ERIC Number: ED268660
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1986-Feb-24
Pages: 17
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Career Ladders and the Professionalization of Teaching: Down the Up Staircase.
Dunwell, Robert R.
School systems interested in improving teacher performance, effectiveness, and job satisfaction while reducing turnover rates might do better to seek ways to enhance the intrinsic rewards of teaching rather than implement such extrinsic motivators as merit pay plans and career ladders. A review of the research literature brings several important considerations to light: (1) teachers tend to oppose merit pay plans, though they may accept a performance-based component among several criteria determining salary increases; (2) the success of merit pay plans in the private sector is debatable; (3) money is an uncertain motivator among teachers; (4) teachers are not all motivated by the same needs and desires; (5) conditions affecting motivation are continually changing; (6) people often enter the teaching profession to obtain intrinsic rewards related to service and self-esteem; (7) the availability of external motivation often inhibits the effects of intrinsic motivation; and (8) merit pay and career ladders tend to deprofessionalize teaching. Intrinsic motivation for teachers as professionals can be enhanced through such processes as performance appraisal interviews, appraisal and development of potential, feedback and performance coaching, career planning, training, organizational development, rewards for specific contributions, employee welfare programs, and use of human resources databanks. (PGD)
Publication Type: Information Analyses; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A