Professional development and experienced workload of primary school teachers in the Netherlands

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Running head: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIENCED WORKLOAD

Professional Development and Experienced Workload of Primary School Teachers in the Netherlands Bachelor’s Thesis Educational Sciences

University of Amsterdam, College of Child Development and Education

Name: Hanneke Baukema Student number: 11022493

Bachelor Thesis Supervisor: R. Mioch

Bachelor Thesis First Evaluator: J. Schuitema Bachelor Thesis Second Evaluator: T. Van Schijndel May 2019

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Table of contents

Abstract ... 3

Introduction ... 4

The present study ... 5

Method ... 7 Literature Review ... 7 Qualitative study ... 8 Participants. ... 8 Instrument. ... 8 Procedure. ... 8 Data analysis. ... 8

Chapter 1: Professional development ... 15

The system of professional development ... 16

Facilitators. ... 17

Professional development program (PD-program). ... 19

Teachers. ... 20

Context. ... 21

Chapter conclusion ... 21

Chapter 2: Teachers’ experienced workload ... 22

Chapter 3: Relationship between experienced workload and professionalization ... 26

Results focus group ... 27

Professional development. ... 27

Teacher Characteristics. ... 28

Teacher team. ... 28

School board. ... 29

School policy. ... 29

Professional development and workload. ... 30

Chapter conclusion ... 30

Conclusion and Discussion ... 32

Main research findings ... 32

Reference list ... 35

Appendix A. Practical recommendations for the field of education ... 41

Appendix B. Transcript focus group ... 42

Appendix C. Coding schema focus group ... 51

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EXPERIENCED WORKLOAD AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3

Abstract

Society and education are both subject to many changes. It is necessary for teachers to adapt to these changes. Thus, the professional development of teachers is a topic which is high on the educational agenda. Currently, the concept of workload plays a major role in Dutch primary education. For this reason, the primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relation between the experienced workload and professional development of primary school teachers. This study was conducted in the Netherlands. Data for this study was gathered in two different ways: through a literature review and through a focus group interview. The qualitative part of this study was conducted in April 2019. The focus group consisted of six teachers, among which, one teacher-to-be. On the basis of the results of this study, it can be concluded that the relation between experienced workload and professional development of primary school teachers is very ambiguous. Lastly, this study proposes a theoretical model that explains the relation between experienced workload and professional development. Following this model, the experienced workload can both hinder and stimulate professional

development and professional development can both decrease and increase the experienced workload. Finally, based on the conclusion, this study made some practical recommendations for the field of education.

Keywords: teachers’ professional development, professional space, informal learning, formal learning, experienced workload, job demands

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Introduction

Recently, there has been a social and political discussion in the Netherlands about the quality of education and the growing experienced workload of teachers in primary education. An article published at the beginning of 2019 describes that teachers’ lack of time negatively affects the quality of education. That same article stated that education should be modernized but that there is no time made available for the necessary professional development (Stooker, 2019). This is disagreeable because education represents a large social and political importance (Dijkstra, 2012). As described in Dijkstra (2012), education shapes people. Moreover, through education people acquire knowledge that is indispensable in life. To illustrate: health, jobs, incomes, and living possibilities all depend on the persons’ received education (Dijkstra, 2012). Because of this recognized importance of education, the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science largely invest in the quality of primary school teachers and school leaders: the Ministry claims that good primary education starts with good teachers and good teaching materials. For example with the introduction of the teacher and school heads register, budget for professionalization, and budget for reducing the workload of teachers (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, n.d.-a). Continuing, a Dutch report made by the Ministry in 2011 outlining long term educational aims till 2020, describes that in particular that the professional quality of teachers and school leaders must be improved in order to realize the best possible quality of education (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2011). The main focus in this report of the Ministry is the indispensability of professional development to increase the quality of education.

Professional development of teachers can be defined as all the processes and activities that are designed to reinforce and improve the teaching behavior of teachers (Van Veen, Zwart, Meirink, & Verloop, 2010). Most common professionalization activities among primary teachers are: short courses, observations, team training days, and different kinds of studies. The content, form, and duration of these professional development activities are not established by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. In fact, organizing professionalization is the school's own responsibility. Every school is obliged to include a paragraph about how to improve the quality of teachers (Professional Development program) in the school plan (WPO, 1981). However, there are some organizational restrictions imposed, like the number of hours that teachers must spend on individual

professionalization. This will also be explained later on in this study. In terms of the ongoing social and political discussion about the quality of education, several organizations such as the PO-raad (Primary Education Board) give advice regarding, for example, the content of the professionalization activities. Many researchers have, for this reason, looked at what kind of professionalization activities are effective. This will also be discussed later on in this study. The general aim of professional development is to improve teacher learning and practices, and finally student’s learning (Van Veen et al., 2010; Whitworth & Chiu, 2015).

Furthermore, professional development is not only important in schools, but it is of real value in all kind of organizations that work with people. However, when searching for literature on

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professional development, almost all articles cover professional development in schools. This indicates that professional development of teachers already receives the needed scientific attention. But these are changing times with many education reforms, so what we consider as ‘recent’ literature may not be that recent anymore (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). This is especially true for Dutch primary education, which is currently in the news a lot for among other things: inclusive education, the strikes for the shortage of teachers, and the growing experienced workload. Up to now, little has been written about the influence of these debatable subjects on teachers’ professional development. This is important to investigate because as noted before, professional development is the key for qualitative good

education. This study will therefore focus on the relationship between teachers’ experienced workload and their professional development.

Nowadays, the experienced workload of Dutch primary teachers is a hot topic. Many newspapers write about the growing experienced workload of teachers and the disadvantages that it entails. In 2018 and 2019 there have been a number of educational strikes that have focused on this problem. With the strikes, teachers ask for higher salary and a reduction of the workload. Because of this, the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science feels the pressure and need to do something about the workload of the teachers; they made 237 million euros available for reducing the workload for teachers in the year 2018-2019, and even a higher number for the following year. They declared that with this money, schools can take serious measurements to really make a difference in the classroom (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, n.d.-b). A downside of this ‘solution’ brought up by Noordegraaf and Van Loon (2017) is that money cannot rapidly vanish the problems in the field of education. Thus, it is important to know the whole picture of the experienced workload by teachers. Unfortunately, almost no research has been done into the effects of a heavy experienced workload by teachers. The few studies that have been done regarding this subject, mainly focus on the experiences, perceptions, and the influence of it on people their health. Until now, no research has been done into the relationship between experienced workload of teachers and their professional development. It is necessary to fill this existing gap, because of the considerable importance of professional development on the quality of education. Experienced workload has been growing and therefore research must be conducted to identify the possible effects it can have on the professional development of teachers and in turn the quality of education.

