Abstract
Universities face challenges on a number of levels. In this scenario, university professors play an important role as facilitators of knowledge. The main objective of this study was to analyse the motivations that influence the professional performance in a sample of 102 university professors from nine Spanish public universities (Male: 54 (52.9%); Female: 48 (47.1%)). For this purpose, a questionnaire of 22 closed-ended Likert-type questions was designed, in which scores ranged from 0 to 10 (do not agree at all, strongly agree). Following analysis, the final questionnaire was composed of 17 items, and showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.858). The validity analysis showed a value of 0.822 (>0.5) in the sample adequacy measure of Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin and Bartlett’s sphericity test (p < 0.0001). The exploratory factor analysis showed a clustering in four factors (two for intrinsic motivations and two for extrinsic motivations), explaining 64.33% of the total variance. Comparisons between each factor score by gender (male and female) showed statistically significant differences for factor F1 (higher for females) and F2 (higher for males). Finally, Q1 and Q13 showed a statistically significant correlation (p ≤ 0.05) with years of teaching experience. The motivations of Spanish university professors appear to be associated with the age and gender of the teacher.
Highlights
IntroductionUniversity teaching should be student-centred, university professors play a crucial role in the teaching–learning process [1,2]
The results showed that the aspects grouped in factors 1 and 4, related to the intrinsic motivations of the teacher, scored higher (42.408%)
The questions were grouped into four factors
Summary
University teaching should be student-centred, university professors play a crucial role in the teaching–learning process [1,2] In their teaching activity, teachers contribute to the transmission of the specific competences of their disciplines, in addition to a series of transversal competences directly related to the exercise of critical and committed citizenship [1,3,4,5]. Teachers contribute to the transmission of the specific competences of their disciplines, in addition to a series of transversal competences directly related to the exercise of critical and committed citizenship [1,3,4,5] In this context, it is necessary to study the attitudes and training required of the teacher for academic performance [6]. Motivation is an essential component in an individual’s formative and professional stages, and determines the effectiveness of the teaching development of university professors [10]
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