The Motivation Of Primary School Teachers Regarding Non-Formal Activities

Abstract

Non-formal education represents the set of actions organized intentionally, systematically, carried out in an institutionalized framework, but outside the education system, in institutions that do not have an explicit educational destination. These activities are designed by teachers, based on formative and informative knowledge, characterized by flexibility, having the quality of optional activities. Non-formal activities have multiple benefits for both students and teachers, namely: facilitating communication processes, stimulating self-confidence and self-esteem, developing critical thinking, increasing tolerance to stressors, developing managerial skills, the ability to the average contrary opinions, etc. The present paper aimed to identify the level of motivation of primary school teachers regarding the proposal, initiation, organization and development of non-formal activities. The main tool was the questionnaire. For an ample and eloquent result, the school documents regarding the centralization of the non-formal activities carried out in the previous school year, were also analyzed. The research results highlight different degrees of motivation of primary school teachers regarding the organization of non-formal activities, but also an upward decline in them, observable annually from documents and records provided by schools. In conclusion, we can see a significant decrease in the motivation of teachers regarding the organization of non-formal activities.

Keywords: Motivationnon-formal activitiesprimary school teachers

Introduction

Student education is a topic of interest, approached in different academic contexts. When we talk about the forms of education, undertaken in the three hypostases, formal education, non-formal education and informal education, it is important to emphasize that they have different features of action, they intertwine, and result in streamlining the educational act.

Non-formal education represents the set of actions organized intentionally, systematically, carried out in an institutionalized framework, but outside the education system, in institutions that do not have an explicit educational destination (Bocoș & Jucan, 2008). The non-formal activities are designed by the teachers, based on educational purposes, on formative and informative knowledge, characterized by flexibility, having the quality of optional or optional activities.

The participation of students in structured non-formal education activities, organized in educational units is an important element because it contributes to the development of their personality, helps students to form positive learning skills, to acquire skills, problem-solving strategies. The school atmosphere appears to be the most decisive condition for achieving all of the above: it includes effective communication and the development of an interpersonal relationship between teacher and student.

Careful selection of teachers regarding the activities of non-formal time carried out can influence the positive self-identity of students, thus contributing to the development of students' sense of social competence. Adequate scheduling of non-formal activities, in terms of physical, emotional and educational development of students, gives them adequate time to practice planning and decision-making skills for how to use their free time.

Drummond and Stoddard (1991) divided the concept of job satisfaction into two categories: general satisfaction and specific satisfaction. Overall satisfaction refers to the personal feeling that a person has about his service. Specific satisfaction is assessed in terms of various aspects of the service, such as: working conditions, salary, relations between employees and superiors, organizational policies.

Teacher satisfaction with the planning and organization of non-formal educational activities is essential, as this can be a barrier to non-formal education.

Problem Statement

Non-formal education provides students with the opportunity to develop values, skills and competencies that are different from those developed within the structure of formal education. The defining feature of non-formal education is that it is a complement, an alternative and/ or a complement to formal education in the lifelong learning process of individuals, and can guarantee the right of access to education for all. Depending on the national context, non-formal education may cover programs that contribute to the literacy of adults and young people, as well as programs on life skills, work, and social or cultural development.

Numerous studies and articles have highlighted the role and importance and benefit of non-formal activities on the development of students' personality through their educational training. However, there is a lack of studies that will satisfy teachers' satisfaction in terms of facilitating these non-formal activities, designed for students, as beneficiaries.

The relationship between job satisfaction and motivation is bi-univocal, both appearing as both cause and effect. There is a mutual relationship between job satisfaction and organizational involvement, without a causal relationship between them (Huang & Hsiao, 2007).

Other studies show that there is a significantly negative relationship between job satisfaction and stress levels (Tabak & Orit, 2007), as well as between job satisfaction and sources of stress (Tang & Yeung, 1999). Among the sources of stress listed by Tang and Yeung, students, principals and inspectors have a significantly greater negative impact on job satisfaction than other sources of stress.

The question therefore arises whether the organization of non-formal activities is a source of satisfaction in their work. Examining teachers' satisfaction with the planning and organization of non-formal activities contributes to a better integration of non-formal education in the context of formal education.

