WHAT KEEPS TEACHERS AND TRAINERS GOING? Mercè Bernaus TrainEd Workshop 7-11 December 2004

TEACHER’S THOUGHTS Maintaining my enjoyment and passion for teaching for over 20 years can be attributed to several reasons, two of which include the love and respect I have for my students and my personal need to remain intellectually alive. However, the principal reason why I continue to enter the classroom with energy and a sense of hope lies in how I view what I do. Teaching is not just my profession; it is my calling; it is my mission. Nieto (2003: 128)

Motivation and Attitudes Defined Reasons for Action What Motivated you to Become a Language Teacher Trainer? INDEX

Motivation Attitudes What features may be related to these concepts?

MOTIVATION DEFINED Gardner (1985), defines motivation as the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal plus favourable attitudes towards learning the language. Dörnyei (2001) explains motivation as: The cause of behaviour – why people act and think as they do.

ATTITUDE DEFINED An evaluative reaction to some referent or attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s beliefs or opinions about the referent (Gardner, 1985). A complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways.

REASONS FOR ACTION (extracted from the TrainEd questionnaires) Need for approval Need to belong Need for self-actualisation Valuing interaction Valuing challenge Valuing students’ gains Valuing independence

REASONS FOR ACTION Need for approval It helps greatly exchanging with colleagues and gaining peer support and/or approval. Institutional recognition is also very important.

Need to belong Being part of an international professional community: conferences, exchanges … Team work (the feeling of belonging to a group of colleagues and friends I can trust and rely on both professionally and personally). REASONS FOR ACTION

Need for self-actualisation La nécessité d’avancer continuellement du point de vue professionnel (pas de routine!). To innovate regularly. The problem is that when students call for reform from the classrooms, teachers are not eager to change. REASONS FOR ACTION

Valuing interaction Always enjoyed working in a group, helping others, interacting. Establishing and maintaining contacts with partners. Le contact avec d’autres enseignants et avec les étudiants. Meeting the younger generation and discussing openly. REASONS FOR ACTION

Valuing challenge The possibility to move certain things, to be involved in a process of professional and personal development of myself and others. The challenge and thrill in meeting so many people in so many different life situations. REASONS FOR ACTION

Valuing students’ gains Working with people and having the opportunity to see positive changes in learning attitudes and self-esteem issues. To make the student teacher willing to know more, to research and try out more in his personal style. REASONS FOR ACTION

Valuing independence The freedom - I have the possibility to experiment various techniques and strategies in real context. Freedom of research and teaching. REASONS FOR ACTION

Teachers’ beliefs, values and feelings, expressed in the questionnaire, prove teachers’ favourable attitudes toward their profession. Teachers state different reasons for action, which confirm teachers’ motivation for their job. Summing up: questionnaire answers

Questions?

.. What impact do teacher attitudes, motivation and beliefs have on students?

WHAT MOTIVATED YOU TO BECOME A LANGUAGE TEACHER/TEACHER TRAINER? Tell your partner about a personal experience (if possible with a former teacher) that motivated you to become a language teacher/teacher trainer. Extract some ideas from those experiences that helped you both in your professional development.

REFERENCES Dörnyei, Z. (2001) Teaching and Researching Motivation. Cambridge: C.U.P. Gardner, R. C. (1985) Social Psychology and Second Language Learning. London: Edward Arnold Publishers. Nieto, S. (2003) What Keeps Teachers Going? NY: Teachers College Press, Columbia University.