Biography
Biography: Efemona Israel Owode
Abstract
Background: Recent studies suggest that teachers display a high level of stress and mental health problems. More specifically, researchers have reported an association between teachers' and students' mental health and well-being. This study examines the correlation between a high level of stress and its effects on teacher presentism and the quality of the classroom. Methods: The authors conducted a study with third-grade teachers to investigate the connection between teachers' mental health and student outcome. They examined the associations between third-grade teachers' self-reported symptoms of clinical depression and their student's classroom experiences. The experiences of eight students described by the Individualizing Student Instruction Framework were investigated, which included the examination of students' independent and group work, academic instructions led by the teacher in various student groupings and teachers planning and organization of academic instructions. Findings: A multilevel modeling revealed negative correlations between teachers’ depressive symptoms and (i) teacher-facilitated academic instructions given to the whole class and (ii) teachers’ planning and organizing of the instruction. Results suggest that teachers experiencing negative symptoms of mental health are less likely to be productive, ultimately resulting in lower-quality classrooms.Conclusion: Teacher-facilitated academic instruction and planning/organizing the instruction require more effort from the teachers, due to the task of managing/monitoring students’ behavior. Teachers experiencing more depressing symptoms displayed lower levels of effort while in a large classroom setting. Recent studies suggest that indicators of clinical depression (decreased energy motivation and burnout) are associated with lower levels of productivity in classroom management which were observed in this study.