Research Questions

Teachers' satisfaction with non-formal activities is influenced by many factors. In this study we evaluate the satisfaction of primary school teachers in relation to the organization of these non-formal activities.

Therefore, some research questions were asked:

What is the perception of primary school teachers in relation to initiating, planning and organizing non-formal activities?

What is the motivation of primary school teachers in relation to the organization of non-formal activities?

Purpose of the Study

Job satisfaction is a topic that has been researched by many researchers and practitioners. In the literature, job satisfaction refers to the emotional-affective response to work or to various aspects of work (Judge et al., 1976). However, the formulation of a unanimously accepted definition for job satisfaction could not be achieved, nor could it be defined what is meant by teacher job satisfaction. In the last two decades many studies have tried to identify factors of job satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the teacher.

Job satisfaction was defined by Spector (1985) as an emotional response to a job or a specific aspect of the job.

Scientific studies over the last decade on job satisfaction have identified factors that influence teachers' job satisfaction. The study led by Zembylas and Papanastasiou (2006) identified the following factors: relationships with students, contribution to society, collaboration with colleagues, increased personal professional development.

Although, as noted above, numerous studies have been conducted over the decades to measure teacher job satisfaction, we consider it important to have a study to identify teacher satisfaction in organizing non-formal activities.

The main purpose of this study is to assess the satisfaction of primary school teachers in initiating, planning and organizing non-formal educational activities.

Research Methods

Participants

The study involved 86 teachers from pre-university education. The targeted respondents come from 4 educational institutions in Arad, being persons between the ages of 23 and 58, respectively. Regarding the seniority in education of the subjects, we found that 4.7% are 2-5 years old, 35.3% are 5-10 years old, 38.4% are 11-20 years old, and 21, 6 of the respondents have been working in pre-university education for over 20 years. Of the total number of subjects, in the last 10 years of teaching activity, only 21.2% participated in training courses offered by competent institutions regarding the management of non-formal activities.

Research Items

The 86 subjects deliberately completed the questionnaire.

The tool used to measure job satisfaction is The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), developed by Spector (1985). JSS is composed of 36 items that are grouped into nine scales of four items each. The answers to the items are obtained on a 6-step Likert scale, where the value 1 denotes the strong disagreement answer, and the 6th degree designates the strong agreement answer.

We also studied the school documents that provided us with information about the educational projects and partnerships of the school, their number, implementation and development of the activities mentioned in these projects, as well as primary school teachers involved.

Findings

From the statistical analysis of the data on this sample, it emerged that between the demographic variables (age, teaching experience, training) and the attitude towards the level of motivation to organize non-formal activities, there are no significant relationships.

Figure 1: Teachers' motivation in organizing non-formal activities
Teachers' motivation in organizing non-formal activities
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Regarding the motivation of teachers to organize non-formal educational activities, we found that 17% of them would be more motivated if the salary was higher, 14% think they would

be more motivated to facilitate such non-formal activities if they could get other benefits, 15% consider that they would be more motivated if, after organizing the multiple non-formal activities, they were promoted, 14% consider that they would increase their motivation regarding the organization of non-formal activities if they would benefit from different rewards (awards, recognitions), 11 % state that facilitating communication relations would increase the degree of motivation, 11% of respondents say they are motivated by the work itself of organizing non-formal educational activities, and 8% say they would be more motivated to initiate non-formal activities if there was a basis procedural in this regard.

Between the 2 variables, the salary satisfaction of teachers who undertake non-formal education activities, according to the scatterplot diagram, is in a positive linear association with the work itself. That is, as the salary satisfaction of teachers increases, so does their interest and inclination to facilitate non-formal activities.

Figure 2: The linear relationship between the payment satisfaction of teachers and the work itself regarding non-formal activities
The linear relationship between the payment satisfaction of teachers and the work itself
      regarding non-formal activities
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To analyze whether the correlation between the work itself in terms of teacher motivation in terms of facilitating non-formal educational activities and rewards we used the Pearson correlation, all specific assumptions being met. The result showed that there is a significant relationship between the work itself and the rewards of teachers, in terms of facilitating non-formal educational activities: r = 0.44, p <.001. Moreover, the tested relationship shows a significant positive relationship between the 2 variables, as the work itself increases, so do the rewards. There is an overlap of 23% between the 2 variables.

