INTERACÇÕES NO. 42, PP.

22-31 (2016)

PERCEIVED IMPACT OF LIFELONG TRAINING IN TEACHERS

Jacinto Jardim
Universidade Aberta – Gabinete de Educação para o Empreendedorismo e Cidadania,
[email protected]

Anabela Pereira
Universidade de Aveiro – Departamento de Educação e Psicologia, CIDTFF & CINTESIS
[email protected]

Abstract

Teachers need lifelong training in the realm of soft skills. Accordingly, several
training programs have been proposed for developing teachers’ personal and social
skills, though they are seldom evaluated. This study proposes to present data on the
subjective evaluation of the outcomes of such programs, in relation to gender, age
level of teaching, and training program. A sample of 92 participants was voluntarily
enrolled in one of seven training programs, and their personal change was assessed in
relation to their pre and post intervention perceptions. Results indicate that all
participants (irrespective of their gender, age, level of teaching or training program they
attended) perceived themselves as more able after the training. This establishes the
importance of such type of lifelong training being implemented as a regular option for
teachers, as it may contribute to a more positive self-perception, which in turn may
contribute to improved professional performance.

Keywords: Teachers; Lifelong training; Evaluation; Self-perceived skill improvement;

Soft skills.

Resumo

Os professores precisam de formação ao longo da vida no domínio das soft

skills. Neste sentido, têm sido propostos vários programas de formação para o
desenvolvimento de competências pessoais e sociais nos docentes, contudo
raramente são alvo de avaliação. O presente estudo propõe apresentar os resultados
da avaliação subjetiva dos professores face aos resultados de tais programas. A
amostra incluiu 92 participantes que se inscreveram voluntariamente em um dos sete
programas de formação. Pretendia-se avaliar as mudanças pessoais dos professores

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relativamente às auto-percepções pré e pós-intervenção. Os resultados indicam que

todos os participantes (independentemente de seu género, idade, nível de lecionação
ou programa de formação que frequentaram) se perceberam como mais capazes após
a conclusão da formação. Estes dados indicam a importância da implementação
regular de programas de formação ao longo da vida para professores, pois contribuem
para uma auto-percepção mais positiva, o que se reflete numa melhoria do
desempenho profissional.

Palavras-chave: Professores; Formação ao longo da vida; Avaliação, Auto-percepção

sobre a melhoria de competências; Soft skills.

Introduction

As early as 2005, the OECD pointed the importance of teachers developing

transversal skills, which should be taken into account among national education policy
priorities (OECD, 2005). Additionally, in 2014, the European Commission proposed
that besides promoting the development of these skills by teachers, these should also
be developed by students, as they lead to improvements in the overall teaching and
learning process.

This proposal is justified by the fact that students acquire this kind of skills not
only through cognitive strategies but also mainly through socio-emotional dynamics
(Jardim, 2010; Ramos, 2002), hence the importance of training teachers in order to
enable them to have a significant pedagogical influence in the educational community
(Hanushek & Rivkin, 2010). The empirical data also points to the fact that the
pedagogical capacities of teachers are related to their transversal skills, and those with
these skills are more pedagogically effective than those who only have theoretical
knowledge at their disposal (Meroni et al., 2015).

We can identify three types of these soft skills. First, we have skills that enable us
to learn how to deal with the psychosocial risk factors that are a source of occupational
stress. These factors may be based on poor work organization, lack of control in work
processes, unsatisfactory conditions, poor management, and lack of support from
peers and superiors. Thus, this occupational stress arises as a response that an
individual may have when confronted with demands relating to his work that are not

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 PERCEIVED IMPACT OF LIFELONG TRAINING IN TEACHERS 24

compatible with his knowledge and skills, which also challenges his coping abilities
(WHO, 2015).

Second, teachers are required to maintain adequate levels of physical and

mental health, since this is considered to be one of the most stressful professions. With
disruptive attitudes and behaviours, the challenges to the teacher’s authority and
competence, and even indiscipline in the classroom, contribute to the negative stress
that teachers tend to experience and this has consequences on their professional
performance (Hastings & Bham, 2003; Otero López et al., 2008).

Third, teachers need this kind of skills in their curricula because they often
promote learning based on project development, since it is considered one of the most
effective methods in a teaching-learning process (Hanover Research, 2014). In this
sense, the implementation of the specific dynamics of project pedagogy presupposes
that the teacher has sufficient levels of transversal skills.

