TEACHERS professional problems

Am I helping the teachers solve their own professional problems?

A good Supervisor helps with the teachers in their professional problems and arrange professional development program for teacher. Supervisor gives priority to the needs of teacher for effective teaching. Different ways through which a supervisor could help a teacher in their professional growth and development:

• Teachers need continuous training and awareness about new ways of teaching

• Identification and Development of the skills of a teacher

Enhance the experience of teacher through teacher training workshops, teacher tours and visits to other schools

Teachers involvement in day to day activities

• In-service training opportunities for the teachers

• Crientation of new teacher to school and community and helping him in class room environment

New refresher courses for teacher to gain new experiences for utilizing their skills effectively

conversion course for the teacher to help him to move on from old course to a new course

Arrange skill Development program to use computer in classroom and give

demonstration and presentation.

Internal skill development program by arranging audio and video training equipments

⚫ Keep the teacher up to date with global educational changes

• Provide video conference facility to teachers to see the teacher of developed countries in real class room environment

Free sample salary increase (Raise) Letter

 key word; Salary increase Increment letter,Request for salary increment

To,                                                                                                       Date 17-02-2020

Vice Chancellor/Principal

University/College

City name

Subject: Revision of Pay in r/o of completion of my probation time as teacher/ Pay in r/ Assistant Professor
Before I probe in to the core purpose of my application, I would like to express my full confidence in the benefits system followed at University/College name. I have absolutely no doubt on the University/College name Administration desire to establish a fair environment for all staff by adequately compensating them. This is just one of the many reasons I am able to write such letter. I will like to draw your attention that my current salary is not compatible with the established standards for my qualification and completion of my probation time. I am currently drawing Rs.70000.00

I don’t like to compare myself with my peers as each person has their own strengths, weaknesses and overall contribution. Having said so, I can’t help but notice that my pay is still less than compare to how much hard work I am doing.

I am not asking for an increment in this letter. I am merely expressing my wish to be compensated in a similar way to other people and as promised at the time of my employment that my salary package will be revised at the end of completion of my probation time.. Please do not consider my application as a demand. I like to share my concerns with the administration in an open and honest way and I expect them to express their opinions about my work in the same fashion.

I request your honor to revise my package adequately. I am a hard working person and willing to give as much as needed to prosper in this respected organization and wish for my dedication to be acknowledged.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dr.abc

Theories of motivation

By Khan

Key words; Definitions of Motivation, Importance of motivation, Theories of motivation, Behaviorist Approaches to Motivation, Humanistic Approaches to Motivation, Maslow’s Hierarchy Motivation  (of Needs), Characteristics of Motivation, Cognitive theory

Theories of motivation

Definitions of Motivation: 

According to B.F. Skinner, “Motivation in school learning involves arousing, persisting, sustaining and directing desirable behavior.” 

According to Woodworth, “Motivation is the state of the individual which disposes him to certain behavior for seeking goal.” 

Motivation is a state or condition of internal need, desire, or want that serves to activate or energize behavior and give it direction (Kleinginna and Kleinginna, 1981a).

Franken (2006) provides an additional component in his definition:

• The arousal, direction, and persistence of behavior.

Importance of motivation

Motivation is the most important factor involved in the modification of behavior, it direct and energized learning and performance of the individual toward the achievement of needs or desires.  The major question that motivation theorists’ psychologists raise is whether motivation is a primary or secondary influence on the modification of behavior.  Furthermore, are changes in behavior could be better explained by the principles of environmental influences, cognitive development, perception, emotion, personality or the unique concepts that is pertinent for motivation.

The source of motivation can be categorized intrinsic (internal) either extrinsic (external) in a person. Intrinsic sources could be further subcategorized as either mind, mental, physical or body/ e.g. cognitive and thinking, emotional, conative or spiritual.

Today need is also a factor that creates a condition for motivation towards taking action or making a change in a certain direction to achieve that need. According to Franken, Action or overt behavior may be initiated by either positive or negative incentives or a combination of both. 

The following provides a brief description of the different sources of motivation, initiation of action can be traced back one of these domains.

