This study examined profiles of teachers’ occupational well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected from 279 Finnish primary school teachers during the spring of 2020. Four groups of teachers were identified by using Latent Profile Analysis: 1) teachers with mediocre stress and work engagement (34.4%); 2) teachers with mediocre stress and lowest work engagement (11.5%); 3) teachers with highest stress and work engagement (26.5%); and 4) teachers with lowest stress and highest work engagement (27.6%). The findings indicated that teachers’ occupational well-being was individually constructed, and there was a diversity with ways how negative and positive aspects of occupational well-being were drawn into patterns. The profile groups were further analyzed with respect to teachers’ experiences of emotional exhaustion, recovery from work, and interactional styles of teaching. The results revealed that during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic many teachers experienced occupational stress as well as some increase in stress due to the pandemic. In addition, the findings provided new insights concerning how teachers’ work engagement was perhaps not severely affected during the first few months of the pandemic, and on how different teaching styles were associated specifically with different aspects of occupational well-being.
The results indicated that emotional support in the classroom was positively associated with students' emotional engagement and help-seeking, whereas classroom organization was associated with students' behavioural and cognitive engagement. Overall, the findings provide novel evidence suggesting that students' engagement can be fostered by supportive teacher-student interactions.
The majority of previous research has examined school engagement as an overall student characteristic. The present study contributes to the field by examining variation in students' situation-specific engagement from one lesson to another and by investigating situational determinants of such variation. An intensive one-week lesson-to-lesson data collection was conducted in four lower secondary school classrooms. Students rated their situation-specific engagement at the end of each lesson with a mobile-based InSitu instrument. Data comprising a total of 57 students and 1,328 ratings were analyzed with two-level hierarchical multivariate model (between students, and within students between lessons). The results indicated substantial within student variation in engagement between lessons which was predicted by school subjects. Students reported highest situational engagement and lowest disaffection in lessons of non-academic subjects. The findings extend prior literature by specifying factors affecting students' situation-specific engagement and by unraveling effects due to variation within and between students.
The present study aims to expand the current understanding of engagement by examining variations in students' situation-specific engagement in lower secondary school. In addition, the validity and reliability of a new situation-specific InSitu Instrument were examined. The sample consisted of 1,809 Finnish students attending Grade 7. The students filled in mobile ratings on their lesson-specific engagement after lessons. Furthermore, they answered questionnaires concerning their overall engagement, achievement beliefs, and task values in math and literacy. The results showed substantial variation within and between students in situational engagement. A five-factor structure was identified for the InSitu ratings: 1) behavioral engagement, 2) emotional engagement, 3) competence experiences, 4) disaffection, and 5) help seeking. Correlational analyses showed moderate to high associations between situation-specific engagement and student engagement, achievement beliefs, and task values. The findings provide support for the InSitu Instrument as a valid and reliable tool for investigating situation-specific engagement in the classroom.
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