene factors are needs that are requisite to the work, these are the baseline requisites so to say, and in Maslow’s theory these are the physiological, safety, belonging and esteem needs. These are not the motivators but are necessary to even let a teacher buy-in into the job. What gives motivation to persevere are the satisfiers, the self-actualization needs. When present, these increase teachers’ drives and passion to teach. I think McGregor’s concept of regression in this theory of Existence-Relatadedness-Growth, where when teachers are not provided needs that are in one category tend to regress into the needs in another category as the more powerful driver helps to explain conditions where some needs are not met but teachers preserver in the job of teaching explaining why teachers in some schools chose to stay longer even if the pay is not as good as those in other schools.
Dan Pink has so geniusly simplified past researches on motivation and summarized the science of motivation into these three drivers - Mastery, Autonomy and a sense of Purpose is the new motivation paradigm. How will this look like for teachers?
Dan Pink’’s work of looking further into these needs and understanding perceptions and value people ascribe to what they do, I feel, offers even more update into the question of teacher motivation. He says that we mainly have two drivers, extrinsic and intrinsic.
Extrinsic motivators are things or acts done to the person – in the past, this has been extensively used in the form of rewards and punishments. To encourage a behavior, something desirable is given while to avoid or deter a particular behavior a consequence should follow or attached to it.
The whole concept of extrinsic motivators revolve around the idea and practice to B.F. Skinner’s conditioning which reinforces what you want people to do, not just punish what you want people to stop doing. (Coppola, 2004)
Rewards and punishment in a sense work for a while but only under certain conditions. Rewards cannot be relied to sustain motivation, in fact Dan Pink says it is harmful to it as it narrows focus and creates a sense of addiction to a receiver (the same neural networks in the brain are activated when one receives a reward and when one satisfies a dopamine inducing addiction). Punishment on the other hand is short lived.
According to Hope Leyson, punishment only works well if it is given by contiguity to the violation or behavior you want avoided or if there is logical connection between punishment and behavior. In a sense, punishments should be used to target a behavior then use gradually “expanding” reward for every step toward achievement of a desired behavior. It still goes back to training to get or conditioning people to act in the way you would want them to.
To avoid the harms of reward and punishment (the proverbial “carrot and stick”), there should be fading too where the prompts or cues are gradually removed such that the behavior becomes a habit of choice even without the attendant reward. If the association is permanent between the kind of behavior expected and the reward accompanying, a sense of attachment or expectation sets in such that behavior then becomes dependent on the reward, a sort of “addiction”. (Leyson, 2014).
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, obtains drive or passion from the job of teaching itself. Teaching in itself and the fulfillment it brings is the motivator. Intrinsic motivation finds fulfillment in the work of teaching itself as satisfying (all activities involved in the work of teaching both the routine and challenging, its details and the big picture, in the bottom-line is motivating), so we should make the job interesting to raise or enhance teachers’ motivation. I feel this is correct for as long as Herbergz maintenance factors, especially dignified salary and working conditions are present, lest you really loose good teachers. (Sergiovanni, 2007, Coppola, 2004 & Corrigan, 2011).
As a case in point, many sacrificing and passionate teachers are preserving in the public schools despite the problems that persist in the public school system, they believe that they can make so much difference. And they commit themselves to the faith that the Filipino children can achieve and they get involve not only in the learning but in the lives of their students. Many young teachers believe that it is alright to give their idealism to a worthy cause say educating students in the public school to help build the nation. (Ongkiko, 2013)
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”- Nelson Mandela
Teachers are the heart of education and how we develop and motivate teachers is therefore the heart of motivating learning. (NIE, 2014) The country of Singapore understands this very well such that teacher training is really focused on by the National Institute of Education under its Ministry of Education. Teachers do not worry anymore about basic needs, neither do they feel burdened by finding opportunities to grow as these are made available by the institute to teachers in their preparation and in their professional practice. Teaching in Singapore, as in Finland, Shanghai, and Australia among the leading countries in PISA (Program for International Student Assessment, 2009 rankings) is accorded prestige and provided generous intrinsic motivators, conditions where the best teachers can thrive.
According to Bill Gates, in a study of American teachers, better teachers are not based on MA degrees (Master of Arts) or seniority. Accordingly, after 3 years of teaching (the usual probationary years), teacher ability does not significantly change anymore. It is in the first three years of teaching that determines a teachers’ level of ability and from thereon, that kind of ability and passion does not significantly change, the variation, Gates insists, is very small. Having an MA does not make a better teacher. What affects teachers to be better though is past performance. Gates insists that feedback on teachers’ performance if used well to make teachers see how they are doing – where they are good at or where they falter and to move effectively towards things that work for the teacher, that’s where ability and skill prosper significantly.
Key to making education better is having great teachers. (Gates, Bill 2009).
Key to motivating teachers also is leadership style of school leaders. If a leader’s mood and accompanying behaviors are indeed such potent drivers of an organization’s success, then a leader’s premier task—we would even say his primal task—is emotional leadership. A leader needs to make sure that not only is he regularly in an optimistic, authentic, high-energy mood, but also that, through the actions he chooses, his followers will feel and act that way, too. A leader who uses reflective analysis and sees how his emotional leadership drives the moods and actions of the organization, and then, with equal discipline, adjusts his behavior accordingly will be contributive to enhancing motivation of teachers.
