Applying the Achievement Orientation Model to the Job Satisfaction of Teachers of the Gifted

Abstract

Factors associated with motivation and satisfaction aid in understanding the processes that enhance achievement and productivity. Siegle and McCoach (2005) proposed a motivational model for understanding student achievement and underachievement that included self-perceptions in three areas (meaningfulness [goal valuation], self-efficacy, and environmental perception). This study investigated whether the model would predict job satisfaction for educators of the gifted and talented. Regression analysis of these factors provided limited support that the model can be used to explain gifted educators’ satisfaction with their teaching position. More important, teachers’ perceptions of the support in their environment was the single best predictor of job satisfaction.

Keywords:

• achievement orientation model
• environmental perceptions
• gifted and talented
• job satisfaction
• meaningfulness
• motivation
• school environment
• self-efficacy
• teacher satisfaction
• teachers of the gifted

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Del Siegle

Dr. Del Siegle is a professor in gifted and talented education and Head of the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut. He is a past president of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and chair of the Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He currently is coeditor of Gifted Child Quarterly and authors a technology column for Gifted Child Today. He joined Dr. Gary Davis and Dr. Sylvia Rimm as a coauthor of the sixth edition of the popular textbook, Education of the Gifted and Talented. E-mail: [email protected]

D. Betsy McCoach

Dr. D. Betsy McCoach is an associate professor in the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Connecticut. Betsy has published over 75 journal articles, book chapters, and books, including Instrument Development in the Affective Domain (3rd edition). Betsy served as the founding coeditor for the Journal of Advanced Academics, and she is the current coeditor of Gifted Child Quarterly. Betsy serves as a co-principal investigator and research methodologist on several federally funded research grants, and she has served as the Research Methodologist for the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented for the last 7 years. E-mail: [email protected]

Kelly Shea

Kelly Shea has been an educator since 2012. She holds a bachelor of science degree in English education and a master of arts in curriculum and instruction from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut, as well as a bachelor of arts in English, also from UConn. She was a presenter at the 2011 New England Conference on Gifted and Talented Education. Her personal interests include the performing arts. She is currently a high school English teacher in Manchester, Connecticut, where she also volunteers to work with students in the drama club. E-mail: [email protected]