Abstract:

This paper explores the motivation levels of Technical Culture teachers and Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) teachers before and during the coronavirus pandemic in Croatia. Motivation is an important prerequisite for a positive and stimulating atmosphere in the classroom, not only on the part of students but teachers as well. This is especially applicable to Technical Culture and LSP subjects because they both require a certain level of creativity of the respective teachers to engage the students to actively participate in the teaching/learning process. The coronavirus pandemic posed great challenges for students and teachers worldwide as they had to switch from conventional learning settings in the classroom to online environments using various types of communication software. This research aimed to examine how the above-mentioned teachers cope with teaching and what would additionally motivate them in the circumstances before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the pandemic, as well as remote teaching. The authors implemented the mixed method approach whereby the teachers were presented with an anonymous online survey combining quantitative measures (Likert-type questions regarding, inter alia, the motivation level, workload, frequency of classes, their own competencies for this novel model of teaching and implemented types of remote teaching) with qualitative insights in the form of open-ended questions where the respondents provided their own answers on what would additionally motivate them in the teaching process. The information collected by the survey was analysed by the statistics software IBM SPSS Statistics 28.0.0.0. This study could provide valuable insight into common patterns of teachers` motivation and potential incentives that could improve their efficiency and personal engagement, especially for their respective institutions that could implement these and similar findings to better prepare and possibly train teachers for similar situations in the future.

Keywords:

Motivation, coronavirus pandemic, teaching modes, remote teaching.