qualitative research teacher professional development

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• Published: 23 February 2024

Teachers’ perceived work ability: a qualitative exploration using the Job Demands-Resources model

• Petr Hlado   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8398-6367 1 &
• Klara Harvankova   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7984-8861 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  11 , Article number:  304 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Teaching is a highly demanding profession; therefore, it is necessary to address how teachers cope with the demands of their job and how these demands affect their work ability. This study aims to investigate teachers’ perceptions of work ability and the underlying mechanisms through which job demands influence their perceived work ability. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model serves as the theoretical framework for this investigation. A qualitative approach was employed, utilizing in-depth interviews with a sample of 14 upper secondary school teachers in the Czech Republic. The teachers had an average age of 46.9 years (SD = 9.22). The findings revealed a limited awareness among teachers regarding the holistic nature of work ability. Job demands emerged as a factor indirectly impacting perceived work ability through the health impairment process. High job demands and obstacles contributed to teacher stress, resulting in fatigue, impaired physical or mental health, and reduced perceived work ability. Moreover, the study showed how tough job demands extend beyond the professional realm, leading to work-family conflicts that further impair work ability. This study provided empirical support for the inclusion of perceived work ability as an outcome influenced by job demands within the JD-R model. Additionally, it emphasized the need for a comprehensive framework that considers both organizational and individual factors in both work and non-work domains to effectively investigate perceived work ability among teachers.

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Introduction.

Teaching is an increasingly demanding profession. Teachers often express concerns about high workloads, bureaucracy, time pressure, multitasking, fear of failure and errors, lack of support from head teachers and co-workers, disruptive student behavior and misbehavior, difficulties in cooperating with parents, and a lack of acknowledgment and appreciation (Mäkelä et al. 2015 ). Moreover, specific physiological and psychological job demands (Erick and Smith 2011 ), along with the limited individual preconditions for their fulfillment, can lead to teachers experiencing feelings of insufficiency, relatively high stress levels, low job satisfaction, and turnover (Bogaert et al. 2014 ). Therefore, addressing how teachers can cope with these job demands and how they affect their work ability is necessary.

Work ability

The work ability (WA) construct was introduced to identify whether individuals can meet the physical and psychosocial demands of their profession. Ilmarinen et al. ( 2008 ) defined WA as a balance between personal resources and work characteristics. This definition highlights an individual’s capacity to fulfill required work tasks and effectively manage job demands (Ilmarinen et al. 1997 ). WA is a dynamic process influenced by various factors, including physical and mental health, functional abilities, qualifications, professional competencies, attitudes, motivation, working conditions, job demands, and environmental factors (Tuomi et al. 2001 ). Overall, WA represents an individual’s ability, or perceptions of their ability, to meet the demands of their job (Hlaďo et al. 2017 ; Ilmarinen 2009 ).

Objective and perceived work ability

Some researchers drew attention to several problems associated with the originally atheoretical nature of the WA construct and noted that WA was in many studies operationalized inconsistently (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). Thus, it is unclear if WA is a single overarching construct or a composite of several related but distinct aspects. The construct of WA has recently been critically evaluated. Currently, two dimensions of WA are distinguished: objective and perceived WA (e.g., Cadiz et al. 2019 ; Freyer et al. 2019 ; McGonagle et al. 2015 ). Objective WA is strictly based on evaluating the employee’s health and functional limitations (McGonagle et al. 2015 ), whereas perceived WA refers to the employee’s self-perception or self-assessment of their ability to continue working in their current job (Brady et al. 2020 ; McGonagle et al. 2022 ). Perceived WA seems to be a more appropriate approach because assessing health conditions as an indicator of WA is of questionable value unless those health conditions are tied to specific job requirements (Brady et al. 2020 ). Perceived WA is not based on reporting diagnosed chronic health conditions but on subjective perceptions of health and other aspects concerning functional capacity to perform job requirements (McGonagle et al. 2015 ). Thus, Brady et al. ( 2020 ) argue that perceptions of WA provide a sufficient assessment of this construct.

Antecedents of work ability

In recent years, several studies, meta-analyses, and reviews have aimed to identify and better understand a range of work-focused antecedents of WA as a way to maintain and enhance WA (Cadiz et al. 2019 ; Cloostermans et al. 2015 ; van den Berg et al. 2009 ). Prior research conducted among a general adult population has revealed that physical, mental, and psychosocial work-related conditions, job demands, and resources can have positive or negative effects on WA (Brady et al. 2020 ; Li et al. 2016 ; van den Berg et al. 2009 ). The research focused specifically on teachers has shown that their WA is negatively affected by, for example, poor indoor environment (Vertanen-Greis et al. 2022 ), noise at work (de Alcantara et al. 2019 ), and other physical demands of work (Sottimano et al. 2017 ). Poorly organized work processes, time pressure, fear of failure or mistakes at work (Ilmarinen et al. 1991 ), monotonous and uninteresting work, and lack of freedom or autonomy (Tuomi et al. 2001 ; van den Berg et al. 2009 ) were also found to be negatively related to WA. Recent studies have shown that specific work characteristics, such as high job demands and lack of discipline, can have adverse effects on the WA of teachers (de Alcantara et al. 2019 ). Additionally, the emotional demands of teaching have been found to significantly impact teachers’ WA, with research indicating a link between students’ misbehavior and reduced WA (Hakanen et al. 2006 ). Other aspects reflected in research on teachers’ WA are job stress and psychological strain arising from the nature of the teaching profession (Vertanen-Greis et al. 2022 ). For example, Hlaďo et al. ( 2020 ) demonstrated the effect of burnout on teachers’ diminished WA.

Conversely, intrinsic aspects of the job, particularly the perceived meaning of work, have been identified as a positive predictor of teachers’ WA (Sottimano et al. 2017 ). Social environmental factors have also been shown to play a significant role in WA, with studies indicating that a supportive organizational climate, favorable interpersonal relations, co-worker and supervisor support, and feedback can positively impact WA (Airila et al. 2014 ; Leijon et al. 2017 ). Finally, research has highlighted the importance of personal resources such as self-esteem, self-efficacy, self-confidence, and sense of coherence for maintaining and promoting WA (Airila et al. 2014 ; Guidetti et al. 2018 ; Hlaďo et al. 2020 ).

Job-demands resources model as a theoretical framework for anchoring work ability

WA literature highlighted the lack of theoretical grounding for the construct (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). Since WA is conceptualized as a balance between personal resources and job demands (Ilmarinen et al. 2008 ), the job demands-resources model (JD-R; Bakker and Demerouti, 2007 ; Demerouti et al. 2001 ) can be used as an integrative conceptual framework for studying WA among teachers. The JD-R model proposes that every job environment includes two general characteristics: job demands and job resources. Job demands are those physical, social, or organizational aspects of a job that require sustained physical or psychological effort and are associated with physical or psychological costs and cause strain (Demerouti et al. 2001 ). Job resources are those aspects of the job that help employees achieve work goals, reduce job demands, and stimulate personal growth, learning, and development (Demerouti et al. 2001 ). The JD-R model, as proposed in the interaction hypothesis, posits that job demands and job resources interact (Taris et al. 2017 ). While elevated job demands are expected to have detrimental effects on strain and health, a high level of job resources is expected to mitigate these effects. In fact, combining a high level of job resources and high job demands is expected to result in a sense of challenge and even higher work motivation (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Bakker et al. 2007 ). Some researchers have suggested that specific job resources should align with the job demands in the workplace to diminish their adverse impact—a concept also referred to as the matching hypothesis (Langseth-Eide 2019 ).

Furthermore, two independent psychological processes have been identified: the health impairment process and the motivational process (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ). In the first, the health impairment process, high job demands may exhaust an individual’s mental and physical resources and thus may lead to energy depletion and adverse health outcomes. In the second, the motivational process, it is assumed that job resources have motivational potential and lead to high work engagement and positive job outcomes. Considering the motivational process, job resources can promote intrinsic motivation, leading to employee growth, learning, and development, or extrinsic motivation and help achieve work goals. Thus, we differentiate work characteristics of the teaching profession as job demands that invoke strain and job resources that promote growth and facilitate work.

The revised JD-R model (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Taris et al. 2017 ) highlighted the crucial role of personal resources in promoting employee well-being and work engagement. Personal resources are defined as self-related characteristics that are generally linked to resilience and refer to the individual’s sense of ability to successfully control and impact their environment (Hobfoll 2002 ). Within the JD-R model, various personal resources were considered, e.g., extraversion, hope, intrinsic motivation, need satisfaction, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, and value orientation (Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ). Personal resources can act as mediators or moderators between job characteristics and outcomes, antecedents of strain and motivation, antecedents of work characteristics, or outcomes of work characteristics (Taris et al. 2017 ).

Concerning the JD-R theory (Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ), WA can be integrated into the JD-R model as an outcome that is positively influenced by job resources and personal resources and negatively affected by job demands (Brady et al. 2020 ; see McGonagle et al. 2022 for more details). Applying the JD-R model provides the opportunity to place predictors of WA into categories such as job demands, job resources, or personal resources. Thus, using the JD-R model as a theoretical framework, researchers can better understand the mechanisms underlying the relationship between WA and its predictors, providing insights for intervention and prevention strategies to improve WA among teachers.

Purpose of the present study

First, previous research on WA has mainly been deductive, based on a quantitative approach. The most commonly used tool to measure WA is the Work Ability Index (WAI), which combines objective and perceived measures (see Cadiz et al. 2019 , for more details). There are also concerns about the construct validity and psychometric qualities of this instrument (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). Second, research has identified various predictors of WA, but there is still a lack of profound knowledge about how and why the variables interact. Deductive research, while informative, inherently limits the variables investigated to those specified a priori by the researchers (McGonagle et al. 2022 ). Thus, it can be concluded that deductive research has not identified all potential predictors of WA and the mechanisms by which they affect WA.

We contribute to the literature by addressing these issues with a qualitative approach, which allows insight into perceived work ability (PWA) through the lived experience of teachers in their professional lives. The emic perspective of teachers will help better understand the relationships and processes hypothesized in the JD-R model (Demerouti and Bakker 2006 ) and the conceptual integration of PWA (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). By employing an inductive approach, our research contributes to comprehending and elucidating the mechanisms underlying the impact of job demands on PWA. It also endeavors to uncover teachers’ subjective perceptions of WA and explore additional unidentified factors that may influence it. This study enriches the existing body of knowledge by providing insights into the complex dynamics between PWA and diverse determinants within the teaching profession. Our research also significantly contributes to the literature by focusing on the unique sample, namely teachers. PWA is a construct closely linked to the demands of a particular profession. As a result, PWA can vary depending on the requirements of a specific occupation (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). Considering the distinctive nature of the teaching profession, our study aims to examine PWA among teachers in greater detail. This occupation presents numerous dissimilarities compared to other professions, emphasizing the significance of exploring the specific job challenges that teachers encounter.

In sum, to help expand and deepen understanding of the WA construct regarding the JD-R model, we address the following research questions:

Research Question 1: What do teachers evaluate when asked to assess their PWA?

Research Question 2: What job demands do teachers encounter in their work, and what is their mechanism of acting on PWA?

In light of the research gap and research questions, a qualitative approach has been chosen to capture the emic perspectives of participants regarding how teachers understand PWA. This research design provides a rich understanding of the ways in which teachers’ PWA is formed and allows us to capture the complexity and nuances of this process. Qualitative research facilitates a detailed comparison of participants’ statements, tracks their development and changes over time, explores the underlying mechanisms, and considers the effects of contextual factors, individual situations, and conditions often overlooked by studies applying quantitative design.

The research sample consisted of upper secondary school teachers in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. The sample was chosen intentionally. One of the main criteria was including teachers of different age categories, since WA typically decreases with age (Hlaďo et al. 2020 ; van den Berg et al. 2011 ). Thus, the age variability of the sample is crucial for understanding the aspects that influence PWA at different ages. Access to the research field was provided through the Towards Successful Seniority training program. Participants were recruited from those interested in the training. This decision ensured that participants were interested in the phenomena of WA and would be more open and truthful, as the in-depth interviews included sensitive topics (e.g., health information, family situation, relationships). First, participants were informed about the research objectives and the data collection process and were assured of the confidentiality and anonymity of the research. At this stage, preliminary consent to participate in the study was obtained from twenty teachers. Fourteen teachers were gradually selected from this group based on the criteria set. Most of the sample was female ( n  = 11), with only three male participants, consistent with the gender composition of teachers in Czech schools. The mean age of the participants was 46.9 years (SD = 9.22). The youngest participant was 27 (i.e., at the beginning of their career), while the oldest participant was 57. The characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1 .

Data collection

The method of data collection was in-depth interviews. Before data collection, a structured pyramid interview protocol (Wengraf 2001 ) was created, containing 62 open-ended questions. The order of the questions in the interview protocol was not strictly followed in the interviews. In conducting the interviews, we started from the focal points of interest of the interviewees, which were developed through follow-up questions in the interview protocol. We applied this strategy to maximize the profit of the interviews and to allow participants to highlight aspects and processes that they considered subjectively significant. Moreover, this approach simulates a regular interview. The interview questions were about teachers’ health and lifestyle (e.g., How do your job demands affect your lifestyle?) , competence and job requirements (e.g., How has your profession changed in recent years? ), motivation, values, and appreciation (e.g., How do those around you appreciate your job? ), work environment, community and leadership (e.g., What feedback do you get from your supervisor? ).

