TEACHERS’ BACKGROUND FACTORS AND ITS RELATION TO MOTIVATION

In this survey research, we profile the background characteristics of pre-service and in-service teachers and its relation with motivation towards teaching, their beliefs about teaching and their decisions to be a teacher. Specifically, this present study attempted to determine the overall motivation profiles among teachers and the relationship of teachers’ gender, age, type of institution, level of study, qualifications of father and mother, and the type of their service with their levels of motivation. A total of 200 Malaysian pre-service and in-service teachers participated in this study. The FIT- Choice scale (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) adapted from Watt and Richardson (2006) was employed as the instrument of this quantitative study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics collected were analyzed by SPSS version 22.0. Results revealed that: (1) participants held high levels of motivation in teaching, (2) males, in-service teachers and teachers in the public sector scored significantly higher in their motivation levels than their counterparts, (3) no significant difference was discerned between participants’ level of study, father’s and mother’s qualification and the total motivation level, (4) teacher’s motivation is significantly related to age. The results will have practical implications to the Malaysian government which aims to raise the standard of both pre- and in-service teachers.