The conclusion is that there is a significant motivation between work itself in terms of initiating, designing and conducting non-formal educational activities and payment of teachers: r = 0.28, p = .007. Moreover, the tested relationship shows a significant positive relationship between the 2 variables, as the salary motivation increases, so does the inclination to facilitate work in terms of non-formal activities 7.84%.

Table 1 -
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To correlate the data obtained from the questionnaire between work itself in initiating, designing and organizing non-formal educational activities and performing this work through operating procedures we used the Spearman correlation, because not all specific assumptions were met to test the Pearson correlation.

The result showed that There is a significant relationship between work itself in initiating, designing and organizing non-formal educational activities and carrying out this work through operating procedures: ρ = -11, p = .32.

To identify whether there is a significant relationship between work motivation in facilitating non-formal educational activities and motivation to collaborate with co-workers we used the Spearman correlation because not all specific assumptions were met for testing the Pearson correlation.

The result showed that there is a significant relationship between work motivation in facilitating non-formal educational activities and motivation to collaborate with co-workers ρ = 0.29, p = .005. Moreover, the tested relationship shows a significant positive relationship between the 2 variables, as the motivation of teachers to facilitate non-formal educational activities increases, so does the motivation to collaborate with other co-workers.

Regression analysis are the following (table 2 ):

Table 2 -
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The correlation between the level of satisfaction regarding work with colleagues and the work itself, related to the facilitation of non-formal educational activities is ρ= .29, and the level of significance is reported as p= 0.005. Thus, we can see that there is a significant positive relationship between work in order to facilitate the informal activities of students, and colleagues, teammates in their training.

There is a significantly positive correlation between the work done in the preparation of non-formal education activities and communication between teachers. Thus, teachers who are motivated to organize non-formal educational activities, are also motivated by the collegial benefit, adequate communication with teachers during non-formal activities.

Analyzing the existence of a statistically significant threshold between the teacher's gender and the motivational criteria of the JSS test, related to the teacher's motivation regarding payment, benefit and rewards, in initiating, designing and organizing non-formal activities, we find that there is a statistically significant threshold.

Thus, at payment we obtained a threshold of p = 0.77 t = 0.28, at rewards the significance threshold p = 0.36, t = 0.91 and at benefit p = 0.17, t = 1.36

From the analysis of school documents that were used as quantitative indicators regarding the centralization of non-formal activities carried out by teachers in recent school years (2016-2017, 2017-2019), we found a downward change in them. Thus, in the 2017-2018 school year, 12.8% fewer non-formal activities were carried out by primary school teachers.

Conclusion

The teacher who facilitates non-formal activities must have more flexibility, adaptability and speed, but also a resounding enthusiasm. Their motivation to undertake as many informal activities as possible is influenced by the remuneration. The higher the salary level, the more they are inclined to work extra in the preparation, design and organization of non-formal activities for the benefit of students.

Teachers are motivated to initiate, plan and organize non-formal educational activities if, as a result, they obtain a salary benefit, or rewards, instead their motivation to initiate, plan and organize non-formal educational activities decreases in situations where they have to comply with procedures. which limits their motivation to initiate, plan and organize non-formal educational activities.

Teachers' motivation to carry out non-formal educational activities is also determined by their collegial relations. The more they feel that the people they have to work with are competent, that the interaction with other colleagues does not force them to perform an additional workload and that there are no behind-the-scenes fights between colleagues, the more motivated they are to facilitate non-formal educational activities.

References

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Publication Date

31 March 2021

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978-1-80296-103-4

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European Publisher

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104

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Education, teacher, digital education, teacher education, childhood education, COVID-19, pandemic

Cite this article as:

Coșarbă, E. M., & Roman, A. F. (2021). The Motivation Of Primary School Teachers Regarding Non-Formal Activities. In I. Albulescu, & N. Stan (Eds.), Education, Reflection, Development – ERD 2020, vol 104. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 194-201). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.03.02.21