Date Awarded

1992

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

Roger R. Ries

Abstract

Teachers are experiencing heightened levels of stress throughout the school day the impact of which may be seen in increased absenteeism, turnover, poor performance and waste. This study taught classroom teachers cognitive-behavioral methods to reduce and manage their professional stress comparing a Group Counseling (GC) approach with a Cooperative Professional Development (CPD) approach.;Participating classroom teachers were randomly selected for each treatment condition. The participants in the GC approach met for ten 2-hour consecutive weekly sessions. The CPD treatment initially met as a group for a {dollar}6{lcub}1\over2{rcub}{dollar} hour inservice. at the end of the inservice, the participants formed dyads which met for nine 90 minute consecutive weekly sessions. Both treatment conditions received the same information, strategies, and activities. A follow-up session was held for each treatment condition one month after the conclusion of the program.;All participants, including those in the Waiting-List Control Group, completed two self-report inventories (Teacher Stress Index and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) three times during the course of the study (pretest, post-test, and one-month follow-up). Additionally, a demographical questionnaire was completed at the beginning of the study and a Course Evaluation Form was completed at the end of the study.;It was predicted that both treatment groups would demonstrate significantly less of an increase in their measured stress and anxiety levels compared to the control group. It was also predicted that there would be no significant difference between the three conditions in their measured levels of "Trait" anxiety.;A MANOVA design was employed to analyze whether significant differences existed for each dependent variable. When analyzed, none of the hypotheses were supported. However, the data were suggestive of a number of trends.;This study re-affirmed the efficacy of delivering stress management techniques to teachers through a "traditional" counseling group method. The efficacy of the Cooperative Professional Development model was also demonstrated. This study also found that teachers valued the flexibility, independence and enhanced feelings of professionalism the latter model offered, suggesting that staff development programs capitalizing on these components may have a greater positive impact on participants and may present a cost-effective way to increase a participant's level of motivation and willingness to implement new techniques.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-27n4-6h37

Rights

© The Author

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