A Research Article Summary
Title : Measuring teacher motivation: The missing link between professional development
and practice
1. Research question/problem statement
This study explores an important but less explored outcome of professional
development, teachers’ motivation to integrate professional development into practice. We
developed a scale that measures teachers’ motivation to implement professional
development in their classrooms. teacher professional development can be “any activity
that is intended partly or primarily to prepare staff members for improved performance in
present or future roles”. Researchers and professional development practitioners have
conceptualized a patchwork of formal and informal activities as professional development
including structured inservice training sessions, co-teaching, observations, book clubs,
peer observations and instructional rounds, action research, and even impromptu
discussions with fellow teachers. A common approach to implementing formal
professional development programs is often referred to as “workshop” models, where
teachers don the roles of students, participating in structured activities such as lectures and
discussions. In defining professional development, the types of activities are less important
to its characterization than are the intended outcomes of those activities, that teachers
enhance their teaching practices and outcomes for students (Kennedy, 2016).
Thus, in using the term professional development, we refer to any program,
activity, or training aimed at improving instructional practice, regardless of the structure.
An underlying assumption of professional development is that it drives positive change in
teachers and school. Educational leaders who organize professional development
opportunities for teachers do so on the premise that professional development experiences
improve teachers’ knowledge and skills and motivate teachers to translate new ideas into
their classroom practice with the result of inducing positive changes in student outcomes.
2. Motivation/relevance
A principal problem preventing researchers from understanding the mixed evidence of
the impact of teacher professional development on their instructional practice and student
learning is that they must account for the idiosyncrasies of individual teachers and the
schools in which they work (a problem also faced by evaluators of individual professional
Title : Measuring teacher motivation: The missing link between professional development
and practice
1. Research question/problem statement
This study explores an important but less explored outcome of professional
development, teachers’ motivation to integrate professional development into practice. We
developed a scale that measures teachers’ motivation to implement professional
development in their classrooms. teacher professional development can be “any activity
that is intended partly or primarily to prepare staff members for improved performance in
present or future roles”. Researchers and professional development practitioners have
conceptualized a patchwork of formal and informal activities as professional development
including structured inservice training sessions, co-teaching, observations, book clubs,
peer observations and instructional rounds, action research, and even impromptu
discussions with fellow teachers. A common approach to implementing formal
professional development programs is often referred to as “workshop” models, where
teachers don the roles of students, participating in structured activities such as lectures and
discussions. In defining professional development, the types of activities are less important
to its characterization than are the intended outcomes of those activities, that teachers
enhance their teaching practices and outcomes for students (Kennedy, 2016).
Thus, in using the term professional development, we refer to any program,
activity, or training aimed at improving instructional practice, regardless of the structure.
An underlying assumption of professional development is that it drives positive change in
teachers and school. Educational leaders who organize professional development
opportunities for teachers do so on the premise that professional development experiences
improve teachers’ knowledge and skills and motivate teachers to translate new ideas into
their classroom practice with the result of inducing positive changes in student outcomes.
2. Motivation/relevance
A principal problem preventing researchers from understanding the mixed evidence of
the impact of teacher professional development on their instructional practice and student
learning is that they must account for the idiosyncrasies of individual teachers and the
schools in which they work (a problem also faced by evaluators of individual professional
