"מטרות הישג של מורים...... "

1. "מטרות הישג של מורים...... " הערות אחדות על מחקרן של דר' ליאת לבונטין ופרופ' רות בטלר פרופ' משה זיידנר אוניברסיטת חיפה

2. Overview • Criteria proposed by Edmund Tulving • Did I learn anything from this paper? • Was it worth learning in the first place? • Answer to both questions is categorically ‘Yes’! • What I would like to do in my Discussion is: • Some essential working assumption of cognitive-social motivational research • Point out what I learned • Identify some of the strength and weaknesses of this paper

3. Underlying Assumptions • People have thoughts about what they want to achieve in the future – goals • Goal=Mental representation of the aim of an action or course of actions • People’s ability to envision the future enables them to set specific goals for action and thus, to motivate and direct their own behavior • Importance of Goals: • Contribute to the human capacity for self-control • Guide us in establishing priorities and in selecting among situations • Enable us to go beyond momentary influences and to organize our behavior over extended periods of time • May differ in their subjective meaning (e.g., “Learning” vs.“Performance” goals)

4. What Have I Learned? I did not realize before reading the introduction that very little theory-driven research on teacher’s motivation has been conducted to date Whereas a wealth of research on teacher satisfaction, burnout, competencies, etc. has been spawned over the years, only a spate of research on teacher motivation has been conducted Most of the research focuses on teacher’s in training in teacher’s college Little is known about the goal orientation of seasoned teachers in the field

5. What Have I Learned? (continued) Teacher motivation, and particularly goal-oriented thinking, may be instrumental in their daily work and particularly in shaping their organizational affective commitment Thus, future models of teaching effectiveness need to consider goal orientations, along with other factors such as: Teaching skills Role-related behaviors Cognitive abilities Social and emotional competencies Coping with stressful encounters in the classroom

6. What Have I Learned? (continued) The sample space of teacher’s goal orientation structure may include not only mastery and ability type goals but also Relational Goals (with students) Amity Goals (with peers) Amity and relational goals are part and parcel of teacher’s goal-orientation structure Amity goals were observed to be strongly related to: Teacher’s affective commitment Teaching practices-- above and beyond learning goals Amity goals are more similar among students and teachers

7. Strengths of Study • Theoretically solid framework (goal orientation) undegirding this study • Sizable sample of both teachers (n = 483) and students (n = 1013) • Solid psychometric procedures for validating the teacher goal orientation measure • Use of both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures • Presenting internal consistency of subscales • Implications for practice • Developing teacher’s capabilities and promoting school support for teacher learning • Supporting cooperation between teachers in the school to advance affective commitment to the school

8. Conceptual Issues • Theory • Recent research by Elliot has cross-partitioned the two dimensions of goals and orientation to result in a four-cell model

9. Conceptual Pitfalls and Fissures • Unclear why only ability was divided into approach and avoidance---but not mastery • The nomenclature in the field is very inconsistent and needs to be canonized • e.g., learning, mastery, internal etc. used interchangeably • e.g., ability, performance, external used interchangeably • Of course, this is not endemic to this study but to the field in general

10. Conceptual Pitfall and Fissures • The achievement goal space may not have exhausted the universe of possible goal orientations • Goals outside the Ames/Dweck/Elliot framework might be just as important for understanding teacher attributes and behaviors • Controlling others • Power • Socialization of younger generation • A good number of goal orientations may be subconscious and not easily tapped by self-report reflective measures

11. “Accomplishment is socially judged by ill defined criteria so that one has to rely on others to find out how one is doing.”Albert Bandura

12. Methodogical Pitfalls and Fissures • Methodology • Sample • Unclear on what basis students and teachers were sampled • Need to provide more information on sampling frame and procedure employed • Measures • Only factorial validity information was provided for the achievement goal orientation measure • Evidence for convergent and divergent validity (e.g., against self-efficacy, self-concept, belief systems, etc.) would have been useful • Unclear if measure of teacher’s affective commitment was previously validated in any way for use in the Israeli school system

13. Some Pitfalls and Fissures • Analyses • The regression analyses presented need to be presented in greater detail and preferably in a table including SE and fit indices • The responses of students within each of the classroom would be expected to be nonindependent • Thus, some form of mid-level regression modeling would be called for in analyzing the data • The same may hold if teachers were sampled within from the same classes.

14. Some Pitfalls and Fissures • General Comments • All measures were self-report • Relationships, in part, may be due to a variety of response set factors (e.g., social desirability) • There would appear to be considerable common method variance at play here • Including an observational measure on a subsample or using some form of systematic behavioral sampling technique would have been useful • Given that this is not an experimental study, where causal statements might be warranted, the authors cast their hypotheses in terms of ‘influence’ and this might not be entirely ‘Kosher’

15. In Conclusion • I enjoyed reading this intriguing paper and the research findings, and learned a few important things along the way • I wish the authors best of luck in pursuing their important research agenda • In the spirit of Positive Motivational Psychology: “Contemporary researchers emphasize that it is the process of striving after goals—rather than goal attainment per se—that is crucial for happiness and positive affectivity.” David Watson