Role perceptions and motivational orientation of computer science teachers

Teachers play an important role for the outcomes of lessons. Their

perception of the subject and their perception of themselves and

their abilities will affect the learning of students and in turn shape

their perception of computer science (CS) as a subject. What separates

computer science from more established subjects is that there

will typically be various ways for teachers to pick up the new subject

- certificate programs, traditional teacher training, lateral entry

from industry, and more. To find out more about the motivation for

teaching computer science and their role perceptions, we conducted

an exploratory, qualitative study with computer science teachers.

We collected data in form of semi-structured interviews (N = 23)

and analyzed the results in light of existing theories on teacher roles

and motivation. Our results identify typical roles from literature

but also a CS specific emphasis of certain roles. Also, we identified

two motivational orientations: One group is intrinsically motivated

both for teaching in general and for teaching CS in particular. The

other group is intrinsically motivated for teaching in general, but

appears to be mostly extrinsically motivated for teaching computer

science. Also, there appears to be a relation between perceived roles,

motivation towards computer science and the career path of the

teachers.