The present study

To fill this above-mentioned gap, the present study will examine literature on professional development of teachers and the experienced workload of teachers. The focus will be on primary school teachers in the Netherlands. The aim of the current research is to gain insight into the possible effects of the experienced workload on professional development and the other way around. The research question that is central to this study is: What is the relation between experienced workload and professional development of primary school teachers? This research question will be answered

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using the following subquestions:

1. What is meant by professional development and what are the different forms? 2. What makes professional development effective?

3. What is being considered as experienced workload (in the Netherlands)?

4. What are the effects of the experienced workload on primary school teachers and on professional development?

5. What are the practical recommendations to tackle the tension between the experienced workload and the professional development of primary school teachers?

To answer the research questions, a literature review will be conducted as well as qualitative data gathering trough a focus group interview. The first part of this study, concerning the literature review, will gain more insight into the subquestions 1, 2, and 3, and partly 4, and 5. The second part of this study, involving the focus group interview, is meant to fill lacunae in the literature concerning the link between professional development and experienced workload of primary school teachers in the Netherlands. The last subquestion (5) will be presented in the first appendix (Appendix A). The conclusions of this thesis will be discussed in the final chapter, as well as the limitations of this study and the recommendations for follow-up research.

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Method

In this study both a literature review and a qualitative data gathering in the form of a focus group interview with stakeholders in the field of primary education has been conducted to answer the research question and the complementary sub-questions. First the methodology of the literature review will be described. Secondly, the methodology of the qualitative data gathering will be described.

Literature Review

During February, April, and May 2019 articles have been gathered via various databases. In the initial stage of the process, literature was searched via Google Scholar. This resulted in the first articles to explore the subject. In this stage the goals were to learn more about the subject and formulate a research question and the corresponding sub-questions. After those questions were formulated, deeper and more specific literature was necessary. The search was extended with the databases PsychINFO and Web of Science. The general search terms that have been used to gather literature were ‘Professional Development’, ‘Professional Space’, ‘Workload’, and ‘Work Pressure’, combined with ‘Teacher(s)’ and ‘Primary School’. When searching for specific information, more specific search terms have been used. Also, the function AND/OR was used to combine key terms. The results were filtered on recent publication date, namely less than ten years old and the publication type, namely peer reviewed journal. Besides using Google Scholar, PsychINFO, and Web of Science, additional literature has been found though a method called ‘snowballing’, in which new literature can been found in the literature list of already obtained articles.

The keywords ‘Professional Development’ OR ‘Professional Space’ AND ‘Workload’ OR ‘Work Pressure’ in the three databases did not result in qualitative good articles. For that reason, specific articles for the sub-questions were searched, all with the search terms ‘Teacher(s) and ‘Netherlands’. For subquestion 1 the search term ‘Professional Development’ was combined with the following search terms: ‘Formal Learning’ AND/OR ‘Informal Learning’. For subquestions 2 the search terms ‘Professional Development’ AND ‘Effective’ have been used. For subquestion 3 and 4 the search terms ‘Experienced’ AND ‘Workload’ OR ‘Work Pressure’ OR ‘Job Demands’ have been used. When more articles were needed, snowballing was used to find additional literature. If necessary the search terms ‘Primary School’ and ‘Netherlands’ were left behind to broaden the search. When searching for more profound information, more specific search terms have been used.

In total, 61 articles have been used in this thesis. Of those 61 articles, 3 were qualitative studies, 23 were quantitative studies, 5 were methodological articles, 9 were news articles, and 1 mixed-method study. Furthermore, this thesis used 20 literature reviews. An overview of these studies can be found in Table 1. It is good to note that not all articles are of equal importance for the

foundation of this thesis. The conceptual foundation is built up on the basis of more than half of all used articles: 28 in total.

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Qualitative study

Participants. The qualitative data gathering for this study took place through a focus group

interview. All participants (n=6) were Dutch stakeholders in the field of primary education (e.g. teacher, student, educational leader). All participants were working at different schools. Further details of the participants can be found in Table 2.

Instrument. For this qualitative research, a semi-structerend focus group guideline has been

used, consisting of eight statements. Three examples of the statements are: “I experience enough professional space”, “I recognize the importance of professionalization”, and “I experience heavy workload”.

Procedure. The focus group interview was held to gain more insight in the lacunae of the

literature concerning the link between professional development and experienced workload of primary school teachers in the Netherlands. The participants were recruited via the researchers’ own network. All invited teachers were enthusiast and wanted to participate in the focus group. The focus group was held on the third of April. There was one interview leader present. The focus group lasted for two hours with a short break of ten minutes. With permission of the participants, the interview was recorded.

The participants only knew the general subject of the focus group interview in advance. At the beginning of the focus group the participants were instructed on how the focus group interview would proceed. They were made aware of the anonymity and confidentiality of the study. In addition, a safe atmosphere was created by emphasizing that all opinions and contributions were welcome. At the start of the focus group, all participants received three papers (green (agree), red (disagree), and blue (neutral)). During the focus group, ten statements were discussed. For almost every statement they were asked to choose a color, and the interview started from there. At the end of the focus group interview, the participants were asked if they wanted to give any extra comments. Further, they were asked to fill in a short questionnaire with some general questions (e.g. age, gender, years working in education). Finally, they were thanked for their participation.

Data analysis. First of all, the recorded material of the focus group interview was transcribed

using Microsoft Word (see Appendix B). To analyse the transcript of the focus group interview, the three steps of coding have been used. First, open coding, then axial coding, and finally selective coding (Corbin & Strauss, 1990). The coding scheme can be found in Appendix C.

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Table 2

Participants information

Variable Total group (n=6) (%)

Gender

Male 1 (16,67)

Female 5 (83,33)

Age range 17- 52

Profession of participant

Primary school teacher 3 (50)

Educational supervisor a _{1 (16,67)} Student at college of education (PABO) 1 (16,67)

Educational leader b _1(16,67)

Years working in education 0- 27

Note. a_{In the past an educational supervisor and also a primary school teacher.} b_{Educational leader} and a primary school teacher.

