HKIER

Abstract

A survey was conducted to examine the effect of teacher expectation of higher disciplinary problems on predicting stress among Hong Kong secondary school teachers. Questionnaires were completed by 187 teachers from 14 secondary schools. The results show that teacher expectation of higher disciplinary problems could be a major predictor of stress. Compared with teachers from band 1 schools, teachers from band 3 schools reported higher level of teacher stress, greater number of disruptive students in class, higher teacher expectation of more disciplinary problems in the beginning of the term, and more time spent on classroom management. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that teacher expectation of a higher level of disciplinary problems predict teacher stress after controlling for school banding and actual disruptive situation in classroom. The findings from our study suggest that how teachers cognitively construe the working environment could substantially influence occupational stress above and beyond the actual working environment. “What teacher expects” might be an important factor to consider when examining teacher stress. Recommendations on alleviating teacher stress were made.

Keywords: teacher expectation; disruptive classroom situation; school banding; stress

摘要

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