Thus, we can conclude that teachers who possess soft skills, in addition to their
technical skills, can overcome the challenges that the teaching career now entails with
greater ease. Therefore, it is important that teachers can manage and organize their
daily tasks in a challenging context like in today’s world (Uzunboylu, Ngang, Yie, &
Shahid, 2015).

Models that measure the impact on teacher training, that is, the added value of
complementary training, should allow us to compare the before and after of a training
event. Given that in the scientific literature we did not find an adequate instrument to
evaluate these conditions, we have created such an evaluation instrument, as shown
below.

The current work intends to present data on the self-reported personal change of
teachers following the enrollment on several training programs. Moreover, this
perception of personal change was tested in relation to the participants’ gender, age,
and level of teaching; an expected improvement in self-perception was expected
regardless of these individual characteristics. Also, the length and specificity of each
training program was considered as impacting on this improved self-perception; it was
expected that all participants would show improved self-perceptions, despite these
training particularities.

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Method

Participants

Participants in this work were 92 teaching professionals, namely at the

kindergarten (n = 40; 43.48%) or the formal school level (n = 52; 56.52%). Their age
range varied between 26 and 67 years old (M = 43.41, SD = 8.38). The vast majority of
these participants were female (n = 82, 89.1%) and only 10 were male (10.9%); men
were significantly older than women (M = 50.4, SD = 6.72 and M = 42.54, SD = 8.19,
respectively; t(89) = 2.91, p = .005). Men and women were not similarly distributed by
level of teaching (χ2(1) = 5.12, p = .02), with more women than expected teaching at
the kindergarten level and more men than expected employed at the formal teaching
level.

Instruments

Before and After Training – 5 items (BAT-5).

Because there is an evident lack of evaluation instruments for this kind of

training, a specific before and after training screening tool was developed within the
current work. This included five items intending to address each participant’s self-
perception on personal well-being, self-esteem, relationship with others, professional
competence, and motivation for change. Participants were instructed to answer in
relation to the way they perceived themselves before and after attending the training
program, using a five point likert scale, ranging from 1 (very bad) to 5 (excellent).

The items pertaining to the before and to the after self-perception were submitted
to separate exploratory factor analyses (EFA). For the before self-perception, the data
was found to be appropriate for such an analysis (KMO = .75) and only one factor was
retained (eigenvalue = 2.78), explaining 55.75% of the variance of the data. For the
after self-perception, again the data was found to the appropriate for an EFA (KMO =
.76) and again only one factor was retained (eigenvalue = 2.78), explaining 55.59% of
the variance of the data. Loading values for these solutions are presented in Table 1,
along with the internal consistency and descriptive values obtained for each of them.
None of these measures followed the normal distribution (z = .18, p < .001 and z = .14,
p < .001, respectively).

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 PERCEIVED IMPACT OF LIFELONG TRAINING IN TEACHERS 26

Table 1: Loading values for the before and after self-perception measures
Before After
1: My general well-being was/ is .89 .78
2: My motivation for change was/ is .76 .76
3: My ability to relate with others was/is .75 .75
4: My self-esteem was/is .68 .74
5: My perception of my own professional competence was/is .62 .70
Internal consistency .79 .80
Mean 16.45 19.80
Standard deviation 2.23 2.26

Procedures

Participants were voluntarily and on their own initiative enrolled in one of seven
training programs (cf. supplementary material on the specific goals of each of these
programs). Though specific, all these training programs shared one common goal,
which was reflected in the before and after self-perception instrument (see above): to
promote de development of soft skills (to be further applied to each participants’
professional context). The length of the training programs varied between 4 and 15
hours (M = 9.95, SD = 8.65; cf. supplementary material on the length of each program).
At the end of the training, participants were asked to rate the above mentioned
instrument. The confidentiality and anonymity of their data was guaranteed and no
participant refused to participate.

Given the goals of this work, a compare means approach was used. Specifically,
the before and after mean value was compared for the complete sample, and the
impact of socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, and professional level)
and training variables (i.e., training program and length) was also ascertained.

Results

A significant difference was found between the before and after mean value of
the sample (z = 8.19, p < .001), with participants reporting more positive
self-perceptions after attending the training programs (cf. Table 1).