The interviews were conducted during September and October 2020 and lasted approximately 90 min. The form (in person, online, phone) or interview location were chosen so the teachers felt comfortable, undisturbed, and safe to articulate their concerns. We ensured that participants were given sufficient time to contemplate their personal experiences. The interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim into text form. The total data corpus consisted of 433 pages of text. Data collection was stopped when theoretical data saturation occurred, interviews no longer provided new or significant information, and participants’ statements became repetitive (Corbin and Strauss 2014 ).

Interviews were analyzed using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software ATLAS.ti (7.5.18). An approach based on the grounded theory of Charmaz ( 2014 ) and Corbin and Strauss ( 2014 ) was adopted for the data analysis. First, open coding was performed, focusing on data fragments. Semantic units were searched for, which were then systematically compared with each other to find similarities or differences and to create relevant codes. Marking all units of text was followed by categorizing them and trying to find relationships between the categories. Second, to identify processes and their products and to understand how contextual circumstances determine them, we followed the strategies of logical and causal chain construction (Miles and Huberman 1994 ). We combined individual isolated events into logically linked sequences of events, for which we further identified causal links and temporal succession.

Ethical considerations

The Research Ethics Commitee of the Masaryk University (EKV-2018-045) reviewed and approved this study’s procedures, which were carried out according to the committee’s recommendations. This study complied with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association (APA). The informed consent form, presented at the beginning of the data collection and obtained from all participants, stated that participation in the study was voluntary, unpaid, anonymous, and confidential.

Work ability construct from the perspective of teachers

In the interviews, we focused closely on how teachers Footnote 1 understand PWA and the extent to which their perceptions match the definition of this construct. In our sample, there was a relatively high degree of variability in teachers’ views of the definition of PWA, and we identified three distinct perceptions: (1) PWA as physical and mental health, (2) PWA as professional competence, and (3) PWA as the capacity to meet job demands.

Perceived work ability as physical and mental health

The first group of teachers limited PWA to physical and mental health, which they consider to be a necessary starting point for engaging in the teaching profession. For instance, Lena believes that PWA encompasses not only a physical condition but also a mental one: For me, work ability principally means a physical condition but also a mental condition, so be just fine (Lena). Nadia’s definition of PWA goes further, incorporating maximum physical and mental well-being: I consider work ability as working in maximum physical and mental well-being (Nadia). In this regard, participants consider health and functional capacity to be the most important factors for performing teaching work, forming the fundamental pillar of PWA (Ilmarinen 2019 ). Thus, their understanding of PWA aligns with the traditional medical view, and, not surprisingly, it was mainly related to aging teachers who may already be experiencing health problems. However, if the teachers in our research defined WA as a satisfactory state of health for meeting job demands, they emphasized mental health over physical health. For example, Mike defines PWA as a sufficient mental state to perform work reasonably and simultaneously not collapse or go mad . The predominant emphasis on mental health is probably because the participants considered teaching a profession with an increased risk of job stress and emotional exhaustion and, thus, mental health problems. Altogether, low mental well-being limits the performance of the teaching profession and, consequently, PWA.

Although teaching can be challenging due to various illnesses, our study participants reported that only certain diagnoses resulted in losing their PWA and made it impossible for them to continue teaching. For instance, Claudia claimed that their voice was a crucial tool in their profession since they spent significant time communicating with students: The constant talking at school is getting to my vocal cords. Last year, I had a vocal cord disease for two months because of work (Claudia). Therefore, our findings suggest that objective measures of WA, which do not account for the subjective experiences of diagnosed illnesses, may not provide a complete picture of an individual’s ability to meet the requirements of the teaching profession. When assessing WA, it is essential to consider the unique challenges that teachers face, such as the job demands of teaching and the impact on their health. This can help identify potential risks and provide appropriate support to help teachers maintain their health and continue in their profession.

Perceived work ability as a professional competence

The second group of teachers in our study reduced PWA to another resource constituting individual capacity for independent fulfillment of job demands, namely professional competence: I see work ability as meaning that a person is fully qualified and completely self-sufficient. Just competent to work; that is what I see as work ability (Georgina). Teachers in our sample explained the emphasis on this aspect, stating that in the teaching profession, it is essential to constantly maintain, update and develop knowledge and skills for effective teaching and working with students. Although competence is considered one of the components of PWA (Ilmarinen 2019 ), the teachers in our research equated professional competence and PWA. In defining it, they failed to recognize that PWA is not merely a measure of learned competencies but an assessment of their quality in terms of fulfilling job demands.

Perceived work ability as the capacity to meet job demands

PWA, understood as the ability to meet the job demands of the teaching profession, is emphasized in the third approach identified within our sample of teachers. This group of teachers does not consider individual capacity separately but always in relation to specific job demands. According to teacher Claudia, PWA means the capacity to perform the job demands associated with teaching: I see it as being able to prepare for the class, having the materials, and being prepared so that I do not waste time and am prepared for students asking questions. It means being able to meet the job requirements . Teachers who adopted this approach were aware of the evolving demands of the teaching profession and view PWA as a dynamic construct that requires ongoing development. For instance, changes in student characteristics over time require the acquisition of new competencies and adaptability to new situations: In my profession, adaptability, the ability to keep up with trends, and, most importantly, context with students are essential because students live in a world that can be quite different with the generation gap. To maintain the ability to understand it a little bit. Alternatively, at least try to understand what they live in and possibly use that in teaching (Danielle). Therefore, from the perspective of these teachers, PWA is the intersection between job requirements and personal predisposition. It involves adapting to changing circumstances, acquiring new competencies, and understanding the students’ context.

Job demands of the teaching profession and their consequences

Based on the interviews, it was revealed that teachers perceive their work as highly demanding and burdensome. The participants reported experiencing a wide array of physical, social, and organizational challenges in their teaching profession. The data analysis further enabled the identification of the nature of the relationships between job demands and other variables, as well as the possible mechanisms of the impact of job demands on teachers’ PWA.

Physical job demands of teaching

Regarding the physical demands of teaching, participants highlighted noise exposure and the dearth of physical activity. According to the participants, teachers endure static workloads or repetitive movements in their profession, which adversely affect their musculoskeletal system. For instance, Georgina explicated this scenario in an interview: We have relatively few natural movements unless you are a PE teacher . During the interviews, teachers acknowledged that their job profile had undergone a significant change in recent years, with their working hours being dominated by sitting at computers: We are always sitting at computers. That is the trend. We prepare presentations and write emails (Nadia). However, teachers in our research considered working in noisy environments more serious: You are always in noise. There is constant noise in the classroom or during breaks. Or, in the dining room, it buzzes like a beehive (Cathy). For some participants, working in a noisy environment is not only burdensome, but they also have to regulate the intensity of noise in the classroom or corridors by directing the students’ behavior. Thus, the physical job demands can result in emotional job demands associated with the social aspects of the teaching profession.

Aging teachers in our study, in particular, perceived physical job demands as stressors that negatively impacted their physical and mental well-being. Consequently, this led to a reduction in their ability to meet job demands effectively. Based on findings among participants, it appears that the adverse physical job demands of teaching deteriorate the teachers’ health. However, these unfavorable physical job demands do not appear to cause a decline in PWA directly. Instead, they do so indirectly through the harmful outcomes of stress and impaired health.

Social and emotional job demands of teaching

The second category of job demands pertains to the social and emotional aspects of teaching. According to the participants, teachers engage in various social interactions that differ in their level and nature, which can be challenging to master effectively. For instance, Georgina finds communication with actors in the school environment stressful, emotionally and mentally exhausting, and detrimental to their health: Being a teacher is a lot about direct contact. There are so many connections, so that is challenging and affects your health . Furthermore, coping with challenging interactions with students and parents was more demanding for the aging teachers in our study. Age could be a factor in this, as aging teachers become less capable of adapting to new job demands.

The interviews we conducted with middle and senior-generation teachers revealed their skepticism, and perhaps resistance, toward the current generation of students. This group of educators perceived the changing characteristics and needs of their students as a burden due to increased communication demands and misunderstandings: I sometimes do not understand the contemporary students because they have different values than I do. They have a completely different setting. It bothers me that they do not mind not knowing anything, that they should turn in assignments on time, and that there are rules that are followed (Frances). Participants emphasized the importance of developing social competencies to adapt to the changing students. The interviews with teachers indicated that a teaching job requires constantly maintaining and developing professional competencies. Nevertheless, this need becomes a job demand only when teachers face obstacles in acquiring the requisite skills to perform their duties effectively. The consequences found among our participants include decreased work motivation and disruption of personal resources, as failing to develop new professional competencies generates feelings of insecurity and doubts about professional qualities. Moreover, we have found that the decline in personal resources has other consequences. Interviews with teachers clearly showed that personal resources have the potential to buffer the adverse effects of job demands on health by reducing job-related stress.

In our research, teachers across different generations perceived parental involvement and communication with parents as burdensome and significant sources of job-related stress. It appeared that working with parents was more demanding for our teachers than working with students: I have never had such trouble with students as I experienced with their parents (Ellen). Although teachers have made attempts to comprehend parents, interview findings revealed that the teacher-parent relationship has deteriorated in recent years, leading to increased demands in communication. Our research has identified the attitudes of parents toward teachers’ work as an additional contributing factor. Some teachers in our sample perceived a lack of respect for their teaching authority from parents, who excessively interfere with their autonomy in teaching: Parents think that they can have a say in everything and that we will do our job the way they tell us to do it. I also do not advise my student’s mother, who works as a shop assistant, on how to sell, whether she is doing it right or wrong (Frances). Lack of respect from parents for teachers as professionals and the tendency to question their expertise have significant implications. Within our study, we observed that parents’ attitudes toward teachers contributed to interpersonal conflicts, subsequently leading to job stress, threatening feelings of professional inadequacy, and disrupting professional identity.

Teachers also considered managing student discipline and addressing student misbehavior as challenging job demands. These responsibilities served as stressors for teachers and had detrimental effects their health: I know from colleagues and myself that when there are really naughty classes, and some students can be naughty a lot, you go into that class feeling sick to your stomach, sick at heart, and you tell yourself: “Just survive.” (Ellen). Teachers regarded managing classroom discipline one of the most challenging job demands. Instances of being unable to address student misbehavior effectively evoked feelings of professional inadequacy and led to a depletion of personal resources. Nonetheless, notable differences were observed among the teachers in our sample concerning their interpretation of inappropriate student behavior. Therefore, we found that there are probably differences among teachers in how they perceive social and emotional job demands.

Organizational job demands of teaching

A homogenous group of job demands found in our research were the organizational aspects of the teaching job. In the interviews, teachers highlighted the unfavorable arrangement of working hours as a significant job demand. Teachers reported that they often teach with short breaks between lessons, filled with other responsibilities. Within the Czech context, teachers commonly carry out regular supervision of students in corridors or lunchrooms during their breaks, which is perceived as an onerous workload. As a result, teachers in our study were often deprived of adequate time for rest and personal hygiene during their working hours: During the five-minute break, the teacher is happy to grab teaching aids and run to the next lesson (Bára) . You usually have only two breaks and do not even get to the bathroom because someone always wants something from you, or the bathroom is occupied (Georgina). The inadequate organization of teachers’ work, characterized by short breaks between lessons, has been associated with irregular or insufficient eating and drinking habits. Our data revealed that such improper work organization not only impacts the regimen of teachers but also contributes to heightened stress levels due to a rush during breaks, increased fatigue and exhaustion from insufficient rest during the day, and leads to health issues and a decline in PWA.

Implications of job demands on non-work domains

Teachers in the Czech Republic are permitted to carry out specific work tasks from their homes. These tasks may include creating learning materials and assignments and grading and evaluating students’ work. However, teachers in our sample did not view working from home as a benefit but rather as a necessity driven by the significant job demands of the teaching profession. In order to cope with their daily job responsibilities and tasks, participants often found themselves compelled to continue working after they return home from school, frequently utilizing their leisure time and working beyond regular working hours: I come to school at the latest at six or seven o’clock in the morning so that I can cover everything. And anyway, I bring my work home (Barbara). For teachers who do part of their work from home, it was difficult to distinguish between work and non-work time. The identified reason is that if a teacher embraces the option of working from home, the work is no longer strictly confined to designated working hours. Furthermore, they felt a sense of obligation to be consistently available to fulfill job requirements whenever the need arises. The high responsibility and job commitment were particularly noticeable among the aging teachers: If someone calls me from school at 7 or 8 p.m., I pick up the phone. It is my free time, but if I am not doing anything else important, there is no reason why I should not pick up the phone and switch to work mode (Cathy). Working from home, as a specific organizational aspect of a teacher’s job, was associated with adverse consequences for individuals because they did not have the opportunity to recover and gain physical and mental energy. Therefore, for teachers in our study, working from home tended to be perceived more as a job demand.