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Table 1

Overview of studies used in this thesis

Author(s) Year Topic Main subject Type of article Location

Agresti & Franklin 2015 Statistics: The art and science of learning from data Statistics Book -

Ballet & Kelchtermans 2009 Struggling with Workload: primary teachers’ experience of intensification

Workload primary education, professional identity, intensification

Qualitative study Belgium

Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Cuevas, & Lonsdale

2014 Job pressure and ill-health in physical education teachers: The mediating role of psychological need thwarting

Job pressure, burnout, psychological need thwarting, and somatic complaints among high school teachers

Quantitative study Spain

Bierings 2017 Profession and workload in the Netherlands Workload in the Netherlands Qualitative study Borko 2004 Professional development and teacher learning:

Mapping the terrain

Effective professional development programs and their impact on teacher learning

Literature review -

Bredeson & Johansson 2000 The school principal's role in teacher professional development

Role of the principles on professional development Literature review -

Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau

2000 An empirical examination of self-reported work stress among U.S. managers

Self-reported stress and job search among U.S. managers

Quantitative study United States of America Corbin & Strauss 1990 Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and

evaluative criteria.

Methodological questions that are applicable to all qualitative methods

Literature review -

Crawford, LePine, & Rich

2010 Linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: A theoretical extension and meta-analytic test

Job demand-resources model and employee engagement and burnout

Quantitative (meta-analysis) -

Deci & Ryan 1985 The general causality orientations scale: Self-determination in personality

The degree of self-determination Quantitative study -

Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli

2001 The job demands-resources model of burnout Job demands, exhaustion, burnout and disengagement

Quantitative study Germany

Desimone 2009 Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: towards better conceptualizations and measures

Effects of professional development Literature review -

Dijkstra 2012 Social returns of education (Measuring) Social return of education Literature review -

Dutch Education Council

2013 Being a teacher. More attention for personal professionalism

DUO 2016 Report: ‘Workload in primary education’ The situation of experienced workload among Dutch primary school teachers

Quantitative study The Netherlands DUO 2019 Raport: Research about the effects of the budget to

reduce workload

The effect of the extra money for reducing the experienced workload

Quantitative study The Netherlands

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Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, & Krüger

2009 The effect of teacher psychological and school organizational and leadership factors on teachers' professional learning in Dutch schools

Explaining variation in teachers’ professional learning by focusing on psychological states, school organizational conditions, and leadership practices

Gill, Stewart, Treasure, & Chadwick

2008 Methods of data collection in qualitative research: interviews and focus groups

Qualitative research, focus groups Literature review -

Glatthorn 1995 Content of the curriculum Curriculum design, research, educational

assessment, student evaluation, and professional development

Literature review -

Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli

2006 Burnout and work engagement among teachers Job Demands-Resources model, burnout and employee engagement

Quantitative study Finland

Holman & Wall 2002 Work characteristics, learning-related outcomes, and strain: a test of competing direct effects, mediated, and moderated models

Work characteristics and learning related outcomes, and strains

Quantitative study United Kingdom

Hunzicker 2011 Effective professional development for teachers: A checklist

Effective professional development, a list of factors.

Literature review -

Huyghebaert, Gillet, Beltou, Tellier, & Fouquereau,

2018 Effects of workload on teachers’ functioning: A moderated mediation model including sleeping problems and overcommitment

Workload en the negative effects Quantitative study France

Kennedy 1998 Form and Substance in Inservice Teacher Education Effective factors teacher education Literature review - Kostogriz & Peeler 2007 Professional identity and pedagogical space:

Negotiating difference in teacher workplaces

Professional space Qualitative study Australia

Kwakman 2003 Factors affecting teachers’ participation in professional learning activities

Teacher learning at the workplace and exploring factors that may affect learning at the workplace. Kyndt, Gijbels,

Grosemans, & Doche

2016 Teachers’ everyday professional development: Mapping informal learning activities, antecedents, and learning outcomes

Informal learning (everyday learning), beginning and more experienced teachers

Literature review -

Lambert & Loiselle 2008 Combining individual interviews and focus groups to enhance data richness

Statistics of focus groups Qualitative study

LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine

2005 A meta-analytic test of the challenge stressor– hindrance stressor framework: An explanation for inconsistent relationships among stressors and performance

Challenge stressors and hindrance stressors Quantitative (meta-analysis) study

-

Little 1993 Teachers’ professional development in a climate of educational reform

Reform and professional development Literature review -

Lohman 2006 Factors influencing teachers' engagement in informal learning activities

Factors influencing the engagement of teachers in informal learning activities

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Lubberman & Pijpers 2013 Effective professionalization in education organizations

Teacher characteristics for effective professionalization

Report, literature review The Netherlands Ministerie van

Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap

2011 Teacher 2020 Action Plan (a powerful report!) Quality of Dutch education, teachers Report, literature review The Netherlands

Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap

2017 Room between rules (Only dull paperwork or can it be different?)

The rules in education for schools, freedom of the school

Report, literature review The Netherlands Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap n.d-a

Improve position and quality of teachers Measurement for improving the professional quality of Dutch teachers,

Article of the Government The Netherlands Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap n.d-b

Government funding education The way the government fund the Dutch schools Article of the Government The Netherlands

Noordegraaf & Van Loon

2017 Why money and time do not fix the problems of teachers

Opinions of Noordegraaf and Loon about the current problems of Dutch teachers

Article of a newspaper The Netherlands OECD 2014 Education at a Glance 2014 (OECD Indicators) OECD indicators, outcomes, and skills Report, literature review OECD

countries Onderwijsraad 2016 A different approach on the professional space of

teachers in education

Recommendations for creating professional space Article of the Dutch Education board

The Netherlands Oolbekkink-Marchand,

Hadar, Smith, Helleve, & Ulvik

2017 Teachers' perceived professional space and their agency.

Teacher agency, professional development, and professional space

Qualitative Norway,

Israel, and The Netherlands Platform Werkdruk n.d Working with workload Step-by-step plan for solving the workload problem Article on the website of

Platform Workload

The Netherlands

PO-Raad 2018 CAO PO 2018-2019 Collective work agreement primary education Report The

Netherlands Richter, Kunter,

Klusmann, Ludtke, Baumert

2011 Professional development across the teaching career: Teachers’ uptake of formal and informal learning opportunities

Formal and informal professional development across teacher’s career cycle

Quantitative study Germany

Roe & Zijlstra 2000 Work pressure. Results of a conceptual and empirical analysis

Work demands, workload, work pressure, and work stress

Quantitative study The Netherlands Schaufeli & Bakker 2004 Job demands, job resources, and their relationship

with burnout and engagement: A multi-sample study.

