Monday, March 30, 2009

MOTIVES FOR BECOMING A TEACHER

MOTIVES FOR BECOMING A TEACHER

There are many motives, both idealistic and practical, for choosing a career in teaching. Their motives may include (1) a love of children, (2) a desire to impart knowladge, (3) an interest in and excitement about teaching, and (4) a desire to perform a valuable service to society. Other reasons may include (1) job security and pension benefit, (2) relatively short working days and long vacations, (3) the relative ease of preparing for teaching, compared with other professions, and (4) the ability to earn a reasonable income while preparing for another profession.

As a prospective teacher, an awareness of the importance of the decision to enter the teaching field is essential. Your reasons for choosing teaching as a career will undoubtedly affect your attitude and behavior with your reasons for wanting to teach, it might be helpful for you to consider what motivated others to become teachers.

A nationwide stratified sample of 1.533 teachers contcted in 1971 by the National Education Association (NEA) listed the major reasons they decided to enter the profession. The main reason is a desire to work with young people. Almost 72 percent of the respondents gave this choice as one of their three major reasons. Next highest response was the value of education to society with 37 percent. It was mentioned by 57 percent of the secondary teachers, compared by the NEA in 1976 yielded almost identical result. A 1980 study of high school seniors also found that the main reason for selesting teaching as a career is the desire to help children and youth.

STRESS AND COPING

Like other occupations, teaching has its difficult and stressful moments. This conclusion was underscored in a 1979 study conducted for the American Academy of Family Physicians. The Academy surveyed six different groups as part of a study on lifestyle and health care in differing occupations: business executives, physicians, farmers, garment workers, secretaries, and teachera Included in the study were 501 teachers.

One of the questions asked was, “How stressful is your work environment?” Sixty-three percent of the teachers answered “usually” or “always”, as compared with 81 percent of the executives, 65 percent of the physicians, 38 percent of the farmers, 44 percent of the garment workers, and 61 percent of the secretaries. It should not be inferred, however, that stress is necessarily a negative job characteristic. Challenging jobs are bound to involve a significant amount of stress, and many people feel that challenge is desirable as long as stress is manageable. Thus, although 81 percent of executives said their jobs were usually or always stressful, 93 percent said they liked their work. Conversely, althaough only 44 percent of the garment workers said their jobs usually or always or always involved stress, only 75 percent said they liked their jobs.

Evidence that accumulated in the letter part of the 1970s indicated that elementary and secondary teaching has become more stressful than it was in earlier periods and that greater stress is causing burnout among some teachers. One definition of burnout makes it simply synonymous with “physical, emotional, and attitudinal exhaustion. Authorities on burnout believe that it disproportionately strikes persons in the “helping” professions such as counselors, social workers, perole officers, and teachers.

The emphasis in recent years has been to encourage professionals who experience stress to develop a variety of coping techniques. Counselors point out that exercise, rest, hobbies, good nutrition, meditation or other relaxation techniques, efficient scheduling of personal affairs, and vacations can help individuals cope with high-stress jobs. Recommendations for avoiding burnout also sdvise teachers to participate in professional renewal activities, separate their jobs from home life, and try to maintain flexibility and an open-minded attitude towars change. Activities or projects undertaken by professional organizations and school districts to help teachers avoid burnout include an effort in Chicago to train volunteers to conduct rap sessions for teachers, a program of counseling and possible leaves of absence for teachers experiencing stress sponsored by the Tuscon Education Association, and Prevention and Management of Educational Stress workshops conducted by the Northwest staff Development Center in Wayne Country, Michigan.

1 comment:

  1. Teaching is the best occupation not only the source of earning but also make the the lives of hundred people.http://www.smartcustomwriting.com/cheap-essays Motives for becoming a teacher motivates the people to do something for nation.Main reason for selecting teaching as a career is the desire to help children and youth. I must say it is the best initiative towards success of any nation.

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