Several teachers in our research acknowledged the difficulties they face in finding and achieving a work-life balance, primarily due to the demanding nature of their job. In our sample, this challenge was especially pronounced for teachers belonging to the sandwich generation, who must simultaneously care for underage children and aging family members alongside their work responsibilities. However, it was also related to aging teachers who care for their elderly parents. Balancing caregiving obligations with work not only depleted their energy resources and reduced their available rest time after work but also served as a barrier to meeting job demands, thereby amplifying job-related stress: It causes me stress and frustration, it bothers me. I cannot refuse to work for the school. It is my job. But time is finite and I struggle to divide it between my family, friends, and leisure (Hannah). The inadequate separation between job responsibilities and leisure time, leading to a poor work-life balance, often contributed in the participants to misunderstandings among family members and subsequently results in work-family conflicts: Then my husband interjects that I cannot organize my work when I have to haul my work home (Gabriella).

Interviews with participants revealed that the combination of high job demands and caregiving responsibilities led to increased stress levels, affected the overall workload (employment and caregiving), and left teachers with inadequate opportunities to rest after work and a sense of depletion. The consequence was impaired physical or mental health and decreased PWA. In this context, it is essential to highlight that job stress among participants in our study was not solely attributable to job demands but also arose from caregiving responsibilities. More specifically, caregiving responsibilities indirectly contributed to job stress by impeding teachers’ capacity to meet job demands due to their non-work burdens.

The responsibility for promoting WA rests not only on head teachers and supervisors but also on each teacher. We believe that to maintain and develop their WA, teachers need to have a proper understanding of this construct. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate teachers’ understanding of PWA. Our study discovered that a substantial portion of teachers involved in our research were unfamiliar with conceptualizing PWA as a balance between personal resources and job demands or the ability to meet the job demands specific to the teaching profession (Gould et al. 2008 ; Ilmarinen 2009 ; Ilmarinen et al. 2008 ). The perspectives shared by participants in the interviews indicated that they tended to focus only on specific dimensions of PWA outlined in the Work Ability House, specifically physical and mental health and professional competencies (Ilmarinen 2019 ). However, some qualitative studies have shown that although health-related issues and job skills are closely related to WA, these variables are not PWA per se but PWA hindrances (McGonagle et al. 2022 ). This suggests a lack of awareness or understanding of the comprehensive nature of the PWA construct among teachers in our research. We posit that the findings in our study stem from the inconsistent definitions of WA found in the literature (Cadiz et al. 2019 ). The critical analysis of the WA construct (Tengland 2011 ) revealed that different authors define WA using diverse characteristics such as health, qualifications, professional competencies, motivation, attitudes, values, and occupational virtues. The lack of agreement in defining WA in the literature and the subsequent misperceptions of the PWA construct by teachers identified in our research might hinder teachers’ strategies in maintaining or promoting their PWA. Therefore, we recommend clarifying PWA to the teachers as an individual’s self-perception or evaluation of their physical and mental capacity to continue working in the teaching profession, given the characteristics of the job demands, job resources, and personal resources.

The emic perspective of the teachers was used to identify the mechanisms by which specific aspects of the teaching profession are reflected in teachers’ PWA (Fig. 1 ). In our sample, the physical, social, emotional, and organizational job demands were associated with both physical and psychological costs that teachers incurred in fulfilling them. Job demands are one of the crucial determinants that affect WA (Kunz and Millhoff 2023 ). In the scope of the present study, job demands have been shown to affect PWA rather indirectly. If participants perceived the job demands as too high and burdensome, or if they experienced obstacles meeting them, this usually increased their job stress. If job distress was not reduced appropriately, it subsequently manifested in fatigue, exhaustion, and impaired physical or mental health, making it difficult or impossible for teachers to meet job requirements and thus adversely affecting their PWA. Hence, the mechanism identified in our qualitative study corresponds to the health impairment process captured in the revised JD-R model (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Demerouti et al. 2001 ).

Identified relationships between variables.

Through participant responses, it became evident that teaching is a highly stressful and debilitating occupation, as reported in other research (Herman et al. 2020 ; Mäkelä et al. 2015 ). The present study offers insights into differentiating job stress and exhaustion among teachers as distinct constructs. Teachers in our study perceived job stress as an internal state characterized by heightened tension when faced with excessive or burdensome job demands that surpass their ability to meet them. Thus, as the JD-R model assumes, teachers’ job stress resulted from job demands (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ). Our study revealed that teachers considered exhaustion a consequence of physical or mental fatigue resulting from prolonged stress or lack of adequate rest. Since the JD-R model includes constructs such as strain and burnout (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Schaufeli and Bakker 2004 ), the distinct perceptions of job stress and exhaustion among teachers in our sample emphasize the need for a more precise differentiation in the JD-R model to provide a more accurate depiction of the health impairment process. In addition, the present study contributes to the existing literature by finding that job stress did not necessarily cause fatigue and exhaustion among teachers in our study, as some previous research has shown (e.g., Wang et al. 2015 ). In the view of our participants, prolonged job stress directly impacted the development of health complaints, highlighting the need for a distinct compensatory mechanism beyond fatigue reduction.

By examining the specific experiences of the participants, we uncovered new insights into the health impairment process embedded and outlined in the revised JD-R model (Schaufeli and Bakker 2004 ). First, organizational job demands were found to disrupt teachers’ routines, resulting in inadequate personal hygiene, unhealthy eating habits, and insufficient rest. These factors directly or indirectly contributed to health deterioration. Second, teachers were often confronted with challenging job demands encroaching on their non-working hours. The disruption of non-work life by work-related tasks impaired the crucial time dedicated to rest and recharging, generated family tensions, and thus adversely affected teachers’ health. Therefore, achieving a work-life balance is paramount as a strategic approach to mitigate the deleterious impact of heightened job demands on PWA through exhaustion and the deterioration of both physical and mental health among educators (Gragnano et al. 2020 ; Sirgy and Lee 2018 ). These findings highlight a notable constraint of the JD-R model, which primarily concentrates on work-related aspects (McGonagle et al. 2022 ). Our empirical evidence indicated that work and family are essential life domains, and balance between these two domains is crucial for PWA. In this regard, our findings align with other quantitative studies that have established a relationship between work-family or work-life balance and WA (Abdelrehim et al. 2023 ; Berglund et al. 2021 ). Our research showed that the work and non-work domains are intricately intertwined and cannot be examined separately. Thus, a necessity arises for designing and verifying a more inclusive framework encompassing organizational and individual factors across both work and non-work realms to investigate teachers’ PWA effectively (cf. McGonagle et al. 2022 ).

The job demands of the teaching profession were frequently negatively associated with PWA in our research, consistent with their definition in the JD-R model (Demerouti et al. 2001 ) and the results of the previous meta-analysis (Brady et al. 2020 ). However, interviews with teachers indicated the conceptual ambiguities between the constructs of job demands and job resources, which were pointed out in a critical review of the JD-R model (Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ). Our findings suggest that job demands within the teaching profession may exhibit a dual nature, not solely yielding adverse effects but also serving as catalysts for personal growth, learning, and development. Thus, depending on the context, job demands can also act as job resources (cf. Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ). More specifically, job demands challenged or stimulated our teachers to overcome obstacles and develop professional competencies. Moreover, our findings present an opportunity for further research. This research should address whether job demands can also serve as job resources, as our qualitative data suggests. Alternatively, it can explore the validity of the interaction hypothesis (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Bakker et al. 2007 ). According to this hypothesis, the motivational effect of job demands should be accompanied by the corresponding job resources.

The experience of success or failure in coping with job demands emerged as a pivotal milestone in this context. More specifically, achieving professional success eliminated the negative impact of job demands for our participants and engendered the growth of personal resources. These personal resources, in turn, acted as protective factors against the detrimental effects of job demands on health by mitigating job-related stress. While previous research (Xanthopoulou et al. 2007 ) has not yielded evidence supporting the moderating role of personal resources in the relationship between job demands and exhaustion, our study suggested that educators with more personal resources demonstrate an enhanced capacity to effectively cope with demanding job responsibilities. This, in turn, helps avert adverse job outcomes, such as heightened job stress, exhaustion, and health complications. Hence, our findings derived from interviews with fourteen teachers supported the assumption of the JD-R model, wherein personal resources influence the perception of job demands and buffer against the deleterious effects of job demands on burnout (Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ).

The main strength of the present study lies in its utilization of a qualitative methodology to explore teachers’ perceptions of WA and the underlying mechanisms through which job demands influence their PWA. We believe we have successfully identified how teachers perceive and interpret WA, capturing the intricate details of the impact of job demands on teachers’ PWA that are challenging to capture through a quantitative approach. Our findings revealed a limited awareness among teachers regarding the holistic nature of WA and the necessity to disseminate information about this construct to teachers. This study provides empirical evidence supporting the incorporation of PWA into the JD-R model as an outcome influenced negatively by job demands (cf. Brady et al. 2020 ; Schaufeli and Taris 2014 ). We contributed to the literature by seeking to expand beyond known predictors of PWA through an inductive approach. Specifically, job demands have been shown to indirectly influence PWA through the health impairment process (Bakker and Demerouti 2007 ; Demerouti et al. 2001 ). Among our participants, high job demands contributed to job stress, resulting in fatigue, physical or mental health impairment, and reduced PWA. Furthermore, our study offered specific examples illustrating how challenging job demands lead to work-family and work-life conflicts, negatively impacting teachers’ WA. Thus, adopting an inductive approach enabled us to identify and elucidate additional factors contributing to PWA, extending beyond the purview of the revised JD-R model.

Practical implications

Our research offers insights with practical implications for supporting and enhancing the PWA of teachers. Given the qualitative nature of our study, we are formulating recommendations specifically tailored for the participants and the head teachers in the schools where our study participants work. However, with caution, the practical implications may be considered applicable to other teachers with characteristics similar to those in our sample.

As some teachers in our research lacked a clear understanding of the WA concept, we deem it necessary to initiate an informational process to introduce them to this crucial concept. We consider teachers’ knowledge and understanding of the WA concept vital, as it serves as a prerequisite for them to take responsibility for maintaining their WA. Head teachers, in particular, can play a pivotal role in this initiative by organizing workshops, lectures, or educational programs for their staff. Additionally, providing articles, infographics, leaflets, and online resources to promote WA could be beneficial.

Teachers in our sample expressed concerns about their unhealthy lifestyle, influenced by physical, social, and organizational job demands, as well as the workplace environment. Head teachers have several avenues to encourage healthy lifestyles among their teaching staff. For instance, teachers in our research complained about insufficient time for rest during the teaching day. Head teachers can ensure adequate break times for teachers to rest, refresh, hydrate, and maintain hygiene. Non-teaching staff could be designated to monitor students in corridors during breaks, releasing teachers from this duty and allowing them more time for rest. Addressing specific complaints from our study, head teachers may consider introducing one-hour breaks for teachers in the teaching schedule. Additionally, concerns about long periods of sitting at computers and noise at school can be mitigated by providing ergonomic desks and chairs and implementing technical solutions to improve acoustics in classrooms and corridors. However, teachers also bear responsibility for their physical and mental health and WA. Hence, teachers should adhere to fundamental principles of a healthy lifestyle, including maintaining healthy eating habits, engaging in physical and mental exercises, maintaining optimal body weight, participating in regular medical examinations, avoiding substance abuse, and ensuring sufficient and high-quality sleep (cf. Airila et al. 2012 ; Garzaro et al. 2019 ).

Our study revealed that teachers’ WA was adversely affected by the social and emotional job demands of their teaching roles, particularly in communication challenges with parents and addressing student discipline. Our study emphasizes the importance of teachers focusing on developing their communication soft skills. Additionally, we recommend that teachers seek support from school leaders and co-workers (Taris et al. 2017 ), emphasizing that individual teachers should not navigate challenging interactions with parents or students alone. In practice, effective strategies include collaborative efforts such as teamwork with other teachers and school counselors, participating in teacher-sharing sessions, or involving school management in problematic meetings with parents and students.

It became evident among our participants that teaching work had an adverse impact on their family and private lives, highlighting the importance of supporting their work-life balance. Various studies have shown that work-life balance can be influenced by organizational programs designed to assist employees in managing the demands of both their job and personal lives (Sirgy and Lee, 2018 ). To support teachers, head teachers can implement organizational measures such as regular workload reviews, flexible work arrangements, part-time work options, assistance with childcare, access to parenting resources, eldercare resources, and family leave policies (Sirgy and Lee 2018 ). Based on insights from our participant interviews, it is apparent that head teachers should prioritize addressing the needs of caregivers establishing effective workplace policies to help them reconcile their caregiving and teaching roles (Pavalko and Henderson 2006 ). Adopting time management principles and fostering the ability to seek social support when needed can be effective strategies for individual teachers.

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be considered when reading and interpreting the results. First, the sample used in qualitative research may not be representative of the larger population. This study recruited teachers from those interested in the Towards Successful Seniority training program, potentially leading to a sample bias. It is possible that teachers with a particular inclination towards prioritizing their health, adopting a healthy lifestyle, and seeking strategies to overcome work-related challenges were overrepresented in the sample. Second, the data collected in this study solely reflect the subjective perspectives of a limited number of teachers. Therefore, caution should be exercised when attempting to transfer the findings to the broader population of teachers. Third, researchers may have been influenced by their own biases or expectations, which could have influenced the formulation of interview questions, data analysis, or the interpretation of results. Lastly, the study focused specifically on upper secondary teachers in the Czech Republic, which restricts the transferability of the findings to other teacher groups and cultural contexts. Recognizing the need for caution when extrapolating the results to different settings or educational systems is essential.

