Disengaged Teachers

Disengaged Teachers

In every organization, employees face similar motivational problems due to the lack of creating better methods and scope towards engaging the workers. The problem is especially devastating when the disengaged workers are teachers. As a former assistant teacher and then teacher I can attest to many of the difficulties that can kill a teacher’s motivation and engagement in the classroom. One organization I worked for has faced a high turnover rate in their assistant teachers and frequent absenteeism. There is no question that when teachers are bored burned out or uninspired it takes its toll on everyone. The organization I worked for has been forced to invest all its efforts into human resources and hiring and training when it could have moved on to other things like improving curriculum, programs, and revamping the traditional classroom by incorporating technological educational tools for this new generation of students. When the teachers aren’t happy it spills over to the students who are the leaders of the future.

As was mentioned although boredom and disengagement are endemic to many jobs it can affect teachers more due to the repetitive nature of the teaching methods and content within the school environment. Teachers become disengaged due to the monotony and boredom that affects and subsequently pervades their overall traits and demeanor. This paper argues that the organizational problems are as a result of lack of proper motivational strategies in the school organizational structure. This paper uses empirical research to assess the different aspects of disengaged employees and how it affects the outcomes in the organizational environment.

I have found five empirical studies highlighting various aspects of this disengaged teacher problem so as to approach it from all angles. I shall begin with a comprehensive inventory on teacher’s behaviors and its correlates in student outcomes. The first paper is titled:

The Teacher Behaviors Inventory: Internal Structure, Reliability, and Criterion Relations with Boredom, Enjoyment, Task Value, Self-Efficacy and Attention (Rosas, Esquivel , Cara 2016). The research conducted across a sample of students in university was aimed at assessing teachers’ behavior and how this translated to student performance and methods developed in the classroom. The teachers need to be engaged through the different methods developed thereby creating a useful scope of teaching behaviors. The different specific attributes are matched thereby indicating the critical aspects to successful student outcomes.

This study by Rosas, Esquivel & Cara (2016) uses mean to assess teachers’ engagement. The sample, which included a representative group of university students had their performance averaged to represent the larger group of students. The parameters for descriptive statistics included performance and methods development, where the first matched the issue identified. The population, however, was not evenly distributed since different students have varying study environments and the issues affecting one group may not affect another. Type I and II could have been possible since the researcher failed to reject the null hypothesis, which was false in the population. The researchers increased their sample to a larger one so that they could avoid Type I and II errors.

We will move on to study on coping mechanisms for boredom and how an HR professional can identify this capacity in teacher applicants. In this article Dr. Whiteoak indicates the different attributes that apply at the organizational level and align with different organizations, not just teachers (Whiteoak, 2014) It is an important resource in offering a comparative analysis of the different fundamental attributes developed and sheds light on the methods and aspects that need to be measured. Through analysis of the human resource methods

of bringing out the best in workers, it mirrors the individual methods that need to be adopted by other organizations and domains.

The researcher in this study used mode as the descriptive statistics. Instead of using people in a particular profession, the researcher involved the human resource department of several organization to figure out the best methods to bring out the best in employees. The participants included employees from various organizations who helped the researcher find the best methods to help individuals improve in their areas of responsibility. The parameters on the descriptive statistics were not similar to the issues identified. The sample was evenly distributed since the participants worked in different positions in various organizations. Type I and II errors could have been avoided since there were no different populations to compare, and therefore, no hypothesis. Besides, the sample size was large eliminating any occurrence of error if the null hypothesis was rejected.

The next article which is titled: Autonomous motivation forteaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined learning assesses the individual reasons or motivation for learning (Roth, Assor, Kanat-Maymon, Kaplan, 2007). It is an assessment of the intrinsic and extrinsic attributes that influence the teachers and how they engage with the students has been assessed. The study lists important criteria that teachers assess when making a decision on the best approaches or methods to use. There are different attributes that have been aligned and creatively compounded thereby indicating a critical tool of change. The different processes are matched and highlighted to indicate the importance of understanding the needs of the teachers and their motivations to drive growth and better performance in the school organization.

In their study, Roth et al., (2007) use teachers and students in a higher learning institution to understand the teacher motivations that fuel growth and promote better performance in schools. The researchers used mean as their main descriptive statistic, through which performance for the students was averaged to find out which performed best and under what environment. The parameters matched with the issue identified since teacher engagement and disengagement would either promote or challenge performance. The population was not evenly distributed, although the sample size played a key role in eliminating the occurrence of Type II error. This error would have been possible since the populations under comparison had a significant difference.

This next study revisits the autonomous motivation of teachers in its greater context. That is how principal’s leadership style’s effect teacher’s autonomous motivation. The research assesses the role of the principals in developing the best motivational strategies and getting the best from the teachers. The paper uses self-determination theory as the main precept of analysis and articulates the different attributes that are relevant towards understanding motivation and determination. The analysis uses empirical research where it engages with the teachers as well as the principals to assess the different methods instituted.

Eyal and Roth (2011) use the self-determination theory to assess the role of teachers and especially principals in the creation of the best strategies to engage teachers. The study engaged a number of principals from various organizations, as well as a group of teachers to find out how satisfied they were with their work. The study used mode as the descriptive statistics and the parameter matched the problem in question. The population was evenly distributed since several institutions were involved as a representative of principals, as well as a few teachers representing

the greater percentage. Both Type I and II errors could have been possible since the researchers did not reject the null hypothesis. They avoided the errors by using confidence interval, rather than using significance testing to interpret data.

After examining self-determination in teachers our final article will provide a positive take-home idea for breaking monotony through the use of innovative teaching strategies. In Effects of Innovative Teaching Strategies on Students’ performance (Khurshid & Ansari, 2012). Researchers use an analytical approach in determining how different innovative teaching methods impact students’ performance. The research measures the importance of engaging the teachers and ensuring that they develop newer and not monotonous methods towards reaching out to the students. A correlation between the teachers’ innovative methods and students’ performance has been developed thereby indicating a critical facet in transforming the individual methods and tools underlined in the systems accordingly.

The researchers used mean to average student performance and examine the impact of innovative teaching methods on student performance. The population included a student focus group and two teachers, one using innovative teaching methods and the other one teaching normally. The parameters used are performance and innovative techniques, with introduction of one affecting the other. The population is not evenly distributed since innovation means different things to students in different fields. However, Type I and II errors could not have been possible in this case considering the significant difference between the two groups of participants. Besides, if they were, it would be easy to avoid them by increasing the sample to a larger size.

References

Eyal, O., & Roth, G. (2011). Principals' leadership and teachers' motivation: Self-determination theory analysis. Journal of Educational Administration, 49(3), 256-275.

Khurshid, F., & Ansari, U. (2012). Effects of Innovative Teaching Strategies on Students’ performance. Global Journal of Human-Social Science Research, 12(10-E).

Rosas, J. S., Esquivel, S., & Cara, M. The Teacher Behaviors Inventory: Internal Structure, Reliability, and Criterion Relations with Boredom, Enjoyment, Task Value, Self-Efficacy and Attention. International Journal of Psycho-Educational Sciences Vol. 5, Issue (3), December–2016.

Roth, G., Assor, A., Kanat-Maymon, Y., & Kaplan, H. (2007). Autonomous motivation forteaching: How self-determined teaching may lead to self-determined

learning. Journalof Educational Psychology, 99(4), 761.

763. Whiteoak, J. (2014). Predicting boredom-coping at work. Personnel Review, 43(5), 741-763.