Understanding physical education teacher motivation in relation to job resources and demands

• Main Author: Zhang, Tan
• Language: EN
• Published: The University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2016
• Subjects: Educational tests & measurements|Educational psychology
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10123702

<p> Research has shown that the working environment of physical education influences teacher motivation. Identifying the characteristics of teachers&rsquo; working environment may contribute to developing a productive and motivating working environment for physical education teachers. </p><p> The first part of this dissertation study was focused on developing and validating an instrument that measures physical education teachers&rsquo; job demands/resources perception on five theorized dimensions: organizational resources, physical resources, cognitive demands, physical demands, and emotional demands. The content validity was achieved through expert evaluation of the consistency between the items and the dimensions they represent. The evaluation rendered an average consistency rating of 3.6 on a 5 point scale. The construct validity and reliability were determined with a physical education teacher sample (n=193). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) established a five-dimension construct structure matching the theoretical construct with factor loadings ranging from .57 to .85. The intraclass correlational coefficients ranged from .75 to .80 for job resources and from .80 to .83 for job demands, respectively. The inter-scale correlational coefficients ranged from .14 to .25, showing both convergent and divergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) confirmed the construct structure found in the EFA with high dimensional factor loadings ranging from .47 to .81 for job resources scale and from .51 to .86 for job demands scale. The model fit tests produced acceptable indices including the RMSEA &lt; .05. It is concluded that the instrument met the required psychometric standards to be useful to measure physical education teachers&rsquo; perception of their working environment. </p><p> The second part of the study was to determine the extent to which the perceived job demands and resources influence physical education teachers&rsquo; motivation regulatory processes and motivation. An <i>a priori</i> model was proposed for testing based on the integration of the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Job Demands-Resources Model. Certified physical education teachers in two southeastern states (n=193) provided self-reported data on perceived job demands and resources in the working environment, motivation regulatory processes, and motivation to teach. Structural equation modeling analysis revealed that increasing job demands in working environment enabled the teachers to adopt more autonomous regulatory processes, such as integrated regulation (&gamma; = .20) but not more controlling regulatory processes, such as external regulation (&gamma; = -.16) and introjected regulation (&gamma; = -.22). The findings of the study provide empirical evidence that relate perceptions of working environment to physical education teachers&rsquo; motivation to teach.</p>