Managing for effective results in teaching, then, begins with the leader managing his inner life so that the right emotional and behavioral chain reaction occurs. (Goleman, et al., 2001)
The emotional contagion
Research conducted by Alice Isen at Cornell in 1999, for example, found that an upbeat or happy environment fosters mental efficiency, making people better at taking in and understanding information, at using decision rules in complex judgments, and at being flexible in their thinking. It is the same point I presented in class during my report that happiness leads to success, and then cycles. (Soulpancake, 2013)
Taken as a whole, the message sent by neurological, psychological, and organizational research is startling in its clarity, emotional leadership is the spark that ignites a school’s performance, creating a fire of success or an arid place of ashes. In motivating others, the leaders’ moods matter that much. (Goleman, et al., 2001)
The kind of leadership that provides for collegial norms in particular fosters intrinsic motivation in teachers.
Intrinsic motivation insists that the work is motivation itself. Believing in Herbergz’s two-factor theory and maintenance factors are provided, motivating teachers should then be primarily enhancing intrinsic motivation through leadership efforts in creating collegiality, a context enhancing greater interest of teachers in their trade. Collegiality is not congeniality although it may include the latter. Collegiality entails sharing, helping, learning and working together as part of the school’s professional culture. This entails communication expectations for cooperation, setting the example for collegiality for teachers in improving the school, providing incentives, support resources and recognition for expressions of collegiality (here extrinsic rewards work well) and protecting teachers going against privatism (“kanya-kanya”) and isolation. (Sergiovanni, 2007). Collegial principals are supportive and consider school-wide problems as concerns providing opportunities for collective problem-solving and learning.
Instrinsic motivation can also be enhanced if teachers have opportunity – the perception of future prospects for advancement, increased responsibility, status, prestige, increase challenge in work with increased knowledge, skills and rewards (the self-actualization needs of Maslow). Intrinsic motivation is further enhanced if teachers develop capacity or feel empowered – the ability to get things done, mobilize resources or to get and use whatever is needed to accomplish a result. As in a classroom where effective teaching occurs, a school leader manages by differentiation, bringing different works together.
As opposed to extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation that should be enhanced in teachers is based on the value received from the work itself of teaching. These are feelings of competence, achievement, excitement, meaning and significance, enjoyment and moral contentment. For Dan Pink, these are summarize into three categories – provide teachers opportunity and capacity for mastery of their work of teaching, autonomy or the academic freedom that schools should exercise say in their level that space to design and create their learning designs and style, and a sense of purpose – a sense of ownership that they are part of a bigger and noble cause or mission.
As in all groups, levels of maturity of teachers will be uneven, hence there will still be a need of extrinsic motivators (the constant prodding or rewards and the fear of punishment) to keep people in line. But to move teachers from just giving a “fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay” to individuals with extra-ordinary commitment and performance, a strong, inspiring and effective heart of education, leaders have to rely more and effectively on intrinsic motivation.
More than just being “nice” to teachers to avoid problems, Sergiovanni suggests that when we allow teachers to discover, explore, experience variety and challenge, to actively participate or provide involvement in tasks and high identity with task-enabling-work to be considered important or significant, or when we encourage feelings of competence and control and enhance feelings of efficacy, we build on teachers sense of mastery. When we allow teachers to exercise autonomy and be self-determined we let them develop intrinsic motivation also. When we allow teachers to experience a sense of emphasis on agreement with broad purposes and values that bond people together at work or when we permit outcomes within broad purposes (or what we commonly call our vision-missions) that are determined by teachers themselves or allow them to that feeling of being origins of their own behavior rather than pawns manipulated or a high sense of being trusted, we provide the platform for teachers to be intrinsically driven by purpose.
Teachers with high intrinsic motivation fostered by efficacy and collegiality that builds on their mastery, and, who experience autonomy or academic-freedom, and have bought into the institutional or beyond-the-self purpose of education, will most likely exhibit extra-ordinary commitment and performance. They in turn are the drivers of high student achievement.
April 14, 2015
-end-
REFERENCES
Sergiovanni, Thomas J., Getting Practical, “Enhancing Collegiality and Intrinsic Motivation”. pp. 12-133. 2007.
Coppola, Albert J., Scricca, Dianne B. & Connors, Gerard E., Supportive Supervision, “Becoming a teacher of teachers.”, 2004,
Corrigan, Michael W., Groove, Doug & Vincent, Phillip F., Multi-Dimensional Education, “ A common sense approach to Data-driven Thinking”, 2011.
Boyatzis, Richard, McKee, Annie & Johnston, Francis, Becoming a Resonant Leader, “ Develop your emotional intelligence, renew your relationships, sustain your effectiveness.”
Goleman, Daniel, Boyatzis, Richard E. and Mckee, Annie, Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Performance - Harvard Business Review, December 2001.
Soulpancake, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkMHZ7mchVo, retrieved April 14, 2015
National Institute of Education, (NIE) Singapore, 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZdxQKgvd0, NIE, 2014, retrieved April 13, 2015.
Gates, Bill, 2014, How to make great teachers, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnfzZEREfQs, part 1 & 2, retrieved December 25, 2014.
Ongkiko, Sabrina, Our return on Investment: TEDx Dilliman, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgOi4ZR57fA, retrieved April 13, 2015.
Leyson, Hope. Educational Psychology class (Ed 235), October 2014, Mandaue City.
Pink, Daniel H. Drive, The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Penguin Group, USA, 2009.
Owens, Robert, 2011, Organizational Behavior in Education.
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