Opinions of administrators and teachers on the motivation of teachers by official and other types of awards

The purpose of this research is to determine the level of teacher motivationcaused both by the official awards currently given within the National EducationOrganization and by other forms of award which could be used, and thereby make acontribution to the search for innovations that could be made in the system.The study is descriptive and takes as a universe all the administrators andteachers who work for state institutions of secondary education in the centralborough of the province of Bolu. It was possible to reach 49 out of 56 schooladministrators, and 321 out of 464 teachers working in 14 such institutions. Aquestionnaire developed by the researchers was used to gather data.The findings can be summarized as follows:1. Of the current official awards, those with non-materialisticdimensions, such as certificates of merit, distinction or honorable service, are foundto be averagely motivating by teachers; while those with materialistic dimensions,such as promotion, salary awards and promotion after six years with a positiveemployment file, are found by teachers to be extremely motivating.2. Teachers find the other incentive types more motivating than theofficial awards given within the regulations.3. Female teachers find all types of official award more motivating thando male teachers. They also find the official non-materialistic awards moremotivating.4. Teachers receiving official and other awards find these awards moremotivating than do those teachers who do not receive them.5. The opinions of the administrators do not show any differencesbetween the variables of gender, length of service, branch or receiving/not receivingan award. No significant difference was found between the opinions ofadministrators and teachers on the level of motivation caused by official awards.However, administrators believe that other types of awards could be more motivatingfor teachers.In conclusion, the official awards given within the framework of theregulations are not sufficiently effective in meeting teachers? expectations as a resultof effort and performance. Teachers are happy in environments in which their effortsand performance are rewarded. For this reason, they feel the need for other forms ofmotivation other than the existing awards to meet their expectations. The fact thatadministrators and teachers find the unofficial types of awards more motivating thanthe official ones suggests that the effectiveness of the award system needs to bereviewed. For this reason, it would be appropriate to conduct research onconstructive changes to the existing award system, quantitatively and qualitatively.Keywords: Adminstrator, Teacher, Award