Date of Award

Fall 2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

School

Education

Committee Chair

Kyna Shelley

Committee Chair School

Education

Committee Member 2

Thomas Lipscomb

Committee Member 2 School

Education

Committee Member 3

Thomas O'Brien

Committee Member 3 School

Education

Committee Member 4

Richard Mohn

Committee Member 4 School

Education

Abstract

To address the increasing focus on teacher proficiency, professional development opportunities for teachers are routinely provided in Thailand. The focus of this work is on professional development at the individual level and addresses teachers’ motivation for self-improvement and their own worth. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to first validate the relative importance of teachers’ motivation for participating in voluntary professional development and contingencies of self-worth. Secondly, the study sought to determine the relationship of the indicators that contribute to teacher participation with contingencies of self-worth. Lastly, this study examined in what way professional life phase may be related to the indicators of importance for participating in voluntary professional development and contingencies of self-worth.

A total of 623 participants were teachers in public schools in Thailand who participated in a professional development program. Data were collected using the Thai version of the Contingencies of Self-Worth scale and Reason for Professional Development Participation scale. To answer the research questions, structural equation modeling was conducted. The analyses resulted in a significant model that explained the indicators of motivation for participating in voluntary professional development and contingencies of self-worth and was reasonably robust. The relationship of contingencies of self-worth and motivation for participating in voluntary professional development was statistically significant, demonstrating a moderate correlation coefficient between the two variables. Also, the structural equation model invariance result revealed that the effect of contingencies of self-worth on the motivation for participating in voluntary professional development was not statistically significant across three groups of professional life phases. The effect size of the prediction indicated that effect size in the early career group was stronger than in mid-career group and late career group, and the effect size in late career group was stronger than mid-career group.

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