Nihad Ćehić
New research published this month by the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, has painted a bleak picture on the current state of teacher workload. The report shows that the average teacher will work over 11 hours beyond their contracted working hours every week.
The research methods employed to carry out this report included teachers keeping a one-week workload diary exercise. The exercises were carried out between March and April 2024 and were completed by over 1,800 teachers across 32 local authorities in Scotland. 40 teachers also took part in in-depth follow-up interviews to add depth to the research report.
Key findings from the EIS Teacher Workload Research Report 2024:
- On average, the teachers who participated in the research reported working 46 hours in the target week. This is 11.39 hours spent on work-related activity beyond the 35-hour working week stipulated in the 2001 Teachers’ Agreement.
- The three activities that consume by far the largest time commitment outside contracted hours are planning and preparing lessons, preparing resources, and marking and feedback for pupils. These core activities are consistently reported as the main drivers of workload that cannot be accomplished within contractual hours.
- Work beyond teachers’ contracted hours was the strongest predictor of perceived stress irrespective of sector or role. Workload burden leaves teachers feeling stressed within all aspects of their lives.
- The research found that there is a direct relationship between the level of work undertaken in evenings and weekends, and reported job satisfaction. As teachers work longer hours outside of their contracted hours, they are increasingly likely to feel lower levels of job satisfaction.
- Across sectors and regions, main grade interviewees commented on the challenges of completing data entry for tracking, monitoring and reporting within their contracted hours, especially regarding standardised assessment.
- Interviewees consistently reported greater use of teaching time to address low level and serious disruptive behaviour, and administrative follow-up activities outside lessons to report incidents and communicate with parents/ carers/ colleagues/external agencies.
(EIS, 2024)
What impact does this report have on teacher workload?
This report is specific to Scotland, but paints the same stark picture as the preceding forays into the problem of teacher workload. The same themes are outlined in The Teacher Workload Reduction Taskforce’s Recommendations from January 2024, The Teacher Workload Survey 2019 and the many other studies which all show the same thing.
Ultimately, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley has said: “The Scottish Government manifesto set out a number of actions – in particular an extra 3,500 teachers, and a reduction in class contact time to 21 hours – but these promises are yet to come to fruition.’’
This research report will serve as a reminder to the Scottish Government about the ongoing issue of teacher workload before what is set to be a crucial election year.
Schools have been chronically underfunded for over a decade and schools will provide support from central government in order to address many of the workload issues that are facing our teachers.
What else can be done to reduce teacher workload?
Reducing Teacher Workload through Technology:
In the EIS report the main causes of teacher workload are: “are planning and preparing lessons, preparing resources, and marking and feedback for pupils.”
More and more schools are starting to use workload reduction tools like Vibbl to support their staff with workload. Some schools use “Feedback Policies” where written marking is not expected on every piece of work and Vibbl is used as a way to record meaningful feedback a few times a year that students will act on.
This is particularly useful in subject areas like English, History or Religious Education where there is a high burden on teachers to mark extended pieces of writing.
Vibbl can also be used to reduce marking workload by flipping the feedback through using a technique such as, Dylan Wiliam’s “Detective Work”. Here a student is prompted by the teacher to find insights on their own work. Using Vibbl, students verbally record their findings building metacognition, making feedback more meaningful and helping students to practice their oracy skills in the process.
Many schools also use Vibbl to significantly reduce workload from school reports through it’s innovative AI Report Writer.
References:
- EIS. (2024). Teacher Workload Research Report 2024. Available at: https://www.eis.org.uk/teacher-workload/research. [Accessed: 21.06.2024]