A mixed design ANOVA was further used to ascertain for the effect of several
between-subject factors (i.e., gender, level of teaching, and training program); the
same within-subject factor was always used (i.e., self-perception). No specific effect of

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gender, level of teaching, or training program was found, nor of the interaction between
these variables and self-perception. Alternatively, a specific effect of self-perception
was found in all cases (F(1,90) = 121.39, p < .001, ηp2 = .57 when gender was the
between-group factor, F(1,90) = 264.57, p < .001, ηp2 = .75 when level of teaching was
the between-group factor, and F(1,85) = 128.35 p < .001, ηp2 = .60 when the training
program was the between-group factor). Such findings indicate that the significant
difference (p < .001) between the before and after self-perceptions was similar for male
and female participants, for those teaching and the kindergarten level and the formal
teaching level, and for those all the considered training programs. Participants always
perceived themselves more positively after attending the training programs (cf. Table
2).

Table 2: Descriptive values for self-perceptions by gender, teaching level, and training program

Before After

M SD M SD

Gender

Male 16.80 2.04 20.70 2.54

Female 16.40 2.25 19.69 2.21

Teaching level

Kindergarten 16.70 2.39 19.85 2.01

Formal teaching 16.25 2.09 19.77 2.45

Training program

Playing with dreams - Entrepreneurship pedagogy 17.00 2.55 20.78 2.17

Coaching and conflict management in schools 16.61 1.49 19.96 2.44

Self-knowledge training based on the enneagram 15.33 3.51 18.33 1.53

Pedagogical instruments 15.17 1.33 18.83 1.94

Entrepreneurship pedagogy 16.17 3.54 18.83 3.13

Self-knowledge 15.00 2.82 21.00 .00

Conflict management in professional contexts 16.60 2.30 19.84 2.15

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 PERCEIVED IMPACT OF LIFELONG TRAINING IN TEACHERS 28

In turn, neither age nor length of the training was a significant covariate when
comparing the before and after self-perception mean values.

Discussion

The current work intended to ascertain if teachers thought themselves to have

generally improved skills following soft skills training. Results show that all teachers
enrolled in this kind of training perceived their general skills to have improved from the
before to the after training. This was true for male and female participants, for
kindergarten teachers and for those teaching at a more formal level; also, age was not
a distinguishing factor for improved self-perception. In addition, the different themes
addressed in each specific training program and their specific lengths were also not
determinant of diverse improvement levels on the participants’ self-perception.

Jardim (2014, 2013) had already proposed that such training would be beneficial
to all teachers, as it may be further applied to personal, social and professional
well-being. It has been established that teachers who think better of their own skills
(i.e., self-efficacy) are more motivated, innovative and proactive within their
professional roles (Meroni et al. 2015). So, by working on teachers’ self-perceptions,
we may actually be impacting on the quality of teaching processes students are
subjected to (Onabamiro et al. 2014).

This being the case, it seems paramount to provide teachers with regular
opportunities of engaging in such soft skills training throughout their professional lives.
According to Jardim (2015), politics pertaining to teachers’ training that clearly opt by
the development of training programs where the individual self of each teacher is
considered will be beneficial to all the educational community. It is important that
teachers are able to enroll in trainings that promote their “teacher self” and increase
their “psychological maturity” (Barros, 2007), so that they can more adequately face the
personal, social and professional challenges they are faced with. Otherwise, being a
teacher may become a significant burden, with strong psychosocial and professional
implications (OCDE, 2005).

This work is not without limitations, the most salient being the fact that the
instrument in which the data is based was designed within the current work. Still, if
differences were found using a preliminary instrument, they may become even more
expressive if using established instruments addressing more general constructs (e.g.
burnout). The use of both kinds of instruments (i.e., more objective and more

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subjective) may be an optimal choice for future works. Also, participants reported on
their before perceptions after the training was over, and so their before perceptions
may have been biased, namely by recall procedures. Nevertheless, if anything, these
perceptions would have been positively biased by the more positive way participants
felt after the training, and so the current data may be an underestimation (and not an
overestimation) of before and after differences. A continued evaluation of this changes
over follow-up periods may also better enlighten on the continued impact of this
self-perceived overall skill improvement.

There is no doubt that soft skills are a prerequisite for professional success in the
current working environment, namely when one is faced with increased technology
dependence. Teachers may be even more relevant for teachers who face with
increased challenges (Jardim, 2014), often posed by the very working environment in
which they have to fulfill their professional duties. At the same time, the quality with
which these duties are fulfilled is of extreme relevance for the preparation of future
socially and professionally able citizens (EU Skills Panorama, 2014). So, it is up for the
educational community to make the conditions available for teachers to perform at their
very best. The current work sustains that lifelong training should be considered as one
of these conditions.

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