Motivated and unmotivated teacher educators

Wendy Mitchell is a teacher educator. She ran a workshop attended by some teacher trainers who were asked to fill a questionnaire related to attitudes, motivation and beliefs. We summarised some of those teacher trainers’ questionnaire answers in the following paragraphs.

1.  Read the paragraphs

2.  Write in the table -below the paragraphs- those teacher educators’ positive and negative answers related to attitudes, motivation and beliefs.

Stephen. I enjoy meeting, interacting with and being able to give something to people. It helps greatly going to conferences and exchanging with colleagues and also gaining peer support or approval. Institutional recognition is also very important.

Maria. I always enjoyed working in a group, helping others, interacting. However I feel disappointed with all the administrative work I must carry out. I hate filling papers that, in my opinion, lead to nowhere and furthermore they do not help to improve the quality of the teacher training courses.

Beate. What I really don’t like at all in my institution is the administrative work. In addition there is a full lack of collaboration among teacher educators and I miss it a lot.

Aine. I love working together with my students and colleagues; the interaction that the teacher profession involves, especially when I take part in national or international research projects.

Samuel. It’s difficult to find a balance between professional and personal life. Being a teacher educator is very demanding.

Gordiana. What I enjoy most in my profession is to observe how my students develop new professional and educational skills.

Petr. In my opinion some of the administrative work I have to do may help to run my courses better and that may also benefit the smooth running of the institution, which has a good national and international reputation.

Nicholas. I actually like my profession, although I feel stressed at the end of the academic year due to the time pressure.

Rosa. I find teacher education very fulfilling and motivating. Our job has a great impact because hundreds of children pass through the hands of teachers with whom we have been working.

Fernando. I find dealing with students who are not open-minded and lacking in curiosity very challenging. But above and beyond I find it extremely difficult dealing with students who have clearly joined the teaching profession for reasons other than vocational.

Melanie. The most valuable thing I do is opening up new horizons to students and fuelling motivation.

Sofie. I like being able to make students think and evolve in their practice and reflection. I also like the contact and exchange with colleagues and students.

Svetla. I hate clerical work, paper work, bureaucracy, specially the administrative part with meetings that lead nowhere

Nara. Excluding the fact of having to work within a very strict university framework of credits, exams, etc., I perceive my profession as an occasion to instill in others the need to reflect on their actions as facilitators.

Hans. What I find most challenging and difficult is convincing teachers about the need to research and reflect on their work. On the other hand what I enjoy about my job is the possibility to move certain things, to be involved in a process of professional and personal development of myself and others, to establish and maintain contacts with partners I would otherwise not get in touch with.

Michel. What I don’t like about my job is being expected to do things the relevance of which is not clear to me and particularly the interference of authorities. In addition I find it very challenging to look for the best ways to motivate pre-service and in-service language teachers.

Teacher educators’ attitudes, motivation and beliefs

Positive answers / Negative answers

3.  Give some advice to those teacher educators whose answers to Wendy’s questionnaire showed negative attitudes or felt unmotivated for different reasons.

If I were you, I would …………………………………………………………………

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4.  Say if you would give the same advice to a teacher and to a teacher educator. Give the reasons why.

I WOULD/I WOULD NOT give the same advice to a teacher and to a teacher educator BECAUSE ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………