Behavioral/external 

·         Associated with stimulus

·         The individual obtain desired and pleasant consequences

·         The individual avoid undesired and unpleasant consequences

Social

·         The individual imitate positive models/ behavior

·         The individual acquire effective social competence skills

·         The individual became part of an institution, or community

Cognitive

• The individual give attention to something interesting or threatening
• The individual develop meaning or understanding
• The individual increase/decrease cognitive disequilibrium; uncertainty
• The individual solve a problem or make a decision

·         The individual maintain homeostasis, balance

·         The individual eliminate threat or risk

Affective

·         The individual increase feeling good

·         The individual decrease feeling bad

·         The individual increase security of or decrease threats to self-esteem

·         The individual maintain levels of optimism and enthusiasm

Conative 

·         The individual obtain personal dream

·         The individual develop or maintain self-efficacy

·         The individual take control of one's life

·         The individual eliminate threats to obtaining dream

·         The individual reduce others' control of one's life

Spiritual 

·         The individual understand purpose of his life

·         The individual connect self to ultimate unknowns

Theories of motivation

There are many theories of motivation.  Some of theories trace their roots to the information processing (Cognitive) approach, some are behaviorist.

Behaviorist Approaches to Motivation 

The primary factor behavioral learning theory is motivation.  Classical conditioning states that biological responses to associated stimuli energize and direct behavior (Huitt & Hummel, 1997a). While in the Operant learning the primary factor is consequences: the reinforcement provides incentives to increase behavior and punishment decrease in behavior (Huitt & Hummel, 1997b).

Cognitive theory motivation

The cognitive motivational theories trace their roots to the information processing approach to learning (Huitt, 2003b).  The focus of this approach is the categories and labels people use to help identify behaviors, emotions, thoughts, and dispositions.

One cognitive approach is cognitive dissonance theory which is similar to disequilibrium of Piaget's theory of cognitive development (Huitt & Hummel, 2003).  This theory was developed by Leon Festinger social psychologist; he states that when there is a difference between two beliefs, actions, or in a belief and in an action, individuals will try to resolve the conflict and discrepancies.  If as result disequilibrium is created, it will lead to change his behavior which will lead to in behavior.

In Attribution theory an individual has an external attribution of success; self-concept is not likely to change due to success or failure because the individual will attribute it to external factors.  If the individual has an internal ability, his self-concept will be ready to learning, and to do a new activity easily and quickly. When in the process a failure or difficulty occurs, the person will quickly lower his expectations to maintain self-esteem. 

Humanistic Approaches to Motivation 

The source of motivation can be categorized intrinsic (internal) either extrinsic (external) in a person. Intrinsic sources could be further subcategorized as either mind, mental, physical or body/ e.g. cognitive and thinking, emotional, conative or spiritual. Intrinsic motivation is when we are intrinsically motivated, to do things for which we do not need incentives or punishments. The humanistic perspective of motivation means motivation from inner self, one’s own sense of competence, self-esteem and self-actualization, Maslow’s is the influential humanistic theorist Humanistic Approach.

Maslow’s Hierarchy Motivation (of Needs): 

Abraham Maslow (1954) presented his theory hierarchy of human needs based on two factors: first deficiency needs and second growth needs.  In deficiency needs, one must lower the need before moving to the next higher level.  When these needs of an individual satisfied, if in future at some point a deficiency is detected, the individual will remove the deficiency easily.  The first four levels of attribution are:

Physiological: hunger, thirst, and comforts etc.

Security: need of Safety and Security (out of danger)

Belongingness: Love and Belongingness, affiliation with others, acceptance by others

Esteem: Get approval and recognition from others for his achievement, and competency

According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if the deficiency needs are met. 

Characteristics of Motivation:

• Personal and internal feeling.
• Art of stimulating someone.
• Produces goal.
• Motivation can be either positive or negative.
• It is system oriented.

·         It is a sort of bargaining.

References

AACAP and David Pruitt. Your Child: Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Development from Infancy through Pre-Adolescence. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

By Khan

Key word; Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Needs vs. Wants, Maslow's and Alderfer's Hierarchies, Self-actualization:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow (1954) presented his theory hierarchy of human needs based on two factors: first deficiency needs and second growth needs.  In deficiency needs, one must lower the need before moving to the next higher level.  When these needs of an individual satisfied, if in future at some point a deficiency is detected, the individual will remove the deficiency easily.  The first four levels of attribution are:

Physiological: hunger, thirst, and comforts etc.

Security: need of Safety and Security (out of danger)

Belongingness: Love and Belongingness, affiliation with others, acceptance by others

Esteem: Get approval and recognition from others for his achievement, and competency

Self-actualization:

It is the most important need. It means self-awareness, to know one’s own skills and weaknesses. The individual focus on fulfilling his dreams on his own potential and he no longer worry about what others think. At this stage, the individual is concerned with his own personal growth.

