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Abstract

GOALS

Emotional resilience is often described as the ability of an individual to avoid or bounce back from stress when presented with difficult situations. Preservice teachers are exposed to a varying degree of stressors that only compound when they reach in-service teacher status. Emotional resilience is something proven to play a role in teacher retention, wellbeing, and satisfaction. The questions presented are how best to foster emotional resilience in pre-service teachers to increase the wellbeing of individuals, while also increasing teacher retention. Based on a review of the literature, a survey was created to explore pre-service teachers’ experience of unique stressors: evaluation anxiety, pupil and professional concerns anxiety, class control anxiety, and teaching practice requirements anxiety. Questions for the survey were created using the four types of identified stressors. After approval, the survey was sent out to upperclassmen preservice teachers for their responses. Roughly 70 responses were collected from participants. The survey found that one form of anxiety was more prevalent that others: Teaching Practice Requirements Anxiety, closely followed by Evaluation Anxiety.

METHODOLOGY

• Emotional Resilience needs to be improved for preservice teachers

• Various programs can help to improve emotional resilience• Use feedback from participants to improve College of Education

CONCLUSIONSThe main goal of the study was to determine the most prominent forms of stressors that preservice teachers face in order to draw attention to those stressors and possible solutions. Education is both a stressful career and a stressful major. The hope is that the research will spark interest in improvements to the College of Education to not only prepare preservice teachers academically, but also emotionally for their future careers.

Marissa AtkinsDirector: Dr. Sarah Marie Berry Readers: Dr. David Vawter & Dr. Bettie Parsons Barger

Emotional Resilience of Preservice Teachers

Emotional Resilience of Preservice Teachers

Combined List38%

Praxis II Checklist11%Cultural Events

11%

Workshops6%

Snacks Provided2%

Check-Ins13%

Mental Health Strategies from

Professors4%

Community Building Events

2%

Other13%

MOST HELPFUL SUPPORTSTable 1Birchinall, Buck, and Spendlove Types of Stressors/Anxiety

Types of Anxiety Definition Examples Average Mean*Average Standard Deviation

Evaluation Anxiety Stress which stems from being evaluated/assessed

Midterm Evaluation, Observations, EdTPA1 4.08 1.78

Pupil and Professional Concerns Anxiety

Stress which stems from relationship pressures from colleagues and

meeting the needs of their pupils

Differentiating2 for student needs 3.73 1.8

Class Control AnxietyStress which stems from being able to manage the classroom and the pupils

within it effectively

Classroom management skills & Effective teaching 3.93 1.64

Teaching Practice Requirements Anxiety

Stress which stems from expectations that teachers face overall with

emphasis on the amount of paperwork and lesson plans that are expected

Student Learning Objectives, IEP3

paperwork, Detailed Lesson Plans for every

observed lesson and most unobserved

4.63 1.43

*Response ranged from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 7 (Strongly Agree)

1 EdTPA- a performance-based assessment specific to each subject area used as a support system by teacher preparation programs to accentuate, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need within the classroom (edTPA, 2020).

2 Differentiation- adapting instruction to the needs of individual students.

3 IEP- Individualized Education Program, used to ensure students with a disability defined under the law receive specialized instruction and needed services within public education (The Understood Team, 2019).

• Worked to find definition of emotional resilience for survey and decided on “ability to motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations: to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one’s moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and hope” of emotional resilience (Grant & Kinman, 2014)

• Identified common stressors preservice teachers face based on previous study

• Birchinall, Buck, and Spendlove was used to narrow down stressors into four categories based on research done within the study (see Table 1). Narrowing down the amount of stressors/anxiety into four categories helps to pinpoint if one form of anxiety is more prevalent and helped to focus the survey more on stressors that are proven to be prevalent within preservice and in-service teachers.

• IRB requested and approved for survey made based on studies above• To preview survey scan

• Mass email of survey sent to junior and seniors within the College of Education