Despite these limitations, our study represents one of the initial endeavors to explore in-depth the potential antecedents of PWA within the framework of the JD-R model. The insights gained from this study contribute to the existing body of literature and lay the groundwork for further research on PWA among teachers.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and analyzed during the current study are available from: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/MMYUJU .

When we refer to teachers, we are specifically addressing the participants in our study, not teachers as a general population.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the research project Research on perceived work ability among lower secondary school teachers [grant number GA23-05312S], funded by the Czech Science Foundation and the NPO ‘Systemic Risk Institute’ number LX22NPO5101, funded by European Union—Next Generation EU (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, NPO: EXCELES).

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Conceptualization: P.H.; methodology: P.H. and K.H.; data collection: K.H.; formal analysis: P.H.; funding acquisition: P.H.; writing – original draft: P.H.; writing – review & editing: P.H. All the authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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All procedures in this study involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee. Prior to the data collection, the study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Masaryk University under the number EKV-2018-045.

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Hlado, P., Harvankova, K. Teachers’ perceived work ability: a qualitative exploration using the Job Demands-Resources model. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 11 , 304 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02811-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-02811-1

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Teacher Professional Development around the World: The Gap between Evidence and Practice

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Anna Popova, David K Evans, Mary E Breeding, Violeta Arancibia, Teacher Professional Development around the World: The Gap between Evidence and Practice, The World Bank Research Observer , Volume 37, Issue 1, February 2022, Pages 107–136, https://doi.org/10.1093/wbro/lkab006

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Many teachers in low- and middle-income countries lack the skills to teach effectively, and professional development (PD) programs are the principal tool that governments use to upgrade those skills. At the same time, few PD programs are evaluated, and those that are evaluated show highly varying results. This paper proposes a set of indicators—the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument—to standardize reporting on teacher PD programs. An application of the instrument to 33 rigorously evaluated PD programs shows that programs that link participation to career incentives, have a specific subject focus, incorporate lesson enactment in the training, and include initial face-to-face training tend to show higher student learning gains. In qualitative interviews, program implementers also report follow-up visits as among the most effective characteristics of their professional development programs. This paper then uses the instrument to present novel data on a sample of 139 government-funded, at-scale professional development programs across 14 countries. The attributes of most at-scale teacher professional development programs differ sharply from those of programs that evidence suggests are effective, with fewer incentives to participate in PD, fewer opportunities to practice new skills, and less follow-up once teachers return to their classrooms.

Good teachers have a major impact on student performance, both over the course of the school year ( Araujo et al. 2016 ) and into adulthood ( Chetty, Friedman, and Rockoff 2014 ). However, teachers in low- and middle-income countries often lack the skills they need to teach students effectively. Across seven African countries, only seven percent of fourth-grade teachers had the minimum knowledge necessary to teach language; in four countries, the statistic was zero percent. For math teaching, 68 percent had the minimum knowledge needed to teach math—higher than the seven percent for language, but still leaving one in three teachers with insufficient knowledge. Teachers also scored woefully low in terms of pedagogical knowledge—their ability to prepare a lesson, formulate questions that would elicit student knowledge effectively, and their performance in the classroom ( Bold et al. 2017 ).

The principal tool that countries across the income spectrum use to improve the knowledge and skills of their practicing teachers is professional development (PD), which refers to on-the-job training activities ranging from formal, lecture-style training to mentoring and coaching. However, few PD programs are rigorously evaluated, and among those that are, the evidence of their effectiveness is wildly mixed. Some programs are effective: training teachers to provide literacy instruction using students’ mother tongue in Uganda and training teachers to evaluate student performance more regularly and adjust teaching based on those evaluations in Liberia both had sizeable impacts on student reading ability ( Piper and Korda 2011 ; Kerwin and Thornton 2021 ). Others demonstrate opposite results: a large-scale, government-implemented PD program in China had zero impact on teacher knowledge, teaching practices, or student learning outcomes ( Loyalka et al. 2019 ), and a program that trained teachers to engage their middle school math students more actively in learning in Costa Rica resulted in worse learning outcomes for students ( Berlinski and Busso 2017 ). Indeed, there is much more variation in effectiveness across teacher training programs than across education programs more broadly ( McEwan 2015 ; Evans and Popova 2016a ). With this limited and highly variable evidence, policymakers and practitioners may be left puzzled as to how to structure teacher PD programs effectively.

In this paper, we propose a set of indicators—the In-service Teacher Training Survey Instrument, or ITTSI—to allow comparisons across teacher PD programs with varying impacts. On average, existing studies of PD programs only report on about half of these indicators. We supplement that information through interviews with implementors of evaluated PD programs. We compare the characteristics of 33 rigorously evaluated PD programs to identify which characteristics are associated with larger student learning gains. We then gather data from 139 government-funded, at-scale PD programs across 14 countries. Like most at-scale government programs, none of these programs have been evaluated rigorously. We compare the two samples to examine whether the PD programs that most teachers actually experience exhibit similar characteristics to those of PD programs that have been evaluated and shown to produce sizeable student learning gains.

When we apply our instrument to evaluated PD programs, results suggest that programs deliver high student learning gains when they link participation in PD to incentives such as promotion or salary implications, when they have a specific subject focus, when teachers practice enacting lessons during the training, and when training has at least an initial face-to-face aspect. Meanwhile, program implementers highlight two characteristics of effective training in interviews: mentoring follow-up visits after the PD training, and complementary materials such as structured lesson plans to help teachers apply what they have learned during PD.

When we subsequently use the ITTSI to characterize a sample of at-scale, government-funded PD programs around the world, we find a divergence in the characteristics common to these programs and those that typify evaluated programs that were found to be effective. Relative to top-performing PD programs—defined as those found to be the most effective at increasing student learning—very few at-scale PD programs are linked to any sort of career opportunities, such as promotion or salary implications. Similarly, in-school follow-up support and including time to practice with other teachers is less common among at-scale PD programs. This highlights a substantial gap between the kind of teacher PD supported by research and that currently being provided by many government-funded, at-scale programs.

These results have implications for both researchers and policymakers. For researchers, future evaluations will contribute much more to an understanding of how to improve teachers’ skills if they report more details of the characteristics of the PD programs. Our proposed set of indicators can serve as a guide. For policymakers, at-scale PD programs should incorporate more aspects of successful, evaluated PD programs, such as incentives, practice, and follow-up in-school support. For both, more programs can be evaluated at scale, using government delivery systems, in order to improve the skills of teachers in the future.

Conceptual Framework

The defining attributes of teacher professional development programs fall principally into three categories. The first is the content of the PD program: What is taught? The second is the delivery of the PD program: Who is teaching, when, and for how long? The third is the organization of the program beyond content and delivery: What are the scale and resources of the program? Are there incentives for participation? Was it designed based on a diagnostic of teachers? In this section, we discuss the theory behind each of these three categories.

On the content, PD programs focused on subject-specific pedagogy are likely to be most effective. General pedagogical knowledge—i.e., broad strategies of classroom management and organization—may contribute to student learning, driving the recent development of a range of classroom observation instruments ( La Paro and Pianta 2003 ; Molina et al. 2018 ). However, different subjects require radically different pedagogies ( Shulman 1986 ; Villegas-Reimers 2003 ). A highly scripted approach may work to teach early grade reading, whereas teaching science or civics in later grades—for example—may require more flexible approaches. PD programs that focus on arming teachers with subject-specific pedagogy are thus likely to make the largest contribution to student learning.

With respect to the delivery, the method, trainers, duration, and location of instruction all play a role. First, because working, professional teachers are the students in PD, principles of adult education are relevant to the method of instruction. Adult education tends to work best with clear applications rather than a theoretical focus ( Cardemil 2001 ; Knowles, Holton, and Swanson 2005 ). The method of instruction should include concrete, realistic goals ( Baker and Smith 1999 ) and the teaching of formative evaluation so that teachers can effectively evaluate their own progress towards their teaching goals ( Bourgeois and Nizet 1997 ). Second, the quality of trainers—i.e., those providing the PD—is crucial to learning ( Knowles, Holton, and Swanson 2005 ). In terms of the delivery of PD, this calls into question the common cascade model of PD in low-income environments, in which both information and pedagogical ability may be diluted as a master trainer trains another individual as a trainer, who may go on to train another trainer below her, and so forth.

Third, on the duration of instruction, there is no theoretical consensus on exactly how long training should last, although there is suggestive empirical evidence in the literature in favor of sustained contact over a significant period of time and against brief, one-time workshops ( Desimone 2009 ). Fourth, on the location of instruction, teacher PD in the school (“embedded”) is likely to be most effective so that participating teachers can raise concrete problems that they face in the local environment, and they can also receive feedback on actual teaching ( Wood and McQuarrie 1999 ). However, this will depend on the environment. In very difficult teaching environments, some degree of training outside the school may facilitate focus on the part of the trainees ( Kraft and Papay 2014 ).

Finally, the organization of the PD—which includes overarching aspects such as who is organizing it, for whom, and how—provides an important backdrop when we consider any PD program. This includes aspects such as the scale, cost, and targeting of the program. In general, it is predictably easier to provide high-quality PD through smaller scale, higher cost programs that provide more tailored attention to a given teacher. In terms of targeting, teacher PD will work best if it adjusts at different points in the teachers’ careers: One would not effectively teach a brand-new teacher in the same way as one would train a teacher with 20 years of experience ( Huberman 1989 ). Teachers see their greatest natural improvements in the first five years of teaching, which may be an indicator of greater skill plasticity, so there may be benefits to leveraging that time ( TNTP 2015 ).

What Works in High-Income Countries?

A full review of the literature in high-income countries is beyond the scope of this study. However, it may be useful to highlight recent work on in-service teacher PD from the United States—which spends almost $18,000 per teacher and 19 days of teacher time on training each year ( TNTP 2015 )—and other high-income countries, in order to ensure that low- and middle-income countries are not ignoring well-established evidence. Several promising themes that emerge from this work are the importance of making PD specific and practical, providing sustained follow-up support for teachers, and embedding it in the curriculum.

Specific and practical teacher PD finds support from multiple reviews of teacher PD studies in high-income countries, which conclude that concrete, classroom-based programs make the most difference to teachers ( Darling-Hammond et al. 2009 ; Walter and Briggs 2012 ). More recently, a meta-analysis of 196 randomized evaluations of education interventions—not just PD—in the United States that measure student test scores as an outcome examined the impact of both “general” and “managed” professional development, relative to other interventions ( Fryer 2017 ). General PD may focus on classroom management or increasing the rigor of teachers’ knowledge, whereas managed professional development prescribes a specific method, with detailed instructions on implementation and follow-up support. On average, managed PD increased student test scores by 2.5 times (0.052 standard deviations) as much as general PD and was at least as effective as the combined average of all school-based interventions. A recent review of nearly 2,000 impact estimates from 747 randomized controlled trials of education interventions in the United States proposes that an effect size of 0.05 be considered a “medium” effect size, higher than the average effect size, weighted by study sample size ( Kraft 2020 ), which suggests that these are not trivial impacts.

The importance of sustained follow-up support is echoed by another U.S.-focused review, which found that PD programs with significant contact hours (between 30 and 100 in total) over the course of six to twelve months were more effective at raising student test scores ( Yoon et al. 2007 ). Likewise, a narrative review of U.S. studies concluded that the most effective programs are not “one-shot workshops”: they are sustained, intense, and embedded in the curriculum ( Darling-Hammond et al. 2009 ).

Despite these conclusions, the experimental or quasi-experimental evidence is thin, even in high-income countries. The meta-analysis of 196 evaluations of education interventions included just nine PD studies ( Fryer 2017 ), and another review of 1,300 PD studies identified just nine that had pre- and post-test data and some sort of control group ( Yoon et al. 2007 ). Similarly, a review of PD in mathematics found more than 600 studies of math PD interventions, but only 32 used any research design to measure effectiveness, and only five of those were high-quality randomized trials ( Gersten et al. 2014 ). The question of what drives effective teacher PD remains understudied, even in high-income environments.

We expect teachers in lower and middle-income countries to learn in fundamentally similar ways to their high-income counterparts. However, lower resource contexts are typically characterized by more binding cost constraints and lower teacher and coach pedagogical capacity. These challenges may make certain elements of PD programs more and less relevant in lower-income contexts. Teachers and coaches in low- and middle-income countries may benefit from more prescriptive instructions on implementation and, while they too require ongoing follow-up as part of PD, this may need to be provided in lower-cost forms, whether in group sessions, using technology for remote coaching, or training school principals and experienced peer teachers as coaches.

To understand which characteristics of PD programs are associated with student test score gains, and to analyze the degree to which these effective characteristics are incorporated into at-scale PD programs in practice, we first developed a standardized instrument to characterize in-service teacher training. Second, we applied this instrument to already evaluated PD programs to understand which PD characteristics are associated with student learning gains. Third, we applied the survey instrument to a sample of at-scale PD programs to see how these programs line up with what the evidence suggests works in teacher training. The information we present thus comes from two different samples of PD programs: One sample of evaluated PD programs, those with impact evaluations that include student assessment results; and one sample of at-scale , government-funded PD programs. 1 The remainder of this section introduces the instrument briefly before describing its application to each of the two samples.