Burnout and employee engagement, JD-R model Quantitative study The Netherlands Sessa & London 2015 Continuous learning in organizations: Individual,

group, and organizational perspectives

Continuous learning of people, looking at the individual, group and organizational level

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Skule, S. 2004 Learning conditions at work: a framework to understand and assess informal learning in the workplace

The importance of informal learning Quantitative study Norway

Stooker 2019 Cause of teacher shortage? Opinion of Stooker on the cause of the teacher shortage: salary and bad profession image (due to workload)

Article of a newspaper The Netherlands

Thoonen, Sleegers, Oort, Peetsma, & Geijsel,

2011 How to improve teaching practices: The role of teacher motivation, organizational factors, and leadership practices

Teacher learning and teaching practices, transformational leadership and school organizational conditions

Van Mortel 2008 Faking it: social desirability response bias in self-report research

Statistics, social desirability scale Quantitative (meta-analysis) study

-

Van den Broeck, De Cuyper, De Witte, & Vansteenkiste,

2010 Not all job demands are equal: differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the job demands-resources model

Job demands job hindrances and job challenges Quantitative study The Netherlands and Belgium Van der Heijden, Boon,

Van der Klink, & Meijs,

2009 Employability enhancement through formal and informal learning: An empirical study among Dutch non-academic university staff members

Relationship between formal and informal learning on employability and on job performances

Van Ruysseveldt, & Van Dijke

2011 When are workload and workplace learning opportunities related in a curvilinear manner? The moderating role of autonomy

JD-R model, relation between workload and workplace learning, not specified on teachers

Quantitative study Belgium

Van Veen, Zwart, Meirink, & Verloop

2010 Professional development of teachers: a review study into effective characteristics of teachers'

professionalization interventions

Effective characteristics of professional development interventions

Literature review -

Villegas-Reimers 2003 Teacher professional development: an international review of the literature

Professional development, international Literature review -

Whitworth & Chiu 2015 Professional development and teacher change: The missing leadership link.

Factors for effective professional development and teacher change

Literature review -

Wiezer, Schelvis, Zwieten, Kraan, Klauw, Houtman, & Bakhuys Roozeboom,

2012 Workload Report about workload in the Netherlands Report, literature review -

Witteveen 2019 More teachers at primary school reduce the workload Opinion of Witteveen about how to solve the workload problem at the primary school

Article of a newspaper The Netherlands

WPO 1981 Law of Primair education Law of Primair education in the Netherlands Article, Law of the

Government

The Netherlands

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Yoon, Duncan, Lee, Scarloss, & Shapley

2007 Reviewing the Evidence on How Teacher Professional Development Affects Student Achievement.

Relation between professional development and student achievement

Quantitative (meta-analysis) -

Zwart, Louws, Zuiker, Oolbekkink, Leeferink, Schaap, Meirink, Want van der, Meijer,

2018 Professional space: no "one size fits all". Opinions of teachers and school leaders about the organization and use of professional space in schools

Professional space of teachers A mixed-method approach combining quantitative and qualitative data

The Netherlands

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Running head: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIENCED WORKLOAD

Chapter 1: Professional development

As described in the introduction of this thesis, professional development of teachers can be interpreted as all the processes and activities that are designed to reinforce and improve the teaching behavior of teachers (Van Veen, Zwart, Meirink, & Verloop, 2010). Another well used and more detailed definition of professional development of teachers is the definition of Glatthorn (1995, p. 41): “Teacher development is the professional growth a teacher achieves as a result of gaining increased experience and examining his or her teaching systematically”. Unfortunately, it is hard to determine in what kind of skills and knowledge teachers must (further) grow because of the variety of personalities and values of teachers and principles of schools. Therefore, schools and teachers can determine for themselves what kind of professional development activities they need. Professional development can be divided into two overarching types of professionalization activities: formal and informal activities. Formal learning opportunities are defined as structured learning environments with a specified curriculum, such as graduate courses, workshops, or mandated staff development (Richter, Kunter, Klusmann, Ludtke, & Baumert, 2011). Many European countries, among which, the Netherlands, their require their teachers to participate in this type of professionalization on a regular basis (Richter et al., 2011). On the other hand, there is informal learning that is not restricted to a certain environment and does not follow a specified curriculum (Desimone, 2009). In contrast to formal activities, which are mostly mandatory, the informal activities are most of the time on the teacher’s own initiative.

As described above, based on training policies, many organizations require their employees to attend mandatory formal development activities. Informal learning, on the other hand, is often ignored. This does not mean that employees do not learn on-the-job, but that contains that there is not an explicit focus on informal learning in schools. This is a phenomenon that occurs in all different kinds of organizations and therefore also in schools. This ignorance happens while there are some limitations of traditional formal development activities (Kyndt, Gijbels, Grosemans, & Donche, 2016). The systematic literature review of Kyndt et al. (2016) shows that the literature about informal learning has risen since the 1990s. This illustrate that this topic only recently has received an increased amount of attention (Van der Heijden, Boon, Van der Klink, & Meijs, 2009). The study of Kyndt et al. (2016) has analyzed 74 studies focusing on teachers’ informal learning. This review found, based on 20 studies, several important informal learning outcomes: subject knowledge, pedagogical knowledge,

pedagogical skills, professional attitudes, and professional identity. These learning outcomes have been defined as: “sustainable changes in knowledge, skills, or attitudes as a result of engaging in learning activities” (Kyndt et al., 2016, p.1134). They also defined the ten most common informal learning activities based on 53 studies: reading professional literature, observation, collaboration with colleagues, reflection, learning by doing/through experience, browsing internet and social media, experimenting, trial and error, talk with other, sharing material and resources, and final storytelling. Those results illustrate that informal learning can be done in many different forms. Several studies

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showed that informal learning is more effective than formal learning and also leads to better student outcomes (Skule, 2004).