According to Maslow, an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if the deficiency needs are met. 

 Needs vs. Wants

What is need? And what is difference between needs and wants? Needs are those things which necessary for one’s life while wants are those for which people desire to have it but it is not necessary for life. For examples water, food, shelter, breathing, care, health and basic clothing, etc. are the basic needs for survival of life. 

The examples of wants include television, fashion clothing, computers, Internet, movies, vacations, makeup, outing, mobile, new cars, etc. these are the things that bring comfort in life and it will improve the standard of life, but these things are not necessary for survival of life.

Psychologists believe that needs impact the personality of an individual, for example without food, water, shelter, and basic clothing, it would drastically impact the personality of an individual; he would suffer from low self-esteem, and he may not survive. On the other hand if all these basic things are being met, he will feel more comfortable in life, which wills make him more secure and confident in life.

But, What if all the wants were achieved, as is often happened, people get over-confident or arrogant, acts like superior to others, and children, act like spoiled brats in this case. So the completion of wants may also affect their personality badly.

Maslow considers needs and wants the stages of development of personality; he think, that people gradually goes through these stages of need and development. Starting from the bottom, when one need is met at first level, he goes on to the next need, as a result it bring improvement in personality but, if something threaten the needs, such as not having food or safety, etc., then an individual go back down the hierarchy. If the needs are not fulfill, it will have a bad impact on the personality development. If all the needs are fulfill, the individual will progress and continue to grow having a good personality. Maslow believed that an individual do not advance to the next level of needs until the needs of each level have first been met. For example, if someone is at the safety level, then he cannot advance to love and belonging level until the safety and security needs have been met.

Maslow admitted that not all personalities develop as he proposed in hierarchy.  While some of personality dimensions might be due to motivational needs, for example introversion and extroversion.  Considering the introversion/extraversion dimension of personality, which suggests there may be two side of each level that differentiate how people relate to each set of needs. Some personalities might relate more to one dimension than the other. 

A Reorganization of Maslow's and Alderfer's Hierarchies  

Maslow's work on Hierarchy of Needs lead to additional attempts to develop a grand theory of motivation, a theory that would added all the factors influencing motivation into one model of motivation.  The example provided by Leonard, Beauvais, and Scholl (1999).  They proposed five additional factors for the sources of motivation:

1.    Instrumental Motivation (rewards and punishment)

2.     Intrinsic Process Motivation (enjoyment and fun)

3.    Goal Internalization (self-determined values and goals)

4.    Internal Self Concept-based Motivation (matching behavior with internally-developed ideal self)

5.    External Self Concept-based Motivation (matching behavior with externally-developed ideal self) 

Individuals are influenced by all these five factors; the effect of change could be different by degrees in different individual and specific situations. 

Factors one and five are both very motivational. The main difference between the two factors are that the individuals who are instrumentally motivated, they are influenced more by immediate actions or change in the environment (e.g. operant conditioning) whereas self-concept motivated individuals are  influenced more by their constructions of external demands and ideals.

Factors number two, three, and four are more internally-oriented.  In the intrinsic process, the specific tasks are interesting, funny and provide more immediate internal reinforcement for motivation. The person with a goal internalization is more task oriented (e.g., humanistic theory) in this theory the person with an internal self-concept orientation is more influenced by the individual constructions of an ideal self.

Resources

AACAP and David Pruitt. Your Child: Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Development from Infancy through Pre-Adolescence. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.

AACAP and David Pruitt. Your Adolescent: Emotional, Behavioral, and Cognitive Development from Early Adolescence through the Teen Years. New York: Harper Collins, 1999.

Allen, Bem P. Personality Theories: Development, Growth, and Diversity. Harlow, UK: Allyn & Bacon, 2002.

Berger, Elizabeth. Raising Children With Character: Parents, Trust, and the Development of Personal Integrity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999.

Erikson, Erik. Childhood and Society. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.

Erikson, Erik. The Erik Erikson Reader. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Goleman, Daniel. Working With Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam, 1998.

Rogers, Carl. On Becoming a Person. Boston: Mariner Books, 1995.

Shaffer, David R. Social and Personality Development. Independence, KT: Wadsworth Publishing, 1999.

"Social, Emotional, and Personality Development." Handbook of Child Psychology , edited by William Damon and Nancy Eisenberg. 5th ed. New York: Wiley, 2000.