Friday, June 26, 2009
First international comparison of pupil behaviour in classrooms published.
A new strand added to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey focuses on teacher views on the impact of pupil behaviour on their teaching.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has conducted a survey of 70,000 teachers in 23 countries asking them about the learning environments and the working conditions of teachers in schools. The teachers surveyed were all secondary school teachers.
The report, "Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments" is part of the substantial Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) which provides comparative data on aspect of education and attainment across 23 countries.
1/3 of teachers polled said their lessons were disrupted by pupils. This went up to 3/4 of teachers in secondary schools in several countries including Mexico, Italy, Slovakia, Estonia and Spain.
On average teachers across the 23 countries spent 13% of classroom time maintaining order. In Brazil and Malaysia this rose to 17% and in Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania and Poland less than 10% of classroom time was reported by teachers as being spent maintaining order.
The majority of teachers felt positive about their job and considered that they were making an impact on the development and attainment of pupils they taught.
The majority of teachers said they felt the most significant drain on their morale was not the pupil behaviour reported but the lack of recognition of the work of teachers. Three-quarters of the 70,000 teachers across the 23 countries reported that they felt they would receive no recognition for increasing the quality of their work or for being more innovative in their teaching. Three-quarters of teachers reported that in their own school, the most effective teachers do not receive the most recognition.
The report in: Creating effective teaching and learning environments