The In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument (ITTSI)

The ITTSI was designed based on the conceptual framework and empirical literature characterized in the previous sections, as well as on the authors’ prior experience studying in-service teacher PD. We drafted an initial list of 51 key indicators to capture details about a range of program characteristics falling into three main categories: Organization, Content, and Delivery, paralleling the three elements of our conceptual framework ( fig. 1 ). We supplement those categories with a fourth category, Perceptions, which we added to collect qualitative data from program implementors.

Summary of the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument (ITTSI)

Source : Authors’ summary of the elements of the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument, as detailed in supplementary online appendices A1 and A2 .

Taking each of these in turn, the Organization section includes items such as the type of organization responsible for the design and implementation of a given teacher training program, to whom the program is targeted, what (if any) complementary materials it provides, the scale of the program, and its cost. The Content section includes indicators capturing the type of knowledge or skills that a given program aims to build among beneficiary teachers, such as whether the program focuses on subject content (and if so, which subject), pedagogy, new technology, classroom management, counseling, assessment, or some combination.

Delivery focuses on indicators capturing program implementation details, such as whether it is delivered through a cascade model, the profile of the trainers who directly train the teachers, the location of the training, the size of the sessions, and the time division between lectures, practice, and other activities. Finally, the Perceptions section includes indicators capturing program implementers’ own perceptions of which elements were responsible for any positive impacts and which were popular or unpopular among teachers. We piloted the draft instrument by using it to collect data on a sample of evaluated programs, and validated its ability to accurately characterize the details of PD programs by sharing our results with a series of expert researchers and practitioners in teacher PD. We updated the indicators in light of this feedback, resulting in a final version of the instrument, which includes 70 indicators plus three pieces of metadata. Further information on the instrument can be found in the supplementary online appendices: Appendix A1 provides a more detailed description of instrument development; appendix A2 presents the final instrument (ITTSI); and appendix A3 presents the Brief In-Service Teacher Training Instrument (BITTSI), a supplementary instrument we developed containing a subset of the 13 most critical questions from the ITTSI based on our reading of the literature.

The ITTSI does not collect extensive data about the broader educational context. Context includes teacher policies (e.g., pre-service training and the structure of the teacher career), other education policies, and the current state of education (e.g., learning and absenteeism rates). Context matters for the impact of teacher PD programs. As a simple example, in a setting where student absenteeism is extremely high, teacher PD programs may have a limited impact on student learning due to few hours of contact between teachers and students. That said, certain principles of teacher PD may translate across cultures, even if the applications vary. Professionals need practice to master skills across contexts, so giving teachers the opportunity to practice lessons during training may be valuable across contexts, even if how they do that may vary. Other survey instruments have been developed and tested broadly to gather a wide range of data on the education system, notably the World Bank's Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) ( Rogers and Demas 2013 ). For a rich view of teacher PD in context, the ITTSI could be complemented with the SABER instrument or other data about the education system.

Applying the ITTSI to Evaluated PD Programs

We searched the existing literature on in-service teacher PD in low- and middle-income countries to identify a sample of PD programs that had been evaluated for their impact on student learning. Our inclusion criteria for the search were impact evaluations of primary and secondary education interventions in low- and middle-income countries that (a) focused primarily on in-service teacher PD or included this as a major component of a broader program, and (b) reported impacts of the program on student test scores in math, language, or science. We included both published and unpublished papers and did not restrict by year of authorship.

In order to identify papers fulfilling the above criteria, we searched a range of databases in 2016 . 2 The search yielded 6,049 results and automatically refined the results by removing exact duplicates from the original results, which reduced the number of results to 4,294. To this we added 20 impact evaluations which mention teacher PD from a recent review ( Evans and Popova 2016a ). We examined the 4,314 results from both sources to exclude articles that—from their title and abstract—were clearly not impact evaluations of teacher training programs. This review process excluded 4,272 results and left 42 full articles to be assessed for eligibility. After going through the full texts, another 18 papers were excluded as the full text revealed that they did not meet the inclusion criteria. This yielded 23 papers, which evaluated 26 different PD programs. In February 2018, we updated this original sample with full articles published between 2016 and 2018 which fit the inclusion criteria. This resulted in seven new papers and teacher PD programs for a total of 30 papers evaluating 33 programs. The search process is detailed in  fig. 2 . The 30 papers are listed in supplementary online appendix A4 .

Search Process and Results for Evaluated Professional Development Programs

Source : Constructed by the authors based on the search described in the text.

Note : The 30 papers documenting the evaluation of the final 33 programs are listed in supplementary online appendix A4 .

Data collection and coding for the sample of 33 evaluated programs comprised two phases. The first of these phases consisted of carefully reviewing the impact evaluation studies and coding the information they provided. The draft version of the instrument for which we collected data included 51 indicators in total, and on average, information on 26 (51 percent) of these indicators was reported in the impact evaluations. Crucially, the amount of program information reported across the impact evaluations varies noticeably by topic ( table 1 ). Sixty-four percent of details concerning the organization of teacher training programs—such as whether the program was designed by a government or by a non-governmental organization (NGO)—can be extracted from the evaluations. In contrast, on average, only 47 percent of information concerning program content and 42 percent of information concerning program delivery is reported.

Data Available on Evaluated Programs from Studies vs. Interviews

Source : Constructed by the authors based on the application of the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument items ( supplementary online appendix A2 ) to the 33 professional development programs identified ( supplementary online appendix A4 ).

Note : Percentage data collected refers to the percentage of indicators for which data were collected across the 33 programs in our evaluated sample. This is calculated by the number of programs for which each indicator has data, summed for every indicator in a given section (or total) and divided by the number of indicators in that section (or total), and finally divided by the 33 programs.

The second phase of data collection sought to fill this gap in reported data by interviewing individuals involved in the actual implementation of each program. To do this, we emailed the authors of each of the impact evaluations in our sample, asking them to connect us with the program implementers. After three attempts to contact the implementers, we received responses from authors for 25 of the 33 programs. We contacted all of the individuals to whom the authors referred us—who in many cases directed us to more relevant counterparts—and were eventually able to hold interviews with program implementers for 18 of the 33 programs. 3 The interviews loosely followed the survey instrument, but included open-ended questions and space for program implementers to provide any additional program information that they perceived as important.

The ITTSI data were gathered retrospectively for this study, which means that in most cases, the evaluation results (and so whether or not the program was effective) were likely to have been known to the interviewee. We propose three reasons that this should not pose a substantive problem for the quality of the data. First, most of the indicators have no normative response. Whether a program is government- or researcher-designed or implemented, whether it has a subject focus or a general pedagogy focus, or whether or not it has a distance learning element have no obvious “right” answers. Second, the survey was administered to program implementers, who usually were not part of the team of researchers who evaluated the program, so they had little stake in confirming research results. Third, the survey had low stakes: interviewees knew that we were independent researchers doing a synthesis review. In some cases, the PD program being discussed no longer existed in the same form. For future PD studies, these data could be collected at the design stage of programs.

For the 18 programs for which we conducted interviews, we were able to collect information for an average of 50 out of the 51 (98 percent) indicators of interest. Consequently, conducting interviews decreased the differences in data availability across categories. The pooled average of indicators for which we had information after conducting interviews (for interviewed and not interviewed programs combined) increased to 79 percent for Organization indicators, 68 percent of Content indicators, and 72 percent of Delivery indicators ( table 1 ).

For our sample of evaluated in-service teacher PD programs, we analyze which characteristics of teacher training programs are associated with the largest improvements in student learning, as measured by test score gains. We conduct both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The analytical strategy for the quantitative analysis essentially consists of comparing means of student learning gains for programs with and without key characteristics, using a bivariate linear regression to derive the magnitude and statistical significance of differences in means. We do not carry out multivariate regression analysis because of the small sample; thus, these results are only suggestive, as multiple characteristics of programs may be correlated. Because we are testing each coefficient separately, we are not able to test the relative value of coefficients, so differences in point estimates are only suggestive.

In preparation for this analysis, we standardize the impact estimates for each of the programs. We convert the program characteristic variables to indicator variables wherever possible to facilitate comparability of coefficients. Although our sample of impact evaluations has a common outcome—impact on student test scores—these are reported on different scales across studies, based on different sample sizes. 4 We standardize these effects and the associated standard errors in order to be able to compare them directly. Supplementary online appendix A5 provides mathematical details of the standardization.

Turning to the independent variables, as originally coded, the 51 indicators for which we collected information capturing various design and implementation characteristics of the PD programs took a number of forms. These consisted of indicator variables (e.g., the intervention provides textbooks alongside training = 0 or 1), categorical variables (e.g., the primary focus of the training was subject content [= 1], pedagogy [= 2], new technology [= 3]), continuous variables (e.g., the proportion of training hours spent practicing with students), and string variables capturing open-ended perceptions (e.g., which program elements do you think were most effective?). To maximize the comparability of output from our regression analysis we convert all categorical and continuous variables into indicator variables. 5

We then conduct our bivariate regressions on this set of complete indicator variables with continuous impact estimates on test scores as the outcome variable for each regression. Because of the limitations associated with running a series of bivariate regressions on a relatively small sample of evaluations, we propose the following robustness check. First, we estimate robust Eicker-Huber-White (EHW) standard errors as our default standard errors (reported in  tables 2 – 4 ) and assess significance according to p -values associated with these. Second, we estimate bootstrapped standard errors and the associated p -values. Third, we run Fisher randomization tests to calculate exact p -values, a common approach in the context of small samples. 6 We report significance under each of these methods separately and report results as robust if they are significant under at least two of the three methods, and if the significant effect is driven by at least two observations—i.e., the results are not explained by a single PD program.

Organization – Bivariate Regressions with Robustness Checks

Source : Constructed by the authors based on data extracted from 33 professional development programs ( supplementary online appendix A4 ) using the In-Service Teacher Training Survey Instrument, and analyzed by regression, as described in the text.

Note : ∗ p  < 0.10, ∗∗ p  < 0.05, ∗∗∗ p  < 0.01 correspond to the significance of p- val ues of robust standard Noteerrors. § corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for bootstrapped standard errors. † corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for the Fisher Randomization tests. Numbers specified in parentheses in variable labels are the reported medians for dummy variables in which the variable equals 1 if greater than the median. Total programs refers to the number of programs that report whether or not they have the characteristic. The robust column includes an X if the finding is statistically significant across at least two methods and if the finding is driven by two or more evaluations (i.e., not a single evaluation).

Content – Bivariate Regressions with Robustness Checks

Note : ∗ p  < 0.10, ∗∗ p  < 0.05, ∗∗∗ p  < 0.01 correspond to the significance of p -values of robust standard errors. § corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for bootstrapped standard errors. † corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for the Fisher Randomization tests. Total programs refers to the number of programs that report whether or not they have the characteristic. The robust column includes an X if the finding is statistically significant across at least two methods and if the finding is driven by two or more evaluations (i.e., not a single evaluation).

Delivery – Bivariate Regressions with Robustness Checks

Note : ∗ p  < 0.10, ∗∗ p  < 0.05, ∗∗∗ p  < 0.01 correspond to the significance of p -values of robust standard errors. § corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for bootstrapped standard errors. † corresponds to significance at the 10 percent level or higher for the Fisher Randomization tests. Numbers specified in parentheses in variable labels are the reported medians for dummy variables in which the variable equals 1 if greater than the median. Total programs refers to the number of programs that report whether or not they have the characteristic. The robust column includes an X if the finding is statistically significant across at least two methods and if the finding is driven by two or more evaluations (i.e., not a single evaluation).

We supplement this regression analysis with a qualitative analysis of what works, relying on the self-reported perceptions of program implementers along three dimensions: (a) Which program elements they identified as most responsible for any positive impacts on student learning; (b) which elements, if any, teachers particularly liked; and (c) which elements, if any, teachers particularly disliked.

Applying the ITTSI to At-Scale PD Programs

The sampling process for at-scale programs is detailed in  fig. 3 . To obtain a sample of at-scale, government-funded PD programs across the world, we first identified four to five countries in each region where the World Bank has operations. 7 We worked with regional education managers at the World Bank in each region to select countries in which government counterparts and World Bank country teams had an interest in learning more about in-service teacher PD programs. We made clear that the exercise was appropriate for countries with any level of teacher PD, not specific to countries with recent reforms or innovations. The final set of countries sampled included Burkina Faso, Cambodia, El Salvador, The Gambia, Guinea, India (Bihar state), Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Mauritania, Mexico (Guanajato, Oaxaca, and Puebla, and a national PD program for middle school teachers), Moldova, Niger, and the Russian Federation.

Sampling Process for At-Scale Professional Development Programs

Source : Constructed by the authors to reflect the process to identify at-scale professional development programs, as described in the text.

We then obtained permission from the Ministry of Education (MoE) or other relevant government counterparts in each country and worked with them to complete a roster, or listing, of all teacher PD programs conducted between 2012 and 2016. 8 The roster, available in supplementary online appendix A6 , was created along with the ITTSI instrument and collects the following information about each of the teacher PD programs that received government funding: program name; program coordinator's name and contact information; the number of teachers trained; and the types of teachers targeted (e.g., pre-primary, primary, or secondary school teachers). In some countries, such as Mexico and India, where policymaking about teacher PD happens at the state level, we worked with individual states.