The studies of Kyndt et al. (2016) and Richter et al. (2011) have focused on teachers’ uptake of formal and informal learning across their career. Their results show that there is a difference in the age of teachers and their use of formal and informal learning. The formal learning opportunities were used most frequently by mid-career teachers. The results show that starting teachers (teachers in the first three years of their career) use more informal opportunities such as observations and meetings than experienced teachers. Another finding worth noting, is that starting teachers are more oriented towards learning classroom management skills and attitudes whereas the more experienced teachers are more oriented towards searching new teaching methods. The mid-career teachers are more oriented towards refining and diversifying their instructional techniques through experimentation. Furthermore, the use of professional literature increased with teacher age, whereas teacher collaboration decreased. Based on the findings of the above-mentioned studies, it is good to state that the dominating idea of ignoring informal learning must be changed rapidly. From now on, informal and formal professional development must be seen as complementary to each other (Richter et al., 2011; Kyndt et al., 2016). Before continuing to the different antecedents of the system of professional development, the influence of the rapidly changing technology and new educational insight, in short, educational reform on teachers’ professional development will be discussed. Educational reform is the reason why teachers need to improve. All educational reforms have far-reaching consequences (some bigger than others) for teachers and their profession. Due to this impact, teachers need to acquire and use new knowledge, new skills, different views, and different attitudes (Whitworth & Chiu, 2015; Stooker, 2019; Little, 1993; Villegas-Reimers, 2003). The study of Little (1993) addresses the problem of ‘fit’ between educational reform and professional development of teachers. This article illustrates that educational reform forms challenges, possibilities, and constraints for teachers’ professional development. Little (1993) stated that professional development is often too weak to cope with the complexity and ambiguity of an educational reform. Additionally, she describes in her study that due to the complexity of a reform in combination with important factors (e.g. school organization, equity, assessment) the professional development of teachers is often a low-intensity enterprise. The study ends with recommendations to change the content of teachers’ professional development to make it more resistant to educational reforms. The authors’ biggest recommendation is that professional development: “must be constructed in ways that deepen the discussion, opens up debates, and enrich the array of possibilities for actions” (Little, 1993, p. 148). To gain more insight into the system of professional development, the next few paragraphs will focus on the four antecedents of professional development.

The system of professional development

Figure 1 shows the four key elements that make up a professional development system: the professional development program (PD program), the teachers who engage in professional

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development, the facilitators (e.g. school leader, government) who guide and direct the professional development, and the context in which the professional development occurs. These different elements will be discussed one by one in the next paragraphs.

Figure 1. Elements of a professional development system (Borko, 2004). This figure illustrates the different elements of a professional development system according to Borko (2004).

Facilitators. First, the facilitators of the professional development will be discussed. The first

important overarching facilitator is the government. The second facilitator that will be discussed in this chapter stands much closer to the teachers, the school leader. Beginning with the last-named

facilitator, the school leader, whose influence in the structure, culture, and mission of a school is well-documented. Likewise, there is enough literature about the role of the school leader on professional development of teachers. Many articles describe that the professional development of teachers should be part of the structure, culture, and mission of a school, to be effective (Geijsel, Sleegers, Stoel, & Kruger, 2009; Bredeson & Johansson, 2000). There is no doubt that the school leader has a

significance influence on teacher professional development (Bredeson & Johansson, 2000). The school leader is in a unique position to influence professional development and to influence and oversee the overall quality of professional development. Furthermore, school leaders play an important role in the design, delivery, and evaluation of professional development. The article of Bredeson and Johansson (2000) delineates the role of the school leader in the professional development of teachers. This article divided the influence of the school leader on teacher professional development in four general areas: (1) The principal as an instructional leader and learner. For example, principals can use a variety of activities to encourage learning and ensure that there is a positive attitude about learning. Further principals as learners must set learning goals for themselves and in this way, they promote learning towards the teachers. (2) The creation of a learning environment. Principles can for example create a learning environment through verbal interactions and interpersonal communications: talk and listen. Besides, principals can pay attention to the management part of creating a learning environment, through coordinating activities, making decisions on resources and school priorities, scheduling time and spaces. (3) Direct involvement in the design, delivery, and content of teachers’ professional

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development. Principals can for example align professional development with the school goals, stimulate teachers as decision makers, and stimulate a variety of learning activities.

(4) The assessment of professional development outcomes. For example through regularly supervising and evaluating teachers. This ensures that teachers can adjust their learning goals and improve their teaching. Those four areas show that the principals must not only been seen as gatekeepers, but as instructional leaders and learners as well (Bredeson & Johansson, 2000). The collaboration between teachers and the organizational staff in a school will bring professional development to a higher level. When those ‘two’ actors work together in creating and delivering professional development, it will pay off in many forms (e.g. in higher student outcomes, organizational success).

The second overarching facilitator is the government. Schools must provide enough

professional space in which teachers can develop (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2011). To provide this professional space, measures have been taken by the government. So, besides the important role of the school leader in teachers’ professional development, the government also has a stake in organizing professional development. The government has been structurally spending money on opportunities for professionalization. But before we go into this further, it is important to discuss the way financing from the government works. The Dutch schools receive lumpsum financing since 2006. Which means that schools get an amount of money with which they can decide for

themselves what to spend it on, as long as, in the end the final yields are high enough (PO-raad, 2019). Although the schools may decide for themselves how to spend the money, the amount they receive is made up of two separate parts: personal lumpsum and material lumpsum (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, n.d-b). The first lumpsum is for the most part based on the number of students that the school contains on the first of October the year before (T-1 funding). A side note of the personal lumpsum financing is that the lumpsum takes the age of the teachers into account, the so-called weighted average age (In Dutch: Gewogen Gemiddelde Leeftijd (GGL)). This is because older teachers earn more money than younger teachers, which results in higher salary expenses for the school. Thus, when the schools invest in a younger teacher team, the GGL decreases which causes a greater discrepancy between the funding and the costs. Currently there is a lot of discussion about the GGL, but this will not be discussed in this thesis. Besides the personal lumpsum, the schools also receive a material lumpsum. This lumpsum is for the funding of the building (e.g. maintenance, cleaning, energy costs) as well as the material cost of a school (e.g. ICT, teaching materials, furniture). In addition to the lumpsum the schools also receive a performance box (In Dutch: prestatiebox). This can be seen as a part of the lumpsum but with some justification obligation. This budget has been added on top of the lumpsum en must be used for specific themes, such as culture and science education. So, in conclusion, schools in the Netherlands have a certain freedom in determining with what aim(s) they spend their money. However, the collective labor agreement of the primary education contains some financial guidelines for among other things professionalization. It states that schools must spend 500 euros per full time equivalent (FTE) per teacher on individual professionalization and

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that teachers are entitled to two hours per workweek for individual professionalization (PO-raad, 2018). In sum, a serious amount of money is spent by the government on the professional development of teachers. Therefore it is critical to understand what makes professional development of teachers effective and what works counterproductive.

