Teacher professional development programs are attributed to play an important role for improving teaching quality. The effectiveness of such programs can not only be affected by the conception and the quality of the programs, but also by the motivation of teachers to attend these programs. However, there is only a sparse body of empirical research that analyzes teachers’ motivation for professional development and examines it for separable qualitative facets. In the present study we developed and factor analyzed an instrument on teachers’ motivation to attend professional development programs based on self determination theory. Participants were N = 102 secondary school teachers. Using exploratory factor analysis, we received four separable and interpretable factors: “Social Interaction”, “Adaption to External Expectation”, “Career Orientation”, and “Developmental Orientation”. The resulting scales showed a satisfactory reliability. Additionally, we found first evidence of construct validity.

Keywords
Motivation; Teacher motivation for professional development; Self determination theory