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Mapping the context: teachers’ workload
MOTUS maps the workload and context of the teaching profession
Background
It is the paradox of the teaching profession: a heavy workload and high time pressure versus the idea of short working days and lots of holidays. The discrepancy of what teacher say they are doing and the picture society has about what they think they are doing is persistent. It leads to discussion bout the misconception of the teaching profession and the number of tasks not related to teaching, both in society as well as as in politics.
The assignment
Against the backdrop of the political discussion about the teaching profession, the Minster of Education Hilde Crevits ordered a study, which is aimed at objectively measuring the working time and workload of teacher in primary and secondary education (including special secondary education). On top of that, information on teachers’ working conditions should provide additional context. The MOTUS software platform will be used to collect context-rich behavioural data.
“MOTUS maps the workload and context of teachers: what they do, how much, when, where, with whom, with what sort of technological support, and with what motivation.”
The project
The project period runs from January to April 2018 and participation entails sevensteps:
- A media campaign asks all teachers (approx. 155.000) in Flanders to participate in the study.
- To participate, teachers submit a valid email address on an informative website hetgrotetijdsonderzoek.be.
- MOTUS sends out a confirmation e-mail, that includes a unique username and password, together with an invitation to complete a profile questionnaire on motusresearch.io. This profile questionnaire includes an identifier to be linked with administrative data.
- Based on the completed profile questionnaires, teachers will be dispersed over the fieldwork period.
- Teachers will be invited to fill in a pre-questionnaire which asks about their demographic characteristics and characteristics of their school and class.
- Hereafter teachers start their 7-day time-diary registration.
- To finalise their participation, teachers complete a post-questionnaire which asks about the previous registration week.
The results
After data collection and preparation of the datasets, multiple reports will be handed over to the Minister of Education Hilde Crevits and the steering committee, which includes educational umbrella organisations and education unions. When the project ends, teachers will get an overview of their own time registration and a possibility to compare their results with the averages of comparable others, all with guarantee of privacy.
In short
Diverging opinions about the workload and time pressure of teachers is central to a political debate.
MOTUS maps the workload and context of teachers: what they do, how much, when, where, with whom, with what sort of technological support, and with what motivation.
Data collection includes a pre-questionnaire, a 7-day time-diary registration, and a post-questionnaire.
When the project ends, teachers will get an overview of their own time registration on a personalised webpage in MOTUS; Aggregated reports will be handed to the Minister of Education.
