A comprehensive survey of teacher stress, job satisfaction and career commitment among 710 full‐time primary school teachers was undertaken by Borg, Riding & Falzon (1991) in the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. A principal components analysis of a 20‐item sources of teacher stress inventory had suggested four distinct dimensions which were labelled: Pupil Misbehaviour, Time/Resource Difficulties, Professional Recognition Needs, and Poor Relationships, respectively. To check on the validity of the Borg et al. factor solution, the group of 710 teachers was randomly split into two separate samples. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out on the data from Sample 1 (N=335), while Sample 2 (N=375) provided the cross‐validational data for a LISREL confirmatory factor analysis. Results supported the proposed dimensionality of the sources of teacher stress (measurement model), along with evidence of an additional teacher stress factor (Workload). Consequently, structural modelling of the ‘causal relationships’ between the various latent variables and self‐reported stress was undertaken on the combined samples (N=710). Although both non‐recursive and recursive models incorporating Poor Colleague Relations as a mediating variable were tested for their goodness‐of‐fit, a simple regression model provided the most parsimonious fit to the empirical data, wherein Workload and Student Misbehaviour accounted for most of the variance in predicting teaching stress.
Using a self-administered questionnaire, the attitudes of 844 Maltese primary school teachers towards 16 selected undesirable behaviours were surveyed. Results indicated that pupils' age is a significant moderator of half of the behaviours; these are perceived to be significantly more serious by teachers in the second three years of the primary school than by their colleagues in the first three years. Significant boy-girl differences in the seriousness of behaviour were revealed in most of the behaviours as rated by teachers in both the first and in the second years. In addition, length of teaching experience was found to be a significant moderator of the perceived seriousness of some of the behaviours: the less experienced, when compared with the more experienced, judged these behaviours as being more serious. Ability stream did not have any significant effects on the teachers' attitudes towards the undesirable behaviours.
This paper reports on a questionnaire survey of teachers' attitudes towards 16 selected undesirable behaviours carried out in all of the 79 state primary schools in Malta and Gozo. The responses of the 844 participants showed that stealing, cruelty/bullying and rudeness/impertinence are perceived as the three most serious behaviours in pupils. Significant boy/girl differences in the seriousness of behaviour were observed in 14 of the behaviours as rated by the total teacher sample, in 9 of the behaviours as rated by male teachers, and in 14 of the behaviours as rated by female teachers. The greatest boy/girl differences in the ratings of the behaviours was that for untidy in personal appearance as perceived by male teachers. Teacher-sex was also found to be a significant moderator of the teachers' attitude towards seven of the behaviours.
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