engleski

Teacher stress in regular and specialized conditions of education of children with speech and/or hearing difficulties

Teacher stress can be defined as experiencing negative emotions, which result from some of the aspects of teacher work (Kyriacou, 2001) therefore the question arises whether there is a difference in perceived stress between teachers working in regular educational institutions and those working in specialized educational institutions. Boujut, Dean, Grouselle and Cappe (2016) examined stress in teachers working with students with an autism spectrum disorder in regular schools and those working in specialized schools. It was found that perceived stress was significantly higher in the group of teachers who work in regular educational conditions than in the group of those who work in specialized institutions. Presumption is that this difference is due to the special education teachers from specialized institutions received, which in return serves them as some as a protective factor. In a study of stress in teachers who work in specialized educational conditions it was found that teaching children with autism poses major stress to them, which was followed by teaching students with behavior difficulties, those with ADHD than those emotional difficulties. Speech-language difficulties were in eight place, and hearing impairments were in the last, tenth place (Kokkinos & Davazoglou, 2009). Although working with children with hearing and/or speech-language difficulties is relatively low on list of stressful categories of children to teach, the assumption is that there could be difference in the perceived stress between teachers who work with children with those types of difficulties in different educational settings. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to compare levels of teacher stress in the group of teachers who work in regular educational institutions and in the group of those who work in the institution that provides special conditions for education. Three potential sources of teacher stress were considered ; those related to inappropriate behavior of students, need for professional recognition, and workload, as well as overall level of teacher stress. Predictive value of demographic and professional characteristics was also examined. A sample of teachers who work in a specialized institution with students with hearing and/or speech impairments was consisted of 21 verbotonal teachers from the Primary School of the SUVAG Polyclinic. A sample of teachers who work in regular educational conditions was consisted of 30 teachers who have at least one student with hearing and/or speech impairment in their classroom. In a sample of teachers from specialized institution mean age was 42.5 (SD = 12.95) years and one of them was male, and in a sample of teachers from regular educational conditions mean age was 45.9 (SD = 12.74) years and three of them were male. Mean work experience was 16.4 (SD = 10.52) years in a group of teachers from specialized institution, and 18.9 (SD = 12.78) in a group of teachers from regular education conditions. For the assessment of teacher stress Sources of Teacher Stress Questionnaire (Boyle, Borg, Falzon, & Baglioni Jr., 1995) was used, which was previously translated and adapted by Mikulandra and Sorić (2004). Total level of teacher stress was used for the analysis, and the results on inappropriate behavior of students, need for professional recognition, and workload subscales. Alpha reliabilities for the total level of teacher stress, inappropriate behavior of students, need for professional recognition, and workload in a group of teachers in regular educational conditions were .89, .74, .83 and .75, and in a u group of teachers who work in a specialized institution .94, .84, .91 and .84, respectively. Results were expressed as mean item scores. There was no statistically significant difference between two groups of participants in total level of teacher stress or its potential sources. However, there was a tendency of higher stress levels in a group of teachers who work in regular educational conditions. In a group of teachers who work in a specialized institution lower age was correlated with higher stress levels to a larger degree than in group of participants who work in regular educational conditions. Smaller work experience was correlated with higher levels of stress caused by inappropriate behavior of students to a comparable level in both group of participants. It was expected that teachers who work in school providing special conditions of education would have better adjustment due to their education and experience, and that they have higher level of adaptation to conditions in the classroom. Although differences between two groups of participants did not reach statistical significance, experienced level of stress tended to be lower in this group of participants. Experienced stress was correlated with lower age in a group of teachers who work in specialized institution, indicating that they become more resilient with more work experience.

teacher stress ; specialized educational institution ; children with language and/or hearing difficulties

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