The locus of control and motivation perceptions of teachers of primary and secondary schools (The case of Kırşehir province)

In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between the locus of control and motivation perceptions of teachers working in public and private schools. The population of the research consists of a total of 2055 teachers working in public and private primary, secondary and high schools in Kırşehir city center in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample of the study consists of 606 teachers, 246 of whom work 92 in preschool, 560 in primary schools, 739 in secondary schools and 664 in high schools, determined by cluster sampling method over this universe. The research was designed in the correlational survey model, one of the quantitative research methods. In this context, the research sought answers to the questions of what level of teachers' locus of control and motivation perceptions and whether their motivation perceptions can be statistically predicted from their locus of control perceptions. Personal Information Form, Multidimensional Locus of Control Scale (Kıral, 2012) and Teacher Motivation Scale (Uçar, 2015) were used to collect research data. The construct validity of the measurement tools was tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In the data analysis process; arithmetic mean and standard deviation values were taken as basis in describing teachers' locus of control and motivation perceptions, and whether teachers' motivation perceptions could be predicted statistically from locus of control was tested by regression analysis. As a result of the research, it was determined that the teachers' locus of control perceptions were at a moderate level and their motivation perceptions were at a high level, and that their motivation perceptions could be statistically predicted from their locus of control perceptions in the internal and external motivation sub-dimensions. In addition, the findings obtained in the research were interpreted by comparing with the results of the research conducted in this context in the relevant literature, and some suggestions were presented depending on the results obtained in the research.