Goal Setting As a Motivation to Teachers: A Study of Teachers of Second Cycle Schools in the New-Juaben and Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region

Abstract

Goal setting play an important role in motivation. It has the ability to direct attention and ensures persistence of an individual. In this study, the researcher was interested in how goal setting serve as a motivation to teachers in Senior High Schools in Eastern Region of Ghana. The objectives of the study were to find the factors that influence teachers to set personal goals, to examine how these set goals direct attention and regulates their efforts, to explore the range of strategies and action plans utilized by teachers to accomplish the set goals, to examine the challenges teachers face in accomplishing their personal goals and how they overcome them and lastly to examine the behavior of teachers when their goals are unmet. The study used a quantitative research design and the survey method was used. The target population was teachers in Second Cycle Schools in the Eastern Region and the study population was teachers in Second Cycle Schools in Yilo Krobo and New- Juaben Municipality. The researcher sampled 102 respondents from four secondary schools in the region. The data was analyzed with the spss and frequencies were used to represent the data. The chi-square test was used to test the relationship between Age and Goal setting, Geographical location and goal setting and sex and goal setting. The study reveals that, goal setting can be influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. The study again revealed that, goal setting as a motivational tool has the capacity to direct the life and the attention of the person it is motivating. Again goal setting has the capacity to ensure persistence and it makes an individual develop measures to overcome any pending challenges. The study again revealed that, unmet goals do influence people to set new goals and also work seriously to attain them.