Özet:

This study aims to investigate what Turkish primary school teachers’ goal orientations are in the teaching environment, how these goal orientations are correlated with one another and whether teachers’ gender and teaching experiences make a significant difference. The participants consisted of 191 primary school teachers working at state schools in Nevşehir, Turkey. The “Goal Orientation Scale for Teaching” scale, developed by Butler (2007) and finalized by Butler and Shibaz (2014), was used to collect the study data. The scale is composed of 21 five-point Likert-type items and consists of five sub-dimensions. The scale reliability coefficient was calculated for each sub-dimension as follows: for “mastery” goal orientationα=.67, for “ability approach” goal orientation α=.78, for “ability avoidance” goal orientation α=.69, for “work avoidance” goal orientation α=.72, and for “relational” goal orientation α=.65. To analyze the study data, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance and simple correlation techniques were used. According to the results, while teachers highly favored the “mastery” and “relational” goal orientations, the “work avoidance” goal orientation turned out to be the one for which they had the lowest average. This situation indicates that primary school teachers would rather organize activities which help them to teach better in the teaching environment, improve their professional knowledge and skills and build close and caring relationships with their students. It seems that workload is not important for teachers when it comes to promoting their students’ efforts for learning. Also, there were significant differences between male and female teachers, as well as between newly-qualified and experienced teachers, with regard to the “ability approach” goal orientation. It appears that female and newly-qualified teachers want to be recognized and appreciated more for their teaching abilities and efforts than their colleagues.

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