Promoting Secondary Teachers’ Well‐being and Intentions to Implement Evidence‐based Practices: Randomized Evaluation of the Achiever Resilience Curriculum

Abstract

Teaching is regarded as one of the most challenging yet rewarding professions. Moreover, research has shown that stress and burnout are likely to undermine teacher effectiveness and negatively impact their willingness and intentions to implement evidence-based practices. The present study sought to contribute to a growing body of research implicating the importance of teacher well-being by evaluating the efficacy of a theoretically based training that integrates several practices into a single program (e.g., mindfulness, values clarification, gratitude practices, sleep hygiene, etc.) that are designed to promote the well-being of teachers-the ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum (ARC). To evaluate the ARC, a randomized block controlled study was conducted with pre-post measurement. Results from the study indicated that, compared with an active control group, teachers who participated in the ARC experienced significantly better outcomes, characterized by medium effect sizes, including reductions in job-related stress, improvements in teaching self-efficacy, and stronger intentions to implement evidence-based classroom practices. The implications of these findings for teacher preparation and professional development, along with the limitations of the study, are discussed. C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Reflective Practice: A Method to Improve Teachers’ Well-Being. A Longitudinal Training in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers

“…With reference to the first point, we argue that the present study, in accordance with other previous research studies (Dollard and Bakker, 2010;Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;Roffey, 2012;Cook et al, 2016;Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016), could provide evidence with respect to the fact that the well-being construct is strongly influenced by systemic-relational factors. The variables that intervene in the definition of well-being cannot be read as rigidly distinguished into "personal variables" and "contextual variables," but rather as complex variables that see the two dimensions (i.e., personal and contextual) interact together in the different daily processes that are played out in the working context.…”

“…Some of these aimed to study how, and by means of which processes, directors and teachers can co-construct workplaces in which the individuals can experience professional well-being (Dollard and Bakker, 2010;Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016). Other studies have instead proposed, not so much simply to reduce stress and burnout, but rather to promote positive dimensions of teachers' well-being in some specific school contexts (Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;Roffey, 2012;Cook et al, 2016).…”

“…In all these studies, the authors emphasized the need to orient future research toward teachers' well-being in a more ecological direction, favoring qualitative, situational, and longitudinal methodologies, which allow us to analyze the processual and interactive dimensions of teachers' well-being. These indications address the research toward studies focused on specific situations considered particularly challenging from the point of view of the school system; in this sense, the case studies seem to be a suitable method (Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;Roffey, 2012;Cook et al, 2016;Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019;Heyeres et al, 2019). In accordance with this perspective, the present researchintervention was designed to study the well-being of preschooler teachers, conceptualized, not so much as a construct in general, but rather as well-being perceived in a specific situation considered critical and problematic from the teachers' point of view.…”

“…Research shows that this educational approach adopted in the multi-age class context helps to improve teachers' perception of self-efficacy and the perception of their well-being in the workplace (Cook et al, 2016).…”

Mindfulness-Based Intervention in School Psychology

“…Additionally, mindfulness training itself can be included as an adjunct or minor component within other universal-level interventions, such as social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula for youth (e.g., Strong Kids; Gueldner and Feuerborn 2016) or general wellness promotion programs for teachers (e.g., ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum; Cook et al 2017). Despite the fact that there is little evidence to guide the selection or preference of MBI curricula compared to other universal-level interventions, we suggest that school psychologists can have confidence that universal-level MBIs are likely to be similarly effective to other approaches for reducing problems and promoting wellness that are commonly used at this level, such as SEL programming (cf.…”