After receiving completed roster information about teacher PD programs in a country/state, we used the roster to select a sample of teacher PD programs to interview. In each country/state, we chose the sample by selecting the 10 largest teacher PD programs in terms of teacher coverage, defined as the number of teachers reached by the program during its most recent year of implementation. Of the 10 sampled programs for each country/state, the full ITTSI was administered to the two largest programs targeting primary school teachers and the largest program that targeted secondary school teachers. The brief version of the instrument, the BITTSI, was administered in the remaining seven programs in the country/state. In total, 48 at-scale programs completed the ITTSI and 91 at-scale programs completed the BITTSI across 14 countries.

We applied the ITTSI survey through a combination of phone interviews with and online surveys of PD program coordinators. In a few instances (in The Gambia, El Salvador, and Mexico), depending on the preferences of the program coordinator and their primary language, program coordinators were given the option of completing the ITTSI questionnaire online. For the majority of programs, however, we held phone interviews with program coordinators, in which we asked them the questions included in the ITTSI survey items directly and filled out the instrument ourselves with their responses.

The ITTSI survey applied to the sample of at-scale programs consists of 70 indicators. We were able to collect information for an average of 66 of the 70 (94 percent) indicators of interest for the 48 at-scale teacher PD programs to which the full ITTSI survey was applied, and for 26.5 of the 27 (97 percent) indicators—derived from 13 questions—for the 91 programs to which the BITTSI was applied.

For the sample of at-scale PD programs, we compare the average of observed characteristics of at-scale teacher PD programs with the average for evaluated PD programs that resulted in the largest improvements in student learning (“top performers”), as measured by student test score gains. To determine the characteristics of “top performers,” we ranked all evaluated programs, using their standardized impact on student test scores. We then selected the top half of programs (16 programs, all of which displayed positive impacts), and calculated the average value of program indicators for those “top performers.” We compare them to the means of at-scale PD programs in order to better understand the gap between at-scale PD practices and the best practices of top-performing PD programs.

This section characterizes the specific characteristics of teacher PD programs that successfully improve student learning in low- and middle-income countries and how common these characteristics are across at-scale, government-funded programs. First, we present the results of our quantitative and qualitative analyses examining which PD characteristics are associated with large gains in student learning for the sample of evaluated programs. Second, we present descriptive statistics from the sample of at-scale PD programs and from the top-performing PD programs in the evaluated sample to shed light on how they differ in terms of those PD characteristics found to be associated with positive impacts on student learning.

Which PD Characteristics are Most Associated with Student Learning Among Evaluated Programs?

We discuss, for each of our categories—Organization, Content, and Delivery—those characteristics we observe to be most associated with student learning gains.  Tables 2 – 4 present the results of our bivariate regressions for each of these categories in turn. In each case, we report the results with the three different methods of calculating significance as well as an indicator of robustness.

Among Organization ( table 2 ), two characteristics are robustly associated with significant gains in student learning. These include linking career opportunities (improved status, promotion, or salary) to PD programs and targeting training programs based on teachers’ years of experience. First, in teacher PD programs where participation has no implications for promotion, salary, or status increases, student learning is 0.12 standard deviations lower (significant at 95 percent). In other words, programs that do link participation to career incentives have higher effectiveness. 9 Second, targeting participant teachers by their years of experience is associated with 0.10 standard deviations higher student learning (significant at 90 percent). This is driven by two programs: the Balsakhi program in rural India, which trains women from the local community who have completed secondary school to provide remedial education to students falling behind ( Banerjee et al. 2007 ); and the Science teacher training program in Argentina, which trains teachers in different structured curricula and coaching techniques and finds that coaching is only effective for less experienced teachers ( Albornoz et al. 2018 ). Indeed, these are the only two programs out of the 33 that explicitly targeted teachers based on their experience, both of which resulted in student learning gains. In addition, the provision of complementary materials such as storybooks and other reading materials (e.g., flashcards or word banks) have large coefficients associated with improving student learning (0.11 and 0.13 standard deviations), although these are not statistically significant.

Among the Content variables ( table 3 ), programs with a specific subject focus result in higher learning gains than more general programs. Specifically, programs with no subject focus show 0.24 standard deviations lower impact on student learning (significant at 99 percent). A deeper look reveals that within focus areas, programs that are not focused on a given academic subject—such as those focused on counseling—are associated with 0.2 lower standard deviations in student learning (significant at 99 percent). Lastly, when a teacher PD program involves teaching practice through lesson enactment, it is associated with a 0.10 standard deviation increase in student learning (significant at 90 percent).

Turning to Delivery characteristics ( table 4 ), three characteristics of teacher PD programs are robust. First, teacher PD programs that provide consecutive days of face-to-face teacher training are associated with a 0.14 standard deviation increase in student learning (significant at 99 percent). Second, holding face-to-face training at a central location—such as a hotel or government administrative building (as opposed to a university or training center, which was the omitted category)—is associated with a 0.13 lower standard deviation in student learning (significant at 90 percent). Third, teacher PD training programs that are conducted remotely using distance learning are associated with a 0.10 standard deviation decrease in student learning (significant at 90 percent). In alignment with recent literature highlighting the overly theoretical nature of many training programs as an explanation for their limited effects on student learning—as well as the above finding that training programs that involve teaching practice are associated with 0.16 larger gains in student learning—the proportion of training time spent practicing with other teachers is highly correlated with learning impacts (although not consistently statistically significant). Also, the inclusion of follow-up visits to review material taught in the initial training—as opposed to visits for monitoring purposes alone or no follow-up visits—is associated with a 0.14 standard deviation higher program impact on student learning (not significant, but one of the largest coefficients). These findings support the literature that subject-focused teacher PD programs with consecutive days of face-to-face training that include time for teachers to practice with one another, are associated with improved student learning outcomes.

We supplement the quantitative results with an analysis of self-reported perceptions by the implementers of the evaluated programs. These concern the characteristics of their programs which they believe are most responsible for any positive effects on student learning, as well as those elements which were popular and unpopular among the beneficiary teachers. We elicited these perceptions using open-ended questions and then tallied the number of program implementers that mentioned a given program element in their response, albeit not necessarily using the exact same language as other respondents. These responses come from 18 interviewees, so they should be taken as suggestive. That said, the results broadly align with the quantitative results: Five of 18 interviewees—tied for the most common response—mentioned that mentoring follow-up visits were a crucial component in making their training work. Similarly, five of the 18 interviewees discuss the importance of having complementary materials, such as structured lessons or scripted materials that provide useful references in the classroom and help to guide teachers during the training sessions. The next most commonly reported elements were engaging teachers for their opinions and ideas—either through discussion or text messages—and designing the program in response to local context, building on what teachers already do and linking to everyday experiences: both were mentioned by four of 18 interviewees.

We also asked the program implementers about the program characteristics that they believed teachers liked and disliked the most about their training programs and, interestingly, we only found two common responses for what teachers particularly liked and one common response for what they disliked. 10 Seven of the 18 interviewees reported that the part of their program that teachers most enjoyed was that it was fun and engaging (or some variation of that). In other words, teachers appreciated that certain programs were interactive and involved participation and discussion rather than passive learning. In addition to having “fun” teacher PD programs, five of the 18 interviewees suggested that teachers especially liked the program materials provided to them. Similarly, in terms of unpopular program elements, four of the 18 program implementers we interviewed reported that teachers disliked the amount of time taken by participating in the training programs, which they perceived as excessive.

What Do We Learn from At-Scale PD Programs?

Government-funded, at-scale teacher PD programs have a number of characteristics in common ( supplementary online appendix tables A7.1–A7.3 ). The vast majority are designed by government (80 percent) and implemented by government (90 percent). Almost all provide materials to accompany the PD (96 percent), and most include at least some lesson enactment (73 percent) and development of materials (73 percent). Most have a subject focus (92 percent) and include an initial period of face-to-face training for several days (85 percent). Most do not formally target teachers by subject (only 19 percent do), grade (31 percent), or years of experience (13 percent), and few have negative consequences if teachers are poorly evaluated (17 percent). These at-scale programs differ sharply from programs that are evaluated in general, as well as from top-performing evaluated programs specifically. We provide a full list of average characteristics of at-scale programs and all evaluated programs (not just top-performers) in supplementary online appendix tables A7.1–A7.3 .

Our principal focus in this section is how at-scale programs compare to evaluated programs that deliver relatively high gains in student learning. We assess the top half of programs (N = 16) from the sample of evaluated programs by selecting those characteristics that produced the largest standard deviation increases in student assessment scores. In  table 5 , we compare the means of at-scale programs and top-performing, evaluated programs. We focus specifically on the characteristics shown to have a statistically significant relationship with student learning outcomes and those with large coefficients, identified for interest (as identified in  tables 2 – 4 ).

Comparison of Means of At-Scale Programs and Top-Performing, Evaluated Programs

Source : Constructed by authors, comparing summary statistics for the top performing professional development (PD) programs among rigorously evaluated PD programs to at-scale PD programs.

Note : For the full list of statistics, see supplementary online appendix Tables A7.1–A7.3 .

Regarding Organization ( table 5 ), two key characteristics—whether or not the training is linked to career opportunities and whether or not the program targets teachers based on their years of experience—are robustly associated with improved student learning gains. There are notable and substantive differences between top-performing PD programs and the sample of at-scale PD programs when it comes to providing incentives; 88 percent of top-performing PD programs link training to status or to new career opportunities such as promotion or salary, as compared to only 55 percent of at-scale programs. Our results suggest that without incentives, training may not have a meaningful impact. Furthermore, top-performing programs and at-scale PD programs are similar in the degree to which they target teachers based on their years of experience. For instance, 13.3 percent of top-performers and 12.5 percent of at-scale programs target teachers based on their experience. Other notable organizational characteristics include the provision of complementary materials such as storybooks and reading materials. Top-performing PD programs and at-scale PD programs are similar in the amount of materials they provide, but our results suggest that the kinds of complementary materials may differ somewhat. For instance, only 12.5 percent and 21 percent of at-scale programs provide storybooks and reading materials, respectively—materials correlated with student learning gains—as compared to 36 percent and 43 percent of evaluated programs.

Turning next to Content ( table 5 ), top-performing PD programs and at-scale PD programs perform similarly. In both instances, the majority of programs include subject content and subject-specific pedagogy as either a primary or secondary focus. Few programs—none of the top performers—and only eight percent of at-scale programs lack a subject focus. Moreover, no top-performing programs and few at-scale programs (fewer than six percent) focus on general training in areas such as counseling or providing training on how to use a specific tool—types of training that are statistically linked to lower gains in student learning.

Finally, Delivery characteristics ( table 5 ) include whether or not there are consecutive days of face-to-face training, training location, the amount of time teachers spend practicing with one another, and follow-up visits. Specifically, 100 percent of top-performing programs include consecutive days of face-to-face training as compared to 85 percent of evaluated programs. Our research further suggests that the location of PD training programs may influence program effectiveness, and training held at central locations such as hotels or conference rooms (as opposed to universities or training centers) may be less effective. Currently 73 percent of at-scale, government-funded programs are held at central locations as compared to only 38 percent of evaluated programs.

Follow-up visits with teachers and the amount of time teachers spend practicing with other teachers during the training program are shown to be positively correlated with large coefficients (albeit not statistically significant) on student learning. In both instances, top-performing PD programs include more follow-up visits (five versus two median visits among programs with visits) and spend more time allowing teachers to practice with other teachers (40 percent versus 16 percent of training time) than do at-scale programs. 11 Results of our analysis suggest that training may be more effective if there are follow-up visits. This is an imperative finding when comparing top-performing PD programs, in which 85 percent include follow-up visits, with government-funded, at-scale PD programs, in which only half of programs include follow-up visits. Also, in top-performing PD programs, teachers spend more time practicing what they have learned with other teachers (40 percent of overall training time) relative to at-scale programs (only 16 percent). An existing body of research suggests that when teachers have opportunities to practice the new skills they acquire in PD programs, they are more likely to adopt these new skills in their classrooms ( Wiley and Yoon 1995 ; Wenglinsky 2000 ; Angrist and Lavy 2001 ; Borko 2004 ).

Governments spend enormous amounts of time and money on in-service professional development. Many countries have multiple in-service PD programs running simultaneously, as evidenced by our sample of at-scale PD programs. Many go unevaluated and may be ineffective. This paper makes three major contributions: first, it reveals broad weaknesses in reporting on teacher PD interventions. There are almost as many program types as there are programs, with variations in subject and pedagogical focus, hours spent, capacity of the trainers, and a host of other variables. Yet reporting on these often seeks to reduce them to a small handful of variables, and each scholar decides independently which variables are most relevant to report. We propose a standard set of indicators—the ITTSI—that would encourage consistency and thoroughness in reporting. Academic journals may continue to pressure authors to report limited information about the interventions, wishing instead to reserve space for statistical analysis. However, authors could easily include the full set of indicators in an appendix attached to the paper or online.