Professional development program (PD-program). Second, the effectiveness of

professional development programs will be discussed. Van Veen et al. (2010) wrote a review study about the effective characteristics of professional development activities of teachers. This review consisted of 11 reviews and 34 studies. They used the effective characteristics that were mentioned in the review of Kennedy (1998) as a central basis. Those characteristics (teachers’ knowledge of the subject, on the curriculum, and on how students learn the subject) were compared and supplemented with the findings from other, more recent studies (Kennedy, 1998). Van Veen et al. (2010) explicitly wrote in their article that the following characteristics must be seen as indications instead of strict guidelines. (1) Focus on subject content and subject didactics. This characteristic has been seen as very relevant for teachers’ professional development in many studies. Some studies even describe that this is the most relevant characteristic. When teachers delve more into the subject that they are teaching, it leads to beneficial effects on their own learning practice and the learning of the children. Furthermore, it is important that the teacher knows how different kinds of children learn and what he or she can do so that every child can reach the maximum at his or her own level. (2) Active learning and

investigative learning. This characteristic refers to observing others and being observed yourself, giving and receiving feedback and discussing, analyzing, and investigating certain educational topics. (3) Collectivity. This characteristic is about the collective participation and cooperation of the teachers. Another aspect of collectivity is having shared goals and feelings involved. (4) Duration and

permanence. There is no consistency in the literature about the number of hours that teachers should spend on professional development. Meanwhile, there is an agreement in the literature about the duration of a professionalization activity. A single activity performed in a short period of time is less effective than activities that are permanently supported (Desimone, 2009; Yoon, Duncan, Lee,

Scarloss, & Shapley, 2007). (5) Quality of input and (6) Theory of improvement. The new or in-depth information that teachers receive, must be based on theory and evidence-based methods and practices. Van Veen et al. (2010) also emphasized the importance of every professionalization activity having an explicit reasoning about how the activity is related to the yields. (7) Policy coherence. Another very important effective characteristic is that the professionalization activities should be related to the broader school policy. The goals and content of an activity should be connected to the views, knowledge, and goals of the teachers. This ensures that the newly acquired knowledge will not stand on its own, but will be integrated into the school. Another well cited article that contains a checklist for effective professional development is the article of Hunzicker (2011), who is an associate dean for Bradley’s College of Education. This checklist matches the above described seven-point list from Van Veen et al. (2010). It contains the following elements: supportive, job-embedded, instructional-focus,

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collaborative, and ongoing. She ended her article with the note that this checklist ‘serves as a guide for designing professional development that is more meaningful for teachers’. This note corresponds to the way Van Veen et al. (2010) note that the characteristics must be seen as indications.

Teachers. Third, teachers also have, partly, their own responsibility in regards to their

professional development. Several studies found that teachers do not always use the opportunities to engage in professionalization activities (Kwakman, 2003; Lohman, 2006; Thoonen, Sleegers, Oort, Peetsma, & Geijsel, 2011). The reason why some people do not actively pursue learning whereas other do actively pursue it may be due to four individual characteristics: (1) readiness to change, (2)

motivation to learn, (3) learning styles, and (4) learning tactics. Those four characteristics have been summed up in the book: ‘Continuous learning in organizations’ of Sessa and London (2018) and are overarching characteristics. Other individual characteristics that have been summed up by the CAOP (Center for Labor Relations Government employees; in Dutch: Centrum voor Arbeidsverhouding overheidspersoneel) and the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) can be divided into those four overarching characteristics. First, Lubberman and Pijpers (2013) from CAOP discussed several teacher characteristics that influence the effectiveness of professionalization: motivation, concerns, self-efficacy, ownership, knowledge/experience, and reflectivity. When teachers have those characteristics, there is a higher chance that they will be active in their own

professionalization. Secondly, the research of the OECD (2014) shows a similar finding, namely that teachers’ job satisfaction and self-efficacy play an important role in willingness to participate in professionalization activities. Thus, these studies show that personality may predispose some people to seek, enjoy, and benefit from learning activities, more so than others. But all people can and do learn. Teachers need to discover what helps them learn, they need to be aware of their readiness to change, motivation to learn, their learning styles, and their tactics. When they do, they become more open to professional development.

Professional development also requires a supportive and safe holding environment that is rich in opportunities and interaction between each other (Sessa & London 2018). Further, the professional qualities of teachers create and require a certain amount of professional space (Oolbekkink-Marchand, Hadar, Smith, Helleve, & Ulvik, 2017). Professional space can be defined as the extent to which teachers have control over their own teaching practice and their professional development (Dutch Educational Council, 2013; Kostogriz & Peeler, 2007; Oolbekkink-Marchand et al., 2017). The study of Oolbekkink-Marchand (2017) showed that support and trust from the school board were important factors in achieving a favorable professional space. This professional space can be influenced by personal and contextual factors. For example by the government through certain laws and regulations as described earlier in chapter 1. Besides the government also colleagues, the teacher itself, and the society limit the professional space of teachers. Despite the policies aimed at optimizing professional development, signs arise that this professional space is being affected by work factors such as high experienced workload (Onderwijsraad, 2016).

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Context. At last, the context in which the professional development occurs will be discussed.

Context is a very broad concept that contains a variety of things, such as time, student characteristics, school culture, and resources. As already noted above, professional development requires a supportive and safe holding environment that is rich in opportunities and interaction with each other (Sessa & London 2018). The figure of Borko (2004) shows that the context is like an umbrella, it affects all other three key elements of professional development (PD program, teachers, and facilitators). Desimone (2009) also made an analytical framework that shows the umbrella-role of the context (see Figure 2). It is striking that both the figures of Borko (2004) and Desimone (2009) give the context such an important place, despite both not really defining the concept of the context. Desimone (2009) made the concept of context a little bit more specific by adding examples such as: teacher and student characteristics, curriculum, school leadership, and policy environment (see Figure 2). It is good to note that those components also have an effect on professional development of teachers (Geijsel et al., 2009).

Chapter conclusion

A review of literature on the professional development of teachers reveals that professional development is a requirement for all teachers. Through professional development, teachers will be up-to-date in regard to teaching methods, skills, and knowledge. There are two overarching types of professionalization activities: informal and formal activities. Those types must be seen as

complementary to each other (Richter et al., 2009; Kyndt et al., 2016). The stage at which the teachers is (starting, mid-career, or experienced) also requires certain types of professional development activities. To continue, professional development programs do not stand on their own. Research has established that the teacher itself, the facilitators, and the context all have implications for its effectiveness. This study focusses on the relation between workload and professional development. The next chapter will describe in detail what is meant by workload and the up-following chapter will dive into the relation between those two concepts.

Figure 2. Desimone (2009). This figure shows a conceptual framework for studying the effects of professional development on teachers and students.

