This document summarizes research on the impact of career models on teacher motivation. It discusses problems with single salary structures for teachers and explores Herzberg's dual factor theory of motivation. Research suggests pay alone does not increase motivation in developed countries, but is more important in developing countries where basic needs are not met. The document also analyzes intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and reviews career ladder programs in Arizona, Missouri, and Portugal that link pay to performance. Key lessons are that teacher evaluation should use multiple valid sources, standards should provide clarity on promotions, responsibilities should not be too demanding, and career ladders work best when criterion-referenced rather than competitive.

1. Lucy Crehan
International Education Consultant
Education Development Trust
@lucy_crehan
lucycrehan.com
Exploring the impact of career models on teacher motivation:
An exploratory study

2. Problems with the administration of teacher careers:
The single salary structure
• A lack of professional accountability: factors used for promotion don’t correlate
with teacher effectiveness, and high-quality teaching is not recognized.
• The flat salary structure makes the profession less attractive, affecting its
ability to attract the most able.
• A lack of career progression opportunities exist for teachers who do not wish to
leave the classroom
• A limited sense of self-determination and control over their careers among teachers

3. The psychology underlying teacher motivation:
Herzberg’s dual factor theory
Motivating factors:
Advancement. Responsibility.
Recognition. Work itself. Achievement.
Hygiene factors:
Company policy. Working conditions.
Supervision. Salary.

4. The psychology underlying teacher motivation:
Teacher job satisfaction
“The broad consensus among occupational psychologists in developed
country contexts is that pay on its own does not increase motivation.
However, pecuniary motives are likely to be dominant among teachers in
those low-income developing countries (LIDCs) where pay and other
material benefits are too low for individual and household survival needs
to be met. Only when these basic needs have been met is it possible for
‘higher-order’ needs, which are the basis of true job satisfaction, to be
realized” Bennell and Akyeampong (2007)

5. The psychology underlying teacher motivation:
Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Autonomous Controlled
Intrinsic
motivation
External
regulation
Integration Identification Introjection

6. • Provide opportunities for promotion within the classroom
• Incentivize continuous improvement
The challenge: organizing teacher careers so that they…
• Encourage, not undermine intrinsic motivation
• Allow for advancement, recognition, and growth (or
mastery, relatedness and autonomy)

7. Merit pay or career ladders?
“There are two ways to go about building stronger links between pay and
performance: one is through merit pay schemes, the other is by introducing a
rigorous professional certification system. Each is based on quite different
assumptions about how incentives work and how they link to improved student
achievement” Ingvarson (2012) - Australia

8. Several countries are taking or planning to take the
career-ladder approach already

11. Only three career ladder programmes have
examined the impact on student outcomes
• Arizona: standards-based, criterion-referenced, and had multiple, external
evaluators involved in promotion decisions. Reduced the drop-out rate,
improved the graduation rate, and improved student scores, compared to
districts that did not take part.
• Missouri: standards-based, but didn’t apply different standards at different
levels. Teachers were assessed only by administrators in their own school.
Slight improvement in maths results, none in reading. Evaluators put this
down to a lack of rigour in the application of the evaluation procedure.
• Portugal: nation-wide career structure in which teachers had to pass an
evaluation to move from lower to higher pay scale. This evaluation was
points-based, and norm-referenced, putting the teachers in competition
with one another. Student scores actually decreased after the introduction
of the programme.

12. Design and implementation emerging lessons so far:
• Appraisal should use multiple sources of objective, valid, and reliable evidence of
performance, and be carried out by more than one (trained) evaluator.
• There should be clarity around what teachers need to do or show to earn a
promotion. Using standards rather than ‘points’ focuses attention on
improving teaching.
• Extra responsibilities should be present, but not too demanding
• Career ladders should be structured so that they are ‘criterion referenced’
and don’t put teachers in competition with peers in the same school.
• Restructuring pay, rather than adding new roles in addition to the single
salary structure, is more financially sustainable (if agreed with unions)
• Teacher buy-in is essential, and unions should be consulted in the design phase