What motivates us to teach? Examining faculty motivation for teaching

Abstract

Understanding faculty motivations for teaching can provide a powerful window into what encourages instructors to do the work of teaching. We administered a brief survey developed from self-determination theory to over 2,000 instructional staff at nineteen institutions. Using data collected through the 2018 administration of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, we investigated how varying faculty and institutional characteristics relate to intrinsic, introjected, and external motivations to teach. In this session, participants will be provided insights into how these three motivation types link to identified faculty and institutional characteristics, as a way to promote the highest levels of instructional effectiveness. Teaching and faculty development initiatives can be designed to explicitly focus on meeting the needs of faculty members to inspire motivation types that highly correlate with effective teaching practices.