Sunday Onsite Presentation Session 2

Focus on Teachers

Session Chair: Hui Wang

13:10-13:35

66381 | Burning Out in the Time of COVID-19: Teacher Vulnerability and Psychological Wellbeing

Anita Padmanabhanunni, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Tyrone Pretorius, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

Nita Lawton-Misra, University of the Western Cape, South Africa

The educational landscape has undergone rapid and significant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its containment measures. Teachers at the forefront of the education system had to adapt to unprecedented shifts in their work-related roles and responsibilities including adapting to remote online learning and increased workloads, motivating their students and negotiating the personal impact of the pandemic. Few studies have investigated the mental health impact of the pandemic on teachers in developing countries in Africa. In these contexts, there is considerable inequity in access to digital technology, appropriate school infrastructure and personal protective equipment. These factors can impact on teacher’s capacity to promote to continuity of the education system. The current study investigated (i) the factors that render South African teachers more vulnerable to burnout and (ii) the psychological consequences of burnout. Participants (N=355) were school teachers who completed the Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, the Fear of COVID-19 Scale, the Role Orientation Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Centre for Epidemiological Depression Scale, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The results of multiple regression showed that fear of COVID-19, role ambiguity and role conflict were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization while perceived infectability and role ambiguity significantly predicted personal accomplishment. The dimensions of burnout were significant predictors of depression, hopelessness, anxiety and life satisfaction. The results of the study highlight the necessity of building teacher resilience through multi-level individual and institutional strategies.

13:35-14:00

69054 | The Research of Teacher Working Overtime and the Impact on Teacher Commitment

Chia-Lin Tsai, Nei-Hu Elementary School, Taiwan

The issues of teacher working overtime have been widely discussed and become a worldwide phenomenon. In Taiwan, the conditions of teacher working overtime have increasing gradually, since teachers are responsible for both teaching and administrative work simultaneously. Indeed, the problems of working overtime not only negatively influence teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction, but also ultimately deteriorate the teaching quality. This research aims to investigate the conditions of teachers working overtime and their impact on teacher commitment.

A self-developed questionnaire was adopted as the major research instrument consisting of three sections. The first section aimed to elicit participants’ demographic information. The second section was designed to analyze the number of teachers’ weekly extra working hour. The third section focused on teacher commitment by using 5-point Likert scale. Questionnaires were delivered to 60 primary school teachers, with the return rate of 96.7%. Several valuable results were revealed through this research. First, the average of primary teachers’ extra working hours is above 10 implying teachers in Taiwan have to work nearly 20% hours more than its statuary working time. Especially, teachers spend the most extra time on preparing lessons and dealing with administrative work respectively, both accounted for more than 2.5 hours weekly. Second, the average scores of organizational and professional commitment ranged from 3.5 to 4.5 out of 5, closing to the option of “partly agree”. Third, extra working hours of marking homework have a significant negative impact on professional commitment. These results were highlighted and discussed further in this study.

14:00-14:25

69129 | Investigating the Effectiveness of a Wellness Program for Hong Kong Preservice Teachers

Hui Wang, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Arita Wing Yan Chan, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Chloe Tsz Nin Leigh, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Naz Böke, McGill University, Canada

Nancy Heath, McGill University, Canada

Background and Aims: Statistics showed that Hong Kong teachers are experiencing very high levels of occupational stress and many reported depressive symptoms. This study aims to evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of a wellness program named Regulating Emotions and Stress in pre-Service Teachers – Hong Kong (RESST-HK).

Participants: The study involved 60 preservice teachers from a major teacher education university in Hong Kong, including 32 in the program group and 28 in the comparison group.

Methods: Participants in the program group received two training sessions (with each being 2.5 hours) and completed surveys consisting standardized measures of coping efficacy and mental health immediately before, immediately after, and one month after the program. The comparison group completed the surveys three times without participating in any sessions. Results were compared between the groups concerning their coping efficacy and mental health.

Results: Program participants had a significantly higher score on copy efficacy than the comparison group, immediately after, and one month after program completion. They also reported greater mental health than the comparison group, immediately after, and one month after the program completion. Program satisfaction was high, with 96.9% of the participants rating the overall program as good or excellent and 100% indicating that they learned a medium amount or a lot in the RESST-HK program.

Conclusion: Results showed high acceptability and great effectiveness of RESST-HK in improving preservice teachers’ mental health and coping efficacy.