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Chapter 2: Teachers’ experienced workload

The last couple of years the Dutch primary school teachers have let known that they experience an excessive workload and that they demand solutions. The large-scale survey about experienced workload of the Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS) carried out in 2015 shows results that are consistent with this. The mean score on experienced workload of the Dutch employees was a 2.4 on a scale from 1 till 4 (1=never, 4=always). This score is between ‘sometimes’ and ‘often’. This mean does not count for every employee in the Netherlands. There are certain professions who experience much more workload than other professions. The professions with the highest workloads (2.6=close to often) are chefs, doctors, lawyers, managers, and primary school teachers. So, Dutch primary schools teachers experience a high level of workload in contrast to other professions. The same study also shows that the core problem is the amount of work (Bierings, 2017). Another study executed in 2015 and carried out by DUO (The Education Executive Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science; in Dutch: Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs) (2016) has studies 861 Dutch primary school teachers. The results show that a large majority of the teachers (84%) experience a relatively high workload. Of the 861 teachers, 56% (more than half) stated their workload as unacceptable high, around one fifth (21%) stated their workload as acceptable, and the final 23% stated their workload as neutral. From this data it can be concluded that the Dutch primary school teachers relatively

experience a relatively high workload.

The importance of the effects of workload have been largely described in several articles. However, the specific effects of workload on teachers have not been studied enormously, but there are some articles. First, it is well established that teachers’ psychological health, attitudes, and behavior are adversely affected by stressful psychosocial work characteristics (Bartholomew, Ntoumanis, Cuevas, & Lonsdale 2014). The study of Hakanen, Bakker, and Schaufeli (2006) on Finnish teachers showed that workload is positively related to emotional exhaustion (e.g. burnout) and ill health. The study of Huyghebaert, Gillet, Beltou, Tellier, and Fouquereau (2018) concluded also that workload was positively related to emotional exhaustion but also to presenteeism and on the other hand negatively related to job satisfaction and performance. The results of the article of Hakanen et al. (2006) were in line with those from Huyghebaert et al. (2018); teachers respond to increased workload by decreasing their rate of absence.

Workload, in general, points to a situation where there is a disbalance between the work demands and the possibilities of the employee to deliver high quality work (Wiezer et al., 2013). This is not the only definition that is used in the literature about this concept. Several definitions of workload can be found in the literature and different terms of this concept have been used

interchangeably. This has also been noticed by Roe and Zijlstra (2000) who wrote an article about work pressure. They said there was a lack in conceptual and operational precision considering the concept of work pressure. Therefore, they made a conceptual model containing four notions: work

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demands, work pressure, work stress, and workload. Those four notions have been defined by Roe and Zijlstra (2000, p. 3) as follows:

- Work demands represent the objective requirements posed by the tasks to be performed and the working conditions. These demands are the same for each job incumbent. Examples of work demands are: task speed/rate, difficulty, complexity, uncertainty and responsibility. - Work pressure is provisionally conceived of as a cognitive-energetic state of the person,

producing the experience of strain or felt pressure, which is associated with the ongoing and anticipated execution of work tasks.

- Work stress is defined as a state of excessive activation which results when one has been exposed to a threatening situation for a longer period, and when attempts to cope with, or to terminate the threatening situation fail.

- Work load refers to the degree to which the person's individual resources are charged when carrying out work tasks. It can be considered as the subjective counterpart of the work demands. Since it depends on individual factors, such as the worker's capacity, psycho-physiological state, and work strategy, there is no one-to-one correspondence between demands and work load.

Figure 3 shows the complexity of the above described notions. This figure shows the link between the four notions and all the other factors that influence these notions. The psycho-physiological state of the person is also included because this factor can influence workload/work pressure. Further, the effort and strategy mechanisms are also included. For example, the worker’s capacity to manage the work supply influence how someone will cope with workload/ work pressure. The choice of strategy of a worker may take an influence on work time, work demands, and also non work factors. Roe and Zijlstra (2000) briefly point out that this figure does not represent a fully developed causal scheme of the factors of work pressure, but serves as a heuristic tool in developing instruments to cope with work pressure, work load, work stress, and work demands. The above cited four notions have in common that the employee is unable to meet the working requirements. The study of Roe and Zijlstra (2000) describes that there are positive correlations between the four notions, but that they are not high enough to consider these notions as expressions of one single factor.

This thesis only focuses on the notion: workload. But as noted above, it cannot be seen as something totally standing on its own. Workload has a very subjective character; it depends from person to person. So, what can be experienced by one person as too much, can be experienced as a challenge by others. The way in which the workload is experienced depends mostly on the personality of the person. Because of the subjective and personal character of workload, this thesis uses the term of experienced workload. This way in thinking is completely in line with the results of the focus group interview. During this in-dept interview, the participants also had a hard time defining the concept of workload. In the end they were in agreement with the statement that it must be referred to as

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experienced workload, because of the personal nature of the concept. The analysis of the focus group also showed that the cause of workload differs. The teachers in the focus group blamed the

experienced workload on for example: administrative chores, following the methods, large classes, and the teacher shortage. Those results are in line with a recent study into experienced workload by Dutch higher education teachers (DUO, 2016). This study shows that almost half of the employees

experienced the workload as unacceptably high and that the workload mostly occurs from

non-teaching chores (e.g. writing reports, study records), but also that the preparing and shaping of lessons takes a lot of time (DUO, 2016).

Figure 3. Conceptual model of work pressure (Roe & Zijlstra, 2000). This figure presents a conceptual model showing the links between work demands, work load, work pressure, and work stress.

The Dutch situation

The Dutch government has acknowledged the problem of high experienced workload. For that reason, 237 million euros has been made available to reduce the workload for teachers in the year 2018-2019 and even a higher number for the following year. There has also been made a Platform Workload (especially for primary education), an initiative of several Dutch education organisations (Het Arbeidsmarktplatform PO, PO-Raad, AOb, AVS, CNV Onderwijs, FvOv, and PO in actie). This Platform Workload distinguished four steps to tackle the problem of workload. The four steps are: (1) analyzing what causes more workload, (2) discussing the aims and solutions, (3) addressing the cause, and finally (4) evaluating the process. This Action Plan, which is one of their biggest tools can been found in Appendix D. They also indicate that there can be major differences in the cause of workload between schools and even between teachers. On their website, they give schools tools on how to give the extra money that they received from the Ministry of OCW to reduce workload, the right

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destination (Platform Werkdruk, n-d). Returning to the information gathered through the focus group, all participants were aware of the measurements taken by the OCW to reduce the workload of primary school teachers. The money has been assigned different purposes at every school: an event manager, concierge, paperwork days, subject-specific teachers, and education assistants. A recent research into the effects of the extra budget for reducing the workload carried out by DUO (2019) shows that 56 percent of the primary school teachers experienced that the workload has declined, as a result of the extra budget. Even seven percent experienced that the workload has been greatly reduced and 33 percent of the teachers experienced no decline in workload, as a result of the extra budget.

