Main Content
Session Information
01 SES 05.5 PS, General Poster Exhibition
General Poster Session during Lunch
Contribution
A positive working environment is an important mechanism of quality and change at school. Today’s trends in teacher training emphasise a social dimension that views school as a learning organisation where relationships prevailing in the working environment support teachers’ professional development. The main question of this research is how Estonian primary school teachers assess social and emotional aspects of their school’s environment and how these assessments are related to the teachers’ overall satisfaction.
Modern understanding of teachers’ professionalism attaches value to professional development at school level, primarily cooperation between teachers and networking (Estonian Teacher Education Strategy for 2009-2013 (2009)). Several studies and schools’ daily practice have demonstrated that working environment related emotional and social factors create opportunities for mutual support, exchange of ideas and experience, and may increase teachers’ self-efficacy (Fullan, 1991; Kokkinos, 2007). OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey - TALIS (TALIS, 2009) that involved 23 countries identified professionalism indicators of teachers and their job, including factors related to teachers’ working environment. The central factor characterising satisfaction with working environment is the quality of the cooperation between its members – school administration, teachers and pupils. This research also reveals that emotional and social factors ensuring satisfaction, like good relations with colleagues and pupils, are associated with improved learning outcomes. Studies (Klassen et al., 2008; Senge, 2001; TALIS 2009) prove that teachers’ personal and collective self-efficacy greatly depends on the quality of their working environment.
Teachers and their working environment are directly related to the interpersonal relationships dominating in the given environment and their intensity. Some school environments stimulate an enduring culture of cooperation, others attempt to smother it. The impact of a working environment manifests itself in people’s attitudes, values and skills arising from their personal background and experience. Successful teachers appreciate professional community as a source of their professional motivation and that is the reason why they do not burn out in increasingly more demanding situations. Such school communities are characterised by the following features: reflective dialogue, cooperation and exchange of experience, openness to new ideas, mutual trust and respect.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Estonian Teacher Education Strategy for 2009-2013. (2009). [Text file]. URL http://www.hm.ee/index.php?popup=download&id=8782 [June 30, 2011] Fullan, M. (1991). The New Meaning of Educational Change. New York: Teacher College Press. Klassen, R.M. (2010). Teacher Stress: The Mediating Role of Collective Efficacy Beliefs. The Journal of Educational Research, 342-350. Kokkinos, C. M. (2007). Job stressors, personality and burnout in primary school teachers. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 229-243. Marsick, V. J., Watkins, K. E. (2003). Demonstrating the value of an Organization`s Learning Culture: The Dimension of the Learning Organization Questionnaire. - Advances in Developing Human Resources. Vol. 5, No.55, No 2, 132-151. Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., Kleiner, A.(2001). Schools that Learn. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing TALIS. (2009). Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First results from TALIS [Survey report]. URL http://www.oecd.org/edu/talis/firstresults [June 30, 2011]
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
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