Second, this paper demonstrates that some characteristics of teacher PD programs—notably, linking participation to incentives such as promotion or salary implications, having a specific subject focus, incorporating lesson enactment in the training, and including initial face-to-face training—are positively associated with student test score gains. Furthermore, qualitative evidence suggests that follow-up visits to reinforce skills learned in training are important to effective training. Further documentation of detailed program characteristics, coupled with rigorous evaluation, will continue to inform effective evaluations.

The impacts of these characteristics are not small: having a specific subject focus and incorporating lesson enactment are associated with 0.24 and 0.10 more standard deviations in learning, respectively, for example. Comparing these effect sizes to those from a sample of 747 education-related randomized controlled trials in the United States puts them both above the 50th percentile in terms of effectiveness ( Kraft 2020 ). Comparing to a set of 130 randomized controlled trials in low- and middle-income countries likewise put them at or above the 50 th percentile of 0.10 standard deviations ( Evans and Yuan 2020 ). In high-income countries, Kennedy (2019) proposes that the impact of teacher PD programs be benchmarked against a much less costly “community of practice” model in which teachers help each other, like Papay et al. (2020) . While we are not aware of a rigorously evaluated, costed model of that class of program in a low- or middle-income country, an alternative would be to compare teacher PD results to a pure monitoring model, such as an increase in inspections. Along these lines, Muralidharan et al. (2017) show—using data from India—that increased frequency of monitoring would be a much more cost-effective way to reduce effective class sizes (through reduced teacher absenteeism) than hiring more teachers. These are useful avenues to pursue for future research as countries consider the cost-effectiveness of alternative investments in teachers.

Third, by comparing the means of at-scale PD programs with top-performing evaluated programs, our findings highlight gaps between what evidence suggests are effective characteristics of teacher PD programs and the contextual realities of most teacher PD programs in their design, content, and delivery. In particular, our findings taken together suggest that at-scale programs often lack key characteristics of top-performing training programs. At-scale programs are much less likely to be linked to career incentives, to provide storybooks or other reading materials, to have a subject content focus, to include time for practicing with other teachers, or to include follow-up visits.

The approach taken by this paper centers on using the ITTSI to collect and compare data on rigorously evaluated and at-scale, government-funded teacher PD programs. This approach has limitations. First, the evidence of what works within rigorously evaluated programs is limited by those programs that have been evaluated. There may be innovative PD programs that are not among the “top performers” simply because they have yet to be evaluated. While this evidence base can push policymakers away from approaches that do not work, it should not deter policymakers from innovating and evaluating those innovations.

A second, related limitation concerns the relatively small sample of evaluated teacher PD programs in low- and middle-income countries, on which our findings about effective PD characteristics are based. Some of the larger coefficients in the regressions are driven by a small number of teacher training programs. These instances have been noted in the text. As more evaluations of PD programs are conducted, the ITTSI can be applied to these and our analyses re-run to shed further light on the specific characteristics associated with PD programs that improve student learning. The ITTSI data were already updated once in this way in 2018, increasing the number of evaluated programs in our sample from 26 to 33.

Third, a conceptual concern with evaluating teacher professional programs is the risk that impacts may be explained by observer effects (also referred to as Hawthorne effects). These effects have been documented in education ( Muralidharan et al. 2017 ) and health in low- and middle-income countries ( Leonard 2008 ; Leonard and Masatu 2010 ). The impact of any education intervention may partly be due to observer effects, since the introduction of an intervention suggests that someone is paying attention to the teacher's efforts. Both randomized controlled trials and more traditional monitoring and evaluation may enhance these effects, as teachers may further respond favorably to the observation associated with measurement. Randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies with a credible comparison group overcome part of this concern, as the observer effect associated with measurement will exist in both the treatment and comparison groups, and measured program impacts should be net of those effects.

That leaves the impact of the intervention itself. In this review, all of the studies we include evaluate interventions and, as such, all may be subject to an observer effect. Our analysis implicitly assumes the magnitude of this observer effect to be constant across different types of PD. By comparing PD characteristics across programs, we observe whether those characteristics are associated with a larger total effect on learning. Part of that total effect may stem from increased teacher skills, and part may be explained by certain PD characteristics inducing greater observer effects (since any observer effects that are uncorrelated with PD characteristics would be absorbed in our regression constant terms). In the short run, the impact for students is observationally equivalent. Even with longer run studies (of which there are very few in education and development), observer effects may fade, but teacher skills may also depreciate ( Cilliers et al. 2020 ). As a result, we consider the total association of PD characteristics with student learning, including through increased teacher human capital and observer effects.

Fourth, there are challenges in comparing evaluated PD programs with at-scale PD programs. As the data demonstrate, at-scale PD programs tend to be larger programs designed by governments, often at the national level, and aimed at providing broad training to teachers. In light of these differences, we highlight the fact that top-performing programs—regardless of their core objectives—share certain common sets of characteristics that most at-scale programs do not share. Awareness of these characteristics may be useful in the conceptualization and implementation of future teacher PD programs in low- and middle-income countries, including large-scale programs funded by governments.

One key reason that at-scale programs may differ from successful, evaluated programs is that the latter group of evaluations may not be designed in a way that is conducive to scaling. Evaluated programs tend to be much smaller than at-scale programs: in our data, evaluated programs reached an average of 96 schools versus at-scale programs that reached more than 6,000 schools on average ( supplementary online appendix table A7.1 ). These smaller programs often have higher per-pupil costs ( Evans and Popova 2016b ), so scaling them nationwide requires cutting elements. Smaller programs are easier to staff and easier to monitor. Evaluated programs were three times as likely to be designed by researchers and less than one-third as likely to be implemented by government ( supplementary online appendix table A7.1 ). One solution, obviously, is more large-scale evaluations, like Loyalka et al. (2019) . However, even smaller evaluations can do more to mimic scalable policies. Gove et al. (2017) , reflecting on programs evaluated both at pilot and at scale in Kenya and Liberia, suggest the value of testing as many elements as possible in the pilot, using government systems in the pilot as much as possible, and to make sure that pilot costs are within what a government budget can handle. Duflo et al. (2020) combine these two approaches in a recent nationwide, five-arm randomized controlled trial in Ghana, to test the scalability of four different models to reach remedial learners, which had previously been tested in small pilot randomized controlled trials elsewhere. When implemented within existing government systems, they find all four interventions to be effective, pointing to the program's inception within the government as key, as opposed to an initial non-government organization initiative subsequently and imperfectly implemented by the government.

Improving in-service teacher professional development may be a clear win for governments. They are already spending resources on these programs, and there is broad support for these programs among teachers and teachers’ unions. Interventions such as the above provide learning opportunities for country governments and stakeholders seeking to design effective teacher PD programs. While no single characteristic of top-performing PD programs may transform an ineffective PD program into an effective one, this paper highlights trends in top-performing programs, such as including incentives, a specific subject focus, and lesson enactment. These are characteristics that, if included and implemented successfully, have the potential to improve the quality of teacher PD programs, and ultimately, the quality of instruction and student learning.

The authors are grateful for comments from Denise Bello, Luis Benveniste, Barbara Bruns, Martin Carnoy, Joost de Laat, Margaret Dubeck, Deon Filmer, Susanna Loeb, Prashant Loyalka, Ezequiel Molina, Andrew Ragatz, and Halsey Rogers. They are also grateful to Fei Yuan for excellent research assistance, to Veronica Michel Gutierrez, Olga A. Rines, Lea Jeanne Marie Lungmann, Fata No, and Elissar Tatum Harati for their support with data collection, and to numerous teacher training implementers for providing information on programs. This paper subsumes an earlier paper, “Training Teachers on the Job: What Works and How to Measure It” (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 7834).

This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank's Systems Approach for Better Education (SABER) Trust Fund, which was supported by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID) and Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), and the Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund at the World Bank.

Both samples focus on teacher training programs at the primary and secondary school level. Pre-primary schools are excluded.

The databases we searched were the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC); Academic Search Complete; Business Source Complete; Econlit with Full Text; Education Full Text (H. W. Wilson); Education Index Retrospective: 1929–1983; Education Source; Educational Administration Abstracts; Social Science Full Text (H. W. Wilson); Teacher Reference Center; and EconLit. We looked for articles containing the terms (“teacher training” OR “teacher education” OR “professional development”) AND (``learning'' OR ``scores'' OR ``attainment'') AND (“impact evaluation” OR ``effects'') AND (“developing country 1” OR “developing country 2” OR “developing country N”), where “developing country” was replaced by country names.

In six cases, program implementers failed to schedule an interview after three attempts at contact, and in the case of one older program, the implementer had passed away. Interviews were held over the phone or in-person, and lasted between 45 and 90 minutes for each program.

A limitation is that some of the impact estimates from school-randomized control trials in our evaluated sample are over-estimates because the authors fail to account for the clustering of children within teachers or schools ( Hedges 2009 ).

For categorical variables, this is straightforward. For example, we convert the original categorical variable for the location of the initial teacher PD—which includes response options of schools, a central location, a training center, or online—into four dummy variables. In order to convert the continuous variables to a comparable scale, we create a dummy for each continuous variable which, for a given program, takes a value of 1 if the continuous variable is greater than the median value of this variable across all programs, and a value of 0 if it is less than or equal to the value of this variable across all programs. We apply this method to the conversion of all continuous variables except three—proportion of teachers that dropped out of the program, number of follow-up visits, and weeks of distance learning—which we convert directly to dummy variables that take a value of 1 if the original variable was greater than 0, and a value of 0 otherwise.

We estimate bootstrapped standard errors by resampling our data with replacement 1,000 times. We run Fisher randomization tests by treating each indicator PD characteristic as a treatment and calculating a randomization distribution of mean differences (the test statistic) across treatment assignments. Specifically, for 1,000 permutations, we randomly reassign values of 0 or 1 to the independent variables in our regressions, while maintaining the overall proportion of 0s and 1s observed in the empirical sample for a given variable. We then calculate Fisher exact p -values by finding the proportion of the randomization distribution that is larger than our observed test statistic ( Fisher 1925 , 1935 ; Imbens and Rubin 2015 ).

These regions include: Africa, Eastern and Central Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and East and South Asia.

This includes programs ongoing in 2016 and programs that were implemented anytime in the range of 2012 to 2016. Hence, the programs could have been designed prior to 2012. We still include them if they were implemented any time between 2012 and 2016. We were not successful in obtaining roster information in all countries. For instance, in Morocco and the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Ministries of Education were in the process of making changes to the structure and delivery of teacher training programs and indicated that it was not a good time for data collection. In Tanzania there was a change in leadership among government counterparts during efforts to complete the roster and data collection process, and we were not able to properly sample and apply the ITTSI in all teacher-training programs in the country. In India, we had initially identified two states, Bihar and Karnataka, to work with at the subnational level, but ultimately only collected data in one state, Bihar, since the principal government counterpart in Karnataka was not available to complete the roster.

In some cases, we test a negative (e.g., no implications for status in table 2 or no subject focus in table 3 ) because we are testing an exhaustive series of indicators derived from the same question (e.g., subject focus is math, subject focus is literacy, or no subject focus).

Because it is difficult to imagine an effective teacher professional development program that teachers actively dislike (they have to learn for it to work, after all), their preferences are relevant.

When we include programs with no follow-up visits, the median number of follow-up visits to teachers in top programs becomes 3.5 as compared to 0 for at-scale programs.

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Evaluation of the digital teacher professional development TARGET-tool for optimizing the motivational climate in secondary school physical education

• Development Article
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• Published: 15 May 2024

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• Gwen Weeldenburg   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9707-1352 1 , 2 ,
• Menno Slingerland   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6985-9356 1 ,
• Lars B. Borghouts   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6899-0555 1 ,
• Len Kromkamp   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0005-9736-2386 1 ,
• Bart van Dijk 2 ,
• Eva van der Born 2 &
• Steven Vos   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7865-0965 1 , 2  

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Given the complexity of teaching, continuing teacher professional development (CPD) is essential for maintaining and enhancing teaching effectiveness, and bridging the gap between ever-evolving theory and practice. Technological advancements have opened new opportunities for digital tools to support CPD. However, the successful integration of such digital tools into practice poses challenges. It requires adherence to CPD prerequisites and acknowledgment of the complexity of the professional development process. This study explored the applicability of the developed digital PE teacher professional development TARGET-tool in a secondary school PE context. We examined the perceived usability of this tool and gained insights into the process of teachers’ professional development as a result of using the tool. Ten PE teachers from different schools implemented the TARGET-tool within their PE context for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Individual semi-structured interviews and the System Usability Scale provided insights into the perceived usability and the process of teacher professional development. The TARGET-tool demonstrated its potential as an effective tool for supporting teachers’ professional development. Future tool improvements were identified to further optimize the perceived usability, such as simplifying complex features, providing additional support and resources, and improving (data) presentations. Using the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth as a theoretical basis, it was demonstrated how the use of the TARGET-tool engages teachers as active and reflective participants in their professional development and induces changes within the external domain, the domain of practice, the domain of consequences, and the personal domain.

