Stress and copingA departmental approach

What is stress?

• Stress is a negative feeling state which has both psychological and physical components

• It is experienced as an assault on self

2

What is anxiety?

• Anxiety is a negative state and relates to feeling fearful

• It often incorporates physical symptoms, such as rapid breathing, raised pulse rate, feeling weak, faint, nauseous, etc

3

What is depression?

• Depression is a state of mind characterised by feelings of loss and emptiness

• It ranges from feeling ‘fed up’ (a common experience) to a clinical pathological state

4

Breakdown

• Breakdown represents an emotional crisis

• It can also represent a point at which some people grow and develop better coping skills

5

Burnout

Burnout is used to describe a level of stress which results from excessive

emotional demands

6

Causes of stress

• Lack of ownership of key decisions

• Limited control over professional development

• Not being valued by students or leaders

• Poor health

• Personal circumstances

7

Stressful personal events listed by severity

100 Death of a spouse

60 Divorce, menopause, prison sentence, serious illness

45 Loss of job

40 Retirement, working more than 45 hours a week, health problem in the family

35 Pregnancy, change in job, sleep deprivation

8

Causes of stress

• Poor resources

• Every teacher designing resources for every lesson

• Badly designed classrooms

• Marking overload

• Report overload

9

Causes of stress

• Lack of support from department head for poor behaviour

• No involvement in decision-making

• Little professional development

• Career stagnation

• Lack of variety

10

Signs of stress

• Increased consumption of alcohol

• Over- or under-eating

• Increased absence

• Becoming accident-prone

• Strained personal relationship

• Lethargy

11

Signs of stress

• Increased irritability

• Anxiety or depression

• Forgetfulness

• Sleep problems

• Headaches

• Increased level of aches, pains and colds

12

Departmental solutions

• Suggest each teacher takes responsibility for one topic and designs high-quality resources everyone can use

• Build self- and peer assessment work into every topic so that the marking load does not become overwhelming

• Consider whether classes can be combined for certain activities to give teachers extra free time

13

Departmental solutions

• Reduce the time spent in meetings by half

• Rotate classrooms so that the same teacher does not get the worst rooms all the time

• Vary responsibilities within the department each year

14

Departmental solutions

• Ensure that the same teacher does not get difficult groups each year

• Re-examine the departmental approach to managing student behaviour

15

Key principles

• Sharing the load

• Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy

• Variation

16

Communication

• If you seek help to manage badly- behaved students are you seen as a ‘failure’?

• Are staff with difficult personal circumstances given special consideration?

• Is a common feature of departmental meetings to blame the management?

17