I do not believe there is anything wrong with defining stress in terms of negative feelings. The oxford concise dictionary's definition of stress is 'tension' and Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia refers to "a state of extreme difficulty, pressure or strain." Once this definition has been made one needs to deal with situations, and it is at this point that the distinction can be made that some people will find certain situations stressful while other people may see the same situations "as demands which create excitement, greater interest and more job satisfaction."(Gray & Freeman 1987, p.4) For this reason I am going to use Kyriacou's definition of teacher stress as "the experience by a teacher of unpleasant emotions, such as tension, frustration, anger and depression resulting from aspects of his work as a teacher."(1987, p.146) Having arrived at a definition of what I understand teacher stress to be it is now pertinent to look at where it comes from, that is, what are the major sources of stress teachers have to deal with.There has been a great deal of research into identifying the sources of teacher stress, presumably since it is only by finding out where the problem lies that one can start looking at what can be done to alleviate it. Claxton (1989, p.2) relates this to the famous story of the plumber who charged a client £500 for fixing a boiler by tapping it with a hammer ; 50p for tapping with the hammer, £499.50 for knowing where to tap. Once we can find where the problem lies we may have a clue as to where to tap. Six major categories have been identified in the search for the sources of teacher stress, these, in no particular order are: time pressures low status pupil indiscipline poor working conditions poor motivation in pupils conflicts with colleagues (Kyriacou in Cole & Walker, 1989, p.30) I think it important that the distinction, in no particular order, is made since while the research agrees on these sources, there are contradictions as to which cause the highest levels of stress. For instance Kyriacou (ibid.) says of poor pupil motivation, "it is probably the effort involved in teaching such pupils on a regular basis that forms the single most important source of stress." Whereas, Smith & Bourke ( , p.42) in their survey found, "The highest levels of teacher stress were found to be those arising from lack of rewards and recognition," which clearly fall into the category of low status, yet Evans ( p. 836) reported, "only one teacher [out of 22] describing dissatisfaction due to teachers' pay and low status in society."
young h | (198.142.202.108) | Thursday, 7 June 2001 9:21:42 PM
hmm, it is sad that the stress exist in our profession more significant than anywhere else. maybe stress level arise when the expectation is met quite the way expected. this expectation maybe in terms of salary or recognition in our society. i am sure we were all aware of what others have to say about being a teacher. i remember hearing my mate, 'i feel sorry for you that you want to be a teacher'. guess it's all matter of perspective. i won't deny it is an easy job but we need to see a reasonable ideas of rewarding. comparison to other profession often leads to what's lacking in mine. that's not so healthy way of dealing the situation i guess.
what motivates us and students, guess we need to concentrate on these.
what can i improve rather than what is wrong.
sorry, if i upset anyone. i don't believe we made a mistake to be here.
cheers, we chose a noble job!
INGRID SILCOCK | (210.8.232.5) | Thursday, 14 June 2001 9:57:35 PM
I think this topic is a very individual issue to deal with. I don't believe there is any clearly defined rules set out for dealing with stress. We handle situation in our own individual ways and what others may think are stressful situations, others' on the other hand don't really see these as such a big issue. I believe being organied is the key to the avoidence of stressful situations. This could come through clearly devised lesson plans so you know exactly what needs to be done in the classroom during the course of the lesson, and outside the classroom with regard to preparation for the lesson.
Reflection I believe is also important in the early stages of our teaching career's. If we can identify what makes us enter stressful situations maybe this would help avoid these situations or more importantly discover how to deal with issues.
As training teachers I am assuming you are aware that teaching is a stressful profession or would like to hope so! Keeping this in mind, I believe entering the profession open minded would help instead of worrying about issues before they arise. Relax and enjoy the experience of being in involved in the teaching profession. As issues come up, deal with them in a professional way. I feel also the structure of the (MTeach)has allowed my to talk about the issues related to stress. The main issues I have gained from the discussions is that there is always usually a simple solution to the stressful situaton and 'nothing is as bad as it seems at the time'.