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Introduction

Teaching is considered complex given the dynamic context and constantly evolving practice confronting teachers with relational, emotional, and intellectual challenges on a daily basis (Day, 2017 ). Effective teaching involves understanding students’ individual needs and using teaching strategies to meet these needs. Due to the substantial heterogeneity in the psychomotor, social, and affective domains present among secondary school students, physical education (PE) teachers in particular, are confronted with a wide range of abilities and needs in class (Komar et al., 2019 ; Moen et al., 2020 ; Warburton et al., 2019 ). For students to adopt a physically active lifestyle (i.e., objective of PE; WHO, 2018 ), it is crucial to build inclusive PE learning environments in which students’ differential needs are met, and positive student experiences are ensured (Cox & Williams, 2008 ; Haerens et al., 2010 ; Hagger et al., 2005 ). The TARGET framework (Ames, 1992 ; Epstein, 1989 ) is a valuable theoretical framework to support PE teachers in achieving this goal. By manipulating the classroom dimensions task , authority , recognition , grouping , evaluation, and time , a favorable PE learning climate (i.e., mastery climate) can be created (Braithwaite et al., 2011 ; Harwood et al., 2015 ; Urdan & Kaplan, 2020 ). By employing several teaching strategies, the teacher can modify the (learning) tasks assigned to students, the authority provided to complete them, the manner students are recognized , grouped, and evaluated , and the amount of time available for instruction. Examples of these teaching strategies include providing variety and alternation within the learning tasks (task dimension) of empowering students to take responsibility for their learning through choice and opportunities for self-regulation (authority dimension). The implementation of these research-based insights, however, is not self-evident (Hastie et al., 2014 ; Weeldenburg et al., 2021 ). Transforming content knowledge of the TARGET framework into the unique and individual PE context is a complex and challenging process for many PE teachers (Velija et al., 2008 ). Continuing teacher professional development (CPD) is vital to update teachers’ knowledge, enhance teaching effectiveness, and address the complexity of teaching (Atencio et al., 2012 ; Lander et al., 2022 ; Parker & Patton, 2017 ; Yoon et al., 2007 ). CPD can involve various formal and informal activities, such as attending workshops, participating in peer-to-peer discussions on online PE forums, and pursuing an advanced teaching degree. To ensure the effectiveness of CPD activities, teachers need support in bridging the gap between theory and practice (Armour et al., 2017 ), and tools that facilitate the access and use of scientific insights in their professional practice should be developed (Grimshaw et al., 2012 ).

Technological advancements have led to new opportunities for developing digital tools for CPD (An, 2021 ; Hennessy et al., 2022 ; Philipsen et al., 2019 ; Walker et al., 2012 ). With the development of online environments, such as social media platforms, online forums, virtual learning environments, and collaborative workspaces, for example, promising CPD opportunities for teachers to enhance their professional development more flexibly and responsively appeared. Online professional learning communities (PLCs) have become increasingly popular in education as a way for teachers to connect with peers, share ideas, and improve their practice. Research showed that participation in online PLCs can be beneficial and could lead to increased teacher efficacy, improved student achievement, and greater job satisfaction (Ekici, 2018 ; Parsons et al., 2019 ; Trust et al., 2016 ; Xue et al., 2021 ). The application of technological tools within the teaching practice itself provides opportunities for teachers as well. In the context of PE, a variety of technologies have been developed and are currently used, such as tablets, mobile applications, video, wearables (e.g., accelerometers), and exergames (Phelps et al., 2021 ). However, most of these types of technology focus on enhancing student learning, rather than supporting teachers in performing the fundamental teaching tasks (i.e., lesson planning, instructing, and assessing) and their professional development. For example, Goto et al. ( 2020 ) developed a visualization and evaluation system for human movement trajectories, providing students with objective feedback on their performance, whereas Mast et al. ( 2017 ) reported on the tool ‘BalanSAR’ which visually projects animations to allow students to conduct balancing exercises. In contrast, some studies are reporting on types of technology that primarily focus on the process of teachers’ learning and enhancing skills, knowledge, and expertise (i.e., CPD), rather than improving student learning. Calderón and Tannehill ( 2021 ), for example, used the ‘Phyz app’ to support and empower teachers to enact a new curriculum models-based framework, while Penney et al. ( 2012 ) developed and implemented a digital assessment tool for secondary school PE. Yang et al. ( 2020 ) developed the ‘Voice Interactive Artificial Intelligence Educational Robot’ to assist teachers in individualizing PE and responding to students’ interests, and the ‘V-observer’, an online environment developed at Ghent University, allows PE teachers to identify and optimize their motivating teaching style (Bouten et al., 2023 ).

Although the added value of such tools has become apparent (Lupton, 2013 ; Roth, 2014 ; Williamson, 2014 ), successful implementation is complex and not evident (Hilvoorde & Koekoek, 2018 ). To be effective, digital tools should preferably meet the prerequisites for CPD as described in the literature, such as being evidence-informed (Hennessy et al., 2021 ; Osborne et al., 2013 ), facilitating active teacher involvement, addressing teachers’ needs and interests (Anamuah-Mensah et al., 2012 ; Power, 2019 ), being aligned with and applicable in teachers’ professional practice (Bødker, 2015 ; Seely et al., 2000 ), stimulating critical reflection on current teaching practice (Sargent & Calderón, 2021 ), supporting iterative cycles of experimentation and reflection within a safe environment (Bakkenes et al., 2010 ; DeLuca et al., 2015 ; Korthagen, 2017 ; Polly & Hannafin, 2010 ), and focusing on student outcomes (Armour et al., 2017 ; O’Sullivan & Deglau, 2006 ).

A widely accepted theoretical framework that acknowledges this complexity of CPD is the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (IMPG; Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 ). This model (see Fig.  1 ) is useful for understanding how teachers develop their skills and knowledge over time. It proposes the perspective of teachers as active learners who shape their professional development by actively engaging in reflective participation in both professional development programs and in their day-to-day teaching practice. According to the IMPG, professional development results from the reflection and enactment in the various domains that encompass the teacher’s world: (1) the external domain , which refers to external sources of new information, stimulus, or support emerging from outside the teacher’s daily practice; (2) the domain of practice , which refers to all kinds of professional experimentation, including the enactment of developed learning materials in class; (3) the domain of consequences , which refers to salient outcomes such as student learning or student motivation; (4) the personal domain , which refers to teacher’s knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes.

The interconnected model of professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 )

In a previous publication (Weeldenburg et al., 2023 ) we described the development of a digital teacher professional development tool that acknowledges these domains. This so-called ‘TARGET-tool’ aims to support PE teachers in building and optimizing an inclusive and motivating learning climate in secondary school PE. It consists of an online teacher dashboard and mobile device student scans. By using the tool, the teachers will go through several process steps to gain insights into students’ motivational experiences within PE class, receive practical suggestions to improve the PE motivational learning climate, experiment with the selected motivating strategies within PE practice, reflect on their teaching performance and monitor changes in student motivational experiences over time.

Although PE teachers were actively involved in the design process as targeted end-users and conducted several user tests, real-life implementation of the finalized TARGET-tool is needed to investigate its applicability in the secondary school PE context. Therefore, the first aim of the present study was to examine the perceived usability of the TARGET-tool within a real-life secondary school PE context. Perceived usability refers to the subjective feelings toward products from the perspective of usage and encompasses various factors such as ease of use, learnability, efficiency, error frequency, and satisfaction (Yang et al., 2012 ). Secondly, using the IMPG as a framework, we aimed to gain insights into the process of teacher professional development as a result of using the digital tool. To provide a comprehensive view we first describe the main function and functionalities of the TARGET-tool, and of some technical components and processes that enable the TARGET-tool to perform its intended function, followed by the results of the evaluation study.

Description of the developed TARGET-tool

The TARGET-tool was developed using a participatory design approach (Sanders, 2008 ), involving researchers, designers, and PE teachers. The collaborative process spanned 14 months and consisted of seven phases, incorporating interactive and iterative research and design activities. Throughout this process, the challenges and needs of PE teachers regarding a motivational PE climate were identified. Ideas for the TARGET-tool were then explored, prototyped, designed, developed, validated, tested, and critically reviewed. A full description of this design and development process can be found in our previous paper (Weeldenburg et al., 2023 ). In the following section, we provide a short description of the TARGET-tool's function, content, and functionalities.

Function and content of the TARGET-tool

The digital TARGET-tool was developed to support PE teachers in building an optimal motivational learning climate in secondary school PE and enhancing their knowledge and skills. It comprises an online teacher dashboard and student scans (see Fig.  2 ). Drawing from research on the evidence-based theoretical TARGET framework (e.g., Bortoli et al., 2017 ; Cecchini et al., 2020 ; Urdan & Kaplan, 2020 ; Weeldenburg et al., 2021 ), several potential motivating teaching strategies and matching teacher actions within the task , authority , recognition , grouping , evaluation, and time dimension were identified and embedded in the tool. Within the authority dimension, for example, the tool provides the teachers with the suggestion to enhance students’ involvement in decision-making processes (i.e., teaching strategy) through the following teacher action options: the application of questioning; creating moments for students to discuss (e.g., time outs); providing opportunities for choice and promoting personal goal setting. These teaching strategies and actions are made accessible for teachers by printable cards and provided by the tool after finishing the previous user process steps (see Fig.  3 ).

TARGET-tool interfaces existing of a teacher dashboard (left and center, desktop) and student scans (right, mobile device)

The process involved predefined steps

The TARGET-tool user process

The TARGET-tool supports teachers in going through a specific process (see Fig.  3 ), enabling them to gain insights into students’ motivational PE experiences and optimize the motivational climate. This process involves several predefined steps implemented in the desktop interface and visualized in a teacher dashboard (see Fig.  2 ). Even though the tool was designed to be as self-explanatory as possible, the availability of high-quality support materials can be expected to enhance its uptake. Therefore, upon the teacher’s first login to the TARGET-tool, they are directed to a dedicated landing page that introduces the tool’s functionalities. This page provides supportive information about the importance of fostering a motivating PE learning climate and how the tool can assist teachers in optimizing it. Included on this landing page is an introductory video (in Dutch) accessible by the following link: https://vimeo.com/764468446 .

The following user steps are predefined and implemented in the dashboard of the TARGET-tool:

Enter general information into the user profile and select the classes for experimentation.

Select one or two relevant TARGET dimensions after reviewing detailed information about all TARGET dimensions and optionally completing the SELF-scan. The SELF-scan assesses the teacher’s perceived abilities in applying motivating teaching strategies across all TARGET dimensions by responding to 62 items (e.g., ‘In general, I provide plenty of variety and alternation in the PE lessons’) using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). This results in scores on all TARGET dimensions providing the teacher with insights to identify their strengths and opportunities for professional development.

Schedule the TARGET-scan for students and generate student scan passwords .

Conduct a TARGET-scan at the beginning of PE class to retrieve information on students’ overall perceptions of the motivational climate regarding the selected TARGET dimension(s) (i.e., baseline measurement). The TARGET-scan involves a short questionnaire (10–13 items; e.g., ‘In general, there is plenty of variety and alternation in the PE lessons’) that students administer on their mobile device by using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5. Students’ answers are logged in the TARGET-tool database and form the baseline measurement.

Review the TARGET-scan results to identify professional development opportunities and gain insights for the next step in the process.

Select relevant and applicable potential motivating teaching strategies based on the results within the selected dimension(s). These strategies are presented as printable cards.

Experiment for a substantial period with the selected motivating strategies by implementing them in PE practice.

Conduct a QUICK-scan (optional) at the end of an experimental PE lesson to gain information on students’ experiences and make adjustments if needed. This scan consists of a two-item questionnaire related to how interesting and enjoyable (i.e., intrinsic motivation; (Ryan & Deci, 2017 ) the students found the current PE lesson.

Review the QUICK-scan results (optional) and identify potential improvements regarding the implemented teaching strategies. The data collected from students is processed and presented to the teacher. This provides the teacher with insights to make interim adjustments if needed.

Conduct a second TARGET-scan at the end of the experimental phase to gain insight into the effect of the interventions. Based on these results it can be decided to (a) continue experimenting within the selected TARGET dimension(s), (b) continue experimenting within the selected TARGET dimension(s) involving other classes, (c) finalize the experiment and shift the focus to another TARGET dimension, or (d) pause.

For more detailed information concerning the functionalities, technical specifications of the teacher dashboard, student scans, data visualization, and privacy concerns, we refer to Supplementary Information.

Evaluation of the TARGET-tool

To identify potential flaws in the design, uncover opportunities to improve, and learn about the target users, several usability tests were conducted on prototypes of the TARGET-tool in the previous development phases. The perceived usability of the completed TARGET-tool, however, has not yet been examined. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the perceived usability of the completed TARGET-tool within a real-life secondary school PE context. As the tool is intended to support and stimulate teachers in their professional development, we also aimed to gain insights into the process of teacher professional development as a result of using the digital tool.

Participants and settings

After ethical approval was granted by the university’s research ethics committee, participants were recruited by inviting PE teachers from the university’s network to participate in this study. The convenience sample consisted of 10 PE teachers (9 male; 1 female) and their 18 PE classes (i.e., 399 students) from 10 different secondary schools in the Netherlands. The mean age of the PE teachers was 39.5 years (SD = 9.9) and an average of 16.9 years (SD = 9.3) of teaching experience. PE in these schools was mixed-gender grouped and mandatory for two lessons (of 50–60 min each) per week throughout the school year. In the Netherlands, all PE teachers in secondary education are specialist teachers who obtained their teacher qualifications through a 4-year physical education teacