Investigation of the Work Motivation Levels of Primary School Teachers

This study was conducted to examine the work motivation levels of primary school teachers working in primary school institutions located in Istanbul province, Kucukcekmece district. The descriptive survey model was used in this study. The population of the study consists of primary school teachers and primary school administrators working in state primary school institutions that are affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Kucukcekmece district. The sample of the study consisted of 343 primary school teachers and 28 primary school administrators that were selected using the disproportionate element sampling method from 14 state primary schools among the primary school institutions located in Kucukcekmece district. The “Work Motivation Scale” was used in order to collect data in the study. The Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of the work motivation scale was calculated as 0.897 in this study. SPSS 20.0 package software was used in the study. The average of the scores obtained by primary school teachers from the work motivation scale is = 41.84, and the standard deviation is 10.32. The scores that can be obtained from the scale are between 18 and 90. Accordingly, scores between 18 and 42 were interpreted as the low level of motivation, scores between 43 and 66 were interpreted as the intermediate level of motivation, and scores between 67 and 90 were interpreted as the high level of motivation. In general, it can be said that the work motivation of primary school teachers is low. The average work motivation scores do not vary by gender, age and marital status.