Motivated and unmotivated teacher educators
Wendy Mitchell is a teacher educator. She ran a workshop attended by some teacher
trainers who were asked to fill a questionnaire related to attitudes, motivation and
beliefs. We summarised some of those teacher trainers’ questionnaire answers in the
following paragraphs.
1. Read the paragraphs
2. Write in the table -below the paragraphs- those teacher educators’ positive and
negative answers related to attitudes, motivation and beliefs.
Stephen. I enjoy meeting, interacting with and being able to give something to people. It
helps greatly going to conferences and exchanging with colleagues and also gaining
peer support or approval. Institutional recognition is also very important.
Maria. I always enjoyed working in a group, helping others, interacting. However I feel
disappointed with all the administrative work I must carry out. I hate filling papers
that, in my opinion, lead to nowhere and furthermore they do not help to improve
the quality of the teacher training courses.
Beate. What I really don’t like at all in my institution is the administrative work. In
addition there is a full lack of collaboration among teacher educators and I miss it a
lot.
Aine. I love working together with my students and colleagues; the interaction that the
teacher profession involves, especially when I take part in national or international
research projects.
Samuel. It’s difficult to find a balance between professional and personal life. Being a
teacher educator is very demanding.
Gordiana. What I enjoy most in my profession is to observe how my students develop
new professional and educational skills.
Petr. In my opinion some of the administrative work I have to do may help to run my
courses better and that may also benefit the smooth running of the institution, which
has a good national and international reputation.
Nicholas. I actually like my profession, although I feel stressed at the end of the
academic year due to the time pressure.
Rosa. I find teacher education very fulfilling and motivating. Our job has a great impact
because hundreds of children pass through the hands of teachers with whom we
have been working.
Fernando. I find dealing with students who are not open-minded and lacking in
curiosity very challenging. But above and beyond I find it extremely difficult
dealing with students who have clearly joined the teaching profession for reasons
other than vocational.
Melanie. The most valuable thing I do is opening up new horizons to students and
fuelling motivation.
Sofie. I like being able to make students think and evolve in their practice and reflection.
I also like the contact and exchange with colleagues and students.
Svetla. I hate clerical work, paper work, bureaucracy, specially the administrative part
with meetings that lead nowhere
Nara. Excluding the fact of having to work within a very strict university framework of
credits, exams, etc., I perceive my profession as an occasion to instill in others the
need to reflect on their actions as facilitators.
Hans. What I find most challenging and difficult is convincing teachers about the need
to research and reflect on their work. On the other hand what I enjoy about my job is
the possibility to move certain things, to be involved in a process of professional and
personal development of myself and others, to establish and maintain contacts with
partners I would otherwise not get in touch with.
Michel. What I don’t like about my job is being expected to do things the relevance of
which is not clear to me and particularly the interference of authorities. In addition I
find it very challenging to look for the best ways to motivate pre-service and inservice language teachers.
Teacher educators’ attitudes, motivation and beliefs
Positive answers
Negative answers
3. Give some advice to those teacher educators whose answers to
Wendy’s questionnaire showed negative attitudes or felt
unmotivated for different reasons.
If I were you, I would …………………………………………………………………
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4. Say if you would give the same advice to a teacher and to a teacher
educator. Give the reasons why.
I WOULD/I WOULD NOT give the same advice to a teacher and to a teacher educator
BECAUSE
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