A Different Kind of Teacher: A practical guide to understanding and resolving difficulties within the school

INTRODUCTION

Recent research in education has revealed that ‘how’ a teacher teaches is as important as ‘what’ she teaches. Indeed, the ‘how’ largely determines effectiveness. It is related to the teacher’s level of self-esteem and the ability, or lack of it, to form close relationships with students. The ‘how’ also involves awareness and practice of positive classroom management approaches. Furthermore, an individual teacher’s effectiveness is enhanced by a whole-school management style and by effective leadership within the school system.

The three major sources of stress in teaching are role load, staff relationships and difficult students. Research indicates that the effects of role load are considerably reduced where there is strong staff cohesiveness and cooperation. Also, the teacher who has high self-esteem complains far less of discipline problems than the teacher with middle or poor self-esteem. These observations have been substantiated by findings that the effective school is characterised by high expectations, emotional responsiveness and effective leadership. High expectations mean believing in each student’s ability to learn and placing the emphasis on effort rather than performance. Responsiveness involves a democratic caring approach to students with an emphasis on students taking responsibility for themselves.

Following on the research evidence but, principally, on my own personal experiences of teaching in primary, second-level and third-level education, my involvement with teaching staffs over several years and my therapeutic work with teachers and others suffering personal, interpersonal and occupational conflicts, this book focuses on eight main areas:

stress management

self-esteem of teachers

staff relationships and morale

self-esteem of students

emotional and behavioural problems of students and staff

whole-school approach

effective leadership.

The book is divided into six chapters, each one focusing on a distinct area relevant to the development of more effective teaching.

Chapter 1 discusses the teaching profession, and why and how it has become highly stressed. It looks at the nature of stress, how to identify the signs of stress, and how to cope and develop personally and professionally from it.

Chapter 2 focuses on the teacher with particular emphasis on self-esteem. It identifies three levels of self-esteem and outlines its effects on the teacher herself and on students and colleagues. It introduces the reader to two communication patterns, introjection and projection, which are revelations of self-esteem problems and have serious effects on relationships within the classroom and staffroom. Most of all, this chapter shows how self-esteem can be changed.

Chapter 3 is given over to the staffroom, a source of much stress for many teachers. Staff relationships, effective communication patterns, staff morale, staff affirmation, responding to rigidity in oneself, principals or colleagues, and problem-solving are all discussed.

The focus of Chapter 4 is on the student. This chapter helps teachers to understand the nature of students’ emotional, social and behavioural problems within the school and classroom, and how to respond effectively to their manifestation. Particular emphasis is placed on students’ self-esteem: how to identify low self-esteem and how to raise it. The effects of students’ self-esteem on motivation and learning are also illustrated.

Chapter 5 attends to the classroom. It distinguishes between problems of overcontrol and undercontrol in students, and how the latter cause the greatest disruption in class, even though the former are indicators of a more at-risk pupil. The chapter also outlines behaviours on the part of the teacher that can precipitate problematic responses from students. It outlines essential aspects of effective classroom management, the design and implementation of effective systems of responsibility for students, and the positive use of sanctions. It also deals with responding to the student who is recalcitrant.

Chapter 6 talks about the school and discusses such issues as what factors make for an effective school, a whole-school approach, effective leadership, coping styles within schools, parent–teacher liaison and school ethos. This chapter emphasises the need for shared responsibility and the need for confrontation by teachers of issues within school systems that need to be altered. It also recommends the development of confidential counselling services for teachers and principals.

The emphasis throughout the book is on five issues:

personal effectiveness

development of self-esteem-enhancing relationships within the staffroom and classroom

creation of a greater insight into, understanding of and positive responding to the emotional, behavioural and social problems of students and teachers

positive approaches to teaching

shared responsibility.

The aim is always practical. The book includes examples of problematic situations within staffrooms and classrooms and case-studies I have encountered, and offers tried and tested ways of resolving such conflicts. This book is principally developed from the many problems staff groups have presented to me during staff in-service days and our attempts at effective responses to those issues. At the end of each chapter there is a list of the key insights and key actions that will lead to more effective personal, interpersonal and classroom management.

This book is particularly aimed at primary and second-level school teachers but it has relevance to anybody working in the educational system. It is also relevant to policy-makers as it provides insights into the needs of students, teachers, principals, vice-principals, parents, and others within school systems. Parents will also find the book useful since it offers insights on the problems their children may be experiencing in school, and it also apprises them of how to create a positive environment for learning within the home. This book is for students in the education profession at all levels: in basic training and at diploma, graduate and postgraduate levels. It is also of use to lecturers in education.

A good idea is to read the book through so that you get an overall view of the themes and practices recommended. On the other hand, you may like to turn to a chapter or section on issues that currently concern you. Each chapter can stand on its own as it describes specific insights and skills. You can easily dip into particular sections within chapters. The book could also be usefully employed by a staff group or a group of teachers to work through systematically in order to establish greater school effectiveness.