Furthermore, the idea within the Netherlands prevails that schools need to comply enormously with rules from the government. The government does not agree with this prevailing idea and therefore wrote the following report: Room between rules. This report describes the matters that the schools, according to the law, have to justify. The laws and regulations do state the requirements that schools must meet, but leaves space for the way to meet the requirements. The report ends with that there is much more professional space for teachers than that teachers at this moment think (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2017). The government hopes, by publishing this report, that the educational field will start to think differently about the way to cope with the laws and regulations of education. And by doing this, create much more professional space for all the teachers and also school boards.

Chapter conclusion

As explained in this chapter, workload has a very subjective character and because of this, from here, it will be referred to as experienced workload. Furthermore, this chapter has showed that the concept of workload is related to other concepts like work pressure and work stress, and therefore is very hard to define. As described in the introduction and more extensively in this chapter, it is the case that Dutch primary school teachers have experienced, in the last several years, a high workload. Research showed that workload has many negative effects, like emotional exhaustion (e.g. burnout), presenteeism, and ill health. Based on a recent study carried out by DUO (2019), it can be said that the extra budget for reducing the workload seems to work. Unfortunately, there are not many recent articles that have investigated the experienced workload of primary school teachers in the Netherlands. Therefore, this thesis added a focus group with six primary school teachers to fill in the lacunae.

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Chapter 3: Relationship between experienced workload and professionalization

Chapter 1 and 2 have extensively described the concepts of professional development and workload. The literature review showed that there was limited literature on teacher’s workload. It also showed that there was almost no literature about the influence of workload on the professional development of teachers. Because of this gap in the literature, this thesis used the data gathered in a focus group to fill this gap. In the paragraphs below, some studies and theories about the relationship between experienced workload and professionalization shall be described. The final paragraphs of this chapter will make the relationship more specific to the context of teachers, using the data from the focus group.

The first theory that will be described is based on the model of Job Demands-Resources (JD-R model). This model is a widely used model to understand relations between demands and job-resources. They describe job-demands as “… those physical, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical or mental effort and are therefore associated with certain

physiological and psychological costs” (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schafeli, 2001, p. 501). Job-resources have been defined as “… physical, social, or organizational aspects of the job that may do any of the following: (a) be functional in achieving work goals; (b) reduce job demands and the associated physiological and psychological costs; (c) stimulate personal growth and development” (Demerouti, 2001, p. 501). Examples of job-demands are workload and job insecurity, whereas examples of job-resources are social support and feedback. This model essentially states that when job-demands are high and job-resources are low, factors such as stress and burnout are increased because of the extensive need of energy (Demerouti et al., 2001; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Holman & Wall, 2002). It is good to note that job-resources can reduce the negative effects of high job-demands (Demerouti et al., 2001)

The study of Van Ruysseveldt and Van Dijke (2011) studied how workload affects employees’ experiences of opportunities for workplace learning. They found a negative relation between high levels of workload and professionalization on the job. On the other hand, low levels of workload were positively associated with professionalization on the job. So, high levels of workload can create a decrease in professional space and low levels of workload can create an increase in professional space. Further, this study also looked at autonomy as moderator. They found that high levels of autonomy prevent negative effect of workload on on-the-job learning opportunities. Low levels of autonomy were always negatively related to on-the-job learning opportunities. Finally, they examined the influence of the combination of workload and autonomy on on-the-job learning opportunities. The authors have described that on-the-job learning opportunities are promoted when both workload and autonomy increases. Further, on-the-job learning opportunities are promoted when the level of autonomy is higher than the level of workload. Continuing, on-the-job learning opportunities are obstructed when the level of workload is higher than the level of autonomy. To end, on-the-job

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learning opportunities reaches the lowest level when the discrepancy between high levels workload and low levels of autonomy is largest (Van Ruysseveldt & Van Dijke, 2011).

By way of contrast, several studies showed that workload can, beside hindering, also be experienced as stimulating (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Toehling, & Boudreau, 2000; Crawford, LePine, and Rich, 2010; Van den Broeck, De Cuyper, De Witte, & Vansteenkiste, 2010). Referring to the JD-R model, Crawford et al., (2010) divided work-demands into two parts: (1) challenges and (2) job-hindrances. When employees experience job-hindrances it can cause a decrease in energy. Namely because employees feel that their efforts are purposeless. On the other hand, job-challenges can be experienced as stimulating (an increase in energy) when they have the idea that their effort are useful. Though, research tells us that the job challenges (one part of the work-demands) is related to work and learning motivation (Cavanaugh, 2000; LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005). This only applies when the work-demands are experienced as high, but not as too high (Deci & Ryan, 1985).

The JD-R model and the studies of Cavanaugh et al., (2000), Crawford et al., (2010), and Van den Broeck at el., (2010), showed that job-demands have influence on the energy of employees. Unfortunately, these theories are not specific to teachers and in particular, not to primary school teachers. Because of this lack in literature, a focus group was held with six primary school teachers. During the focus group, participants discussed their perception of professional development, their perception of workload, and the relationship between those two concepts. The interview lasted for two hours, which resulted in a lot of data for this thesis. Through analyzing the data, seven final codes have been identified: experienced workload, professional development, school board, school policy, teacher team, teacher characteristics, and professional development combined with experienced workload. The final code of workload has already been described in the previous chapter. The remaining six final codes will be discussed one-by-one in the following paragraphs.

Results focus group

Professional development. Professional development was, together with workload the main

subject of the focus group. All participants acknowledged the importance of professional development for teachers. Furthermore, both types of professional development (formal and informal) were

discussed during the interview. It became clear that all participants did not participate in informal learning activities as much as they would want to. They realized that informal learning does not necessarily require much time, and therefore can be done much more often. It was remarkable that every participant answered the question about the last three professional development activities they followed, on the short questionnaire, with only formal activities. Five out of the six participants have participated in a formal professional development activity (e.g. Teach like a champion, NLP,

MindfullKids, MME master). The sixth participant was a student and therefore had not yet participated in any form of formal teacher professional development activities. The concept of resistance came up several times because of all the rules teachers need to deal with in order to engage in formal