In this research, teachers' motivation for professionalization activities about learning delays and giftedness was explored by interviewing twenty-eight primary school teachers in the Netherlands....Show moreIn this research, teachers' motivation for professionalization activities about learning delays and giftedness was explored by interviewing twenty-eight primary school teachers in the Netherlands. With this information an attempt was made to answer the following question: To which extent do differences exist in the affective valences, cognitive valences and sense of competence among teachers with regard to professionalization activities about learning delays and giftedness and how can differences be explained? Results show that teachers feel that pupils with learning delays need emotional as well as cognitive help. However, there's a limit to what these pupils can achieve cognitively, so teachers aim for their emotional well being. Teachers do not mention a cognitive limit for the gifted pupils, but do mention the emotional well being of these pupils as one of the conditions that needs to be met to help them excel, alongside testing the giftedness of the pupil and knowing how to help these pupils. Furthermore, teachers with a preference for professionalization activities about learning delays mainly build upon non-personal cognitive valences, like wanting to renew their knowledge to connect to the needs of these students and wanting to help the large number of pupils with learning delays, for their motivation. In contrast, teachers with a preference for professionalization activities about giftedness mainly build upon positive personal cognitive valences, like feeling the need to gain new knowledge to develop themselves, for their motivation. The number of years a teachers has been working in education explained most of the differences in their motivation, like the decreasing will to gain new knowledge and to renew old knowledge. The outcomes of this research should be explored further, but can already be to used to improve professionalization activities by building upon the motivational aspects that play a role in teachers' motivation for these activities.Show less
