We prepared a short questionnaire consisting of 8 questions in order to get our teachers' opinions on their professional and personal experiences during the school year that has been completed face-to-face without interruption after the pandemic and to produce a report reflecting these views.
We would like to thank our 639 teachers who answered the questionnaire from different regions of Turkey.
We want to share this report with all our educators, which contains important information about the factors that push teachers and the issues that they expect help with.
New training courses, cooperation with colleagues and teamwork have a positive effect on the teachers
When we asked the participating teachers about their personal well-being when face-to-face classes resumed (September 2021) and at the end of the semester, we found that their well-being increased at the end of the semester. When comparing the beginning and end of the semester, however, it is noticeable that more teachers give marginal values such as 1 and 2 when evaluating the well-being at the end of the semester. This shows that studies on teacher well-being should continue.
Among the factors that positively affect well-being, factors such as new training that contributes to development, positive cooperation with colleagues and teamwork stood out. Among the factors that had a negative impact, topics such as administrative problems, communication problems with colleagues and parents, academic learning losses, screen addiction and lack of motivation attracted attention.
Failure to follow class rules and directions is one of the biggest challenges teachers face
In the survey, we asked a question about challenging student behavior that teachers encounter in their professional lives after a break of about 1.5 years from face-to-face teaching. 24% of teachers said not following class rules, 17% said not following instructions, and 16% said reluctance to participate in classroom activities were the most common problems. This was followed by a lack of availability of course materials and a reluctance to engage in extracurricular work.
70% of teachers agree that students should be supported in their social and emotional development: "In which areas do you think your students should be given more support after returning to face-to-face teaching?" 70% of teachers answered "Social and emotional developmental needs". On the other hand, 27% of the teachers who completed the questionnaire (175 people) indicated that they need studies to eliminate academic learning losses during distance learning. Responses under the "Other" option, representing 3%, included topics such as behavioral and motivational issues, peer communication and screen addiction, and adapting to school culture.
Greater parental involvement in school processes is essential
In particular, parental collaboration is crucial to speed up and facilitate the process of adjustment to school after returning to face-to-face classes. To learn teachers' perceptions of parent involvement in the 2021-2022 school year, participants were asked, "Can you tick the options that reflect your experience of parent involvement and working with parents?". Almost half of the participants (344 people, 46%) indicated that after returning to face-to-face classes, they could not get support from parents during students' adjustment to school. 30% indicated that the parents supported this process sufficiently. Finally, 24% (182 people) of the teachers who completed the questionnaire believe that parents are willing to communicate regularly.
Click on the link below to access the full report compiled from the survey results.