I hope you will find it helpful in resolving many of the difficulties you face within the teaching profession. During my many years of working with staff groups and giving courses to teacher groups, I have witnessed and been impressed, and indeed overawed, by the commitment, dedication and ‘need to know more’ of teachers.

Finally, references to problems encountered with staff groups and in case-studies have been sufficiently masked so that anonymity is ensured.

CHAPTER 1

The Teaching Profession

Stress is a relatively new word for human problems in living. It has been borrowed from the field of technology and means ‘pressure’ or ‘strain’. The effects of stress on a population’s health are very great. It is reckoned that over two-thirds of visits to general practitioners are due to stress-related problems. The six leading causes of death – heart disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, lung ailments, accidental injuries and suicide – are all directly or indirectly caused by stress. The three best-selling drugs are Valium, which is a tranquilliser, Idera, which is for hypertension (blood pressure) and Tagamet, which is for ulcers and other stomach problems.

It is important to distinguish between what I call necessary and emergency stress. Necessary stress occurs, for example, when you eat and you put your digestive system under stress; when you run or play games and you put your cardiovascular system under stress; or when, in preparing for a lecture, a certain amount of apprehension pushes adrenalin into your system, mobilises your intellectual resources, and increases your concentration and motivation. However, if you overeat or overexercise or overworry so that your stomach is in a knot, your heart racing and you feel pressure in your head, you are now into emergency stress. The word ‘emergency’ is very accurate because once you go beyond a certain level of stress you are in an emergency state and something needs to be done to return you to a welfare state. So, for example, a typical cause of stress is the daily hassles of rushing and racing, meeting deadlines, attempting to do too many things at once and so on. If you go into many houses at half-past eight in the morning you will understand the stressful effects of daily hassle. People rush, race, choke back food, shout, roar, argue, make mistakes, cannot remember. Their bodies will reveal the pressure they are putting themselves under: tension headaches, stomach ‘butterflies’, heart palpitations and other signs. The ‘emergency’ to be responded to is the rushing, racing and worrying by counterbehaviours such as getting up earlier, doing things calmly and thinking positively. If these corrective behaviours are effective, people will return to a welfare state; if not, the true causes of the emergency stress have not yet been isolated and further analysis is needed.

Certainly a wise course of action for everybody is to learn to live in the present moment. Few people do. Since beginning this book how many times has your mind wandered into the past or out into the future? The skill of present-moment living is to focus totally on the action of the moment, whether it is reading a particular word, peeling a potato or listening to someone. Some readers will no doubt say you have to think about the future and past. Planning for the future is, indeed, important but then planning is a present-moment activity. Worrying about what is going to happen is a future activity and totally redundant. Practising simple timemanagement will help you plan your day, week, month, or year ahead. It ensures allocation of time for all your essential needs, and the more you meet your different needs the less you are stressed. Likewise, it is important to learn from the past but not to live in it as many people do by regretting, bemoaning, complaining and comparing. Evaluation is a present-moment activity of bringing the benefit of experience to bear in the present.

It is not too difficult to determine your level of stress. Below is a list of the main signs of stress. Go carefully through them and list any symptom you experience. Ask yourself how frequently, for how long and to what degree of intensity (hardly noticeable to very debilitating) you experience the listed symptoms.

If you did not list any of the symptoms please consult a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist immediately as you are in massive ‘denial’. There is no one without some degree of emergency stress! If you listed most of the signs you should likewise seek help immediately.

Be wary of jumping to conclusions when you experience any of these symptoms. People tend to think the worst so that a persistent headache becomes a sign of a brain tumour, a pain in the chest becomes a sure indicator of heart disease and a discomfiture in the stomach becomes a cancer. Unfortunately such an alarmist response shoots your stress levels up higher so that the symptoms increase in intensity, which in turn convinces you of your catastrophic diagnosis, and the spiralling of panic continues. It reminds me of a teacher who came up to me at the end of a lecture and told me he had been experiencing three of the symptoms on the stress signs checklist for five years. The three symptoms were dryness of the mouth, lower back pain and frequent urination. He had been to a number of medical consultants over the years but no one could explain why he had the symptoms. Nevertheless, he was prescribed painkillers for his back, a spray for his mouth but nothing for the frequent urination. Despite the medical treatment the symptoms had not abated over the years; indeed, at times, they severely escalated. It is always wise to get yourself physically checked out, particularly for some persistent physical symptom. However, if you get a clear bill of physical health, you need to look at possible psychological and social causes of the symptoms. This particular teacher did not; instead he convinced himself that he had cancer and believed the doctors either were not telling him or had not discovered it. To go around believing you have cancer is extremely frightening and highly stressful and it was no wonder the stress