The Relationship Between Motivation and Professional Learning for Teachers in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Even though, there are many studies on teacher professional learning and many studies on teacher motivation, there is a lack of research to examine the relationship between teacher professional learning and motivation. This study examined the relationship between teacher motivation and professional learning in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. This study was conducted using two instruments. The first instrument was the Education Participation Scale (EPS) originally developed by Boshier (1991). However, the researcher used the most recent version of EPS by Richter et al. (2019). The EPS determines what factors most motivate teachers to participate in professional development. These factors are personal interest, occupational promotion, external expectations, practical enhancement, social contact, and social stimulation. The second instrument was the Teachers’ Opportunity to Learn (TOTL) by Akiba (2012). The TOTL has seven factors to measure teacher professional learning. The seven factors are professional development programming, teacher collaboration, university/college courses, professional conferences, supervising, informal communication, and individual activities. After obtaining permission from the General Authority for Education in Makkah to conduct this study, an electronic survey link was distributed to all schools in Makkah. The total number of the respondents was 228. This study had three research questions. The first research question examined the relationship between teacher motivation and professional learning of teachers in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Pearson’s product moment correlation r was utilized to examine this relationship. Two of out the seven scales of the TOTL had a significant relationship with most of the EPS scales. These two scales were informal communication and individual learning activities. The second question investigated whether the demographic variables had an effect on teacher motivation. The results showed that gender and school size had an effect on most of the EPS scales. The third question also investigated whether the demographic variables had an effect on teacher professional learning. The results showed that gender and degree had an effect on only two scales of the TOTL survey, while position, work class, and schedule load had an effect on only one scale of TOTL survey