Teachers' motivation across different professional development formats: a comparative analysis using the ARCS model

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comparative study of the learning motivation of teachers working in general secondary education institutions who studied identical content in communicative synchronous, large-scale asynchronous online, and synchronous lecture-based modes. The purpose of the study was to identify differences in attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction and to determine the organizational and didactic conditions that promote learner engagement. A total of 159 participants took part in the post-course comparative study: 49 learners in the communicative synchronous course, 62 participants in the large-scale asynchronous online course, and 48 learners in the synchronous lecture-based course. Motivational indicators were assessed according to the four components of J. Keller's framework. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the Kruskal-Wallis test, pairwise Mann-Whitney U tests with Holm correction, and the effect-size measure ε². Participants in the communicative course demonstrated the highest results across all components; the large-scale asynchronous course occupied an intermediate position, while the lowest scores were recorded in the lecture-based group. Statistically significant between-group differences were found for attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction, and the overall indicator. The most pronounced differences concerned attention and were characterized by a moderate effect size; the effects for the other components were small. The communicative group outperformed the lecture-based group on all indicators, whereas the asynchronous group outperformed it in attention, satisfaction, and the overall score. Differences between the communicative and asynchronous groups were less pronounced, and their satisfaction results were similar. The findings indicate an association between course organization and learning motivation; however, because participants were not randomly assigned, they do not support unequivocal causal conclusions. In practical terms, it is advisable to combine the asynchronous study of theoretical materials with synchronous sessions involving interaction, practical tasks, the modeling of professional situations, reflection, and immediate feedback.