Snook Abigail Grover, Schram Asta B, Jones Brett D
School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, 101, Reykjavik, Iceland.
School of Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
BMC Med Educ. 2021 Mar 29;21(1):188. doi: 10.1186/s12909-021-02599-7.
It is uncommon for faculty development professionals to assess faculty attitudes towards their teaching responsibilities and their perceived obstacles to teaching effectiveness. The purposes of this study were (a) to document faculty attitudes and practices related to applying motivation principles, and (b) to identify the perceived contextual factors that may shape these attitudes and practices.
A sequential explanatory mixed methods design was used. Faculty members (n = 272; 32% response rate) were surveyed about their responsibility for and application of the five motivational principles that are part of the MUSIC Model of Motivation: eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest, and Caring. Repeated measures ANOVAs and Student's t-tests were computed to detect differences. Subsequently, two focus groups of faculty members (n = 11) interpreted the survey results. We conducted a thematic analysis and used the focus group results to explain the survey results.
Faculty rated their responsibilities for applying principles related to Usefulness, Interest, and Caring significantly higher than they did for Success and eMpowerment. Most faculty also reported that they actually applied Usefulness, Interest, and Caring strategies within the past year, whereas over half of the faculty applied Success strategies and about a third of faculty applied eMpowerment strategies. Focus group participants identified factors that affected their ability to apply eMpowerment strategies, (e.g., offering choices), including students lacking generic skills (e.g., critical thinking, problem-solving), a lack of confidence in their abilities to implement empowering strategies and meet the needs of students, passive students, and large lecture-type courses. Focus group participants cited obstacles to implementing Success strategies (e.g., providing feedback), including difficulty in providing feedback in large courses, lacking time and assistant teachers, limited knowledge of technologies, and lacking skills related to guiding effective student peer feedback.
Faculty appear adequately prepared to implement some types of motivational strategies, but not others, in part due to contextual factors that can influence their attitudes and, ultimately, their application of these strategies. We discuss how these factors affect attitudes and application of motivational strategies and formulate suggestions based on the results.
教师发展专业人员评估教师对其教学职责的态度以及他们所认为的影响教学效果的障碍并不常见。本研究的目的是：（a）记录教师在应用动机原则方面的态度和实践，以及（b）确定可能塑造这些态度和实践的背景因素。
采用了序列解释性混合方法设计。对教师（n = 272；回复率32%）进行了关于他们对动机的MUSIC模型中的五个动机原则的责任和应用情况的调查，这五个原则分别是：赋权（eMpowerment）、有用性（Usefulness）、成功（Success）、兴趣（Interest）和关怀（Caring）。计算重复测量方差分析和学生t检验以检测差异。随后，两组教师焦点小组（n = 11）对调查结果进行了解释。我们进行了主题分析，并利用焦点小组的结果来解释调查结果。
教师对应用与有用性、兴趣和关怀相关原则的责任评分显著高于对成功和赋权原则的评分。大多数教师还报告说，他们在过去一年中实际应用了有用性、兴趣和关怀策略，而超过一半的教师应用了成功策略，约三分之一的教师应用了赋权策略。焦点小组参与者确定了影响他们应用赋权策略（如提供选择）能力的因素，包括学生缺乏通用技能（如批判性思维、解决问题能力）、对实施赋权策略和满足学生需求的能力缺乏信心、学生消极被动以及大型讲座式课程。焦点小组参与者列举了实施成功策略（如提供反馈）的障碍，包括在大型课程中难以提供反馈、缺乏时间和助教、对技术了解有限以及缺乏与指导有效的学生同伴反馈相关的技能。
教师似乎有充分准备实施某些类型的动机策略，但对其他类型则不然，部分原因是背景因素会影响他们的态度，并最终影响他们对这些策略的应用。我们讨论了这些因素如何影响动机策略的态度和应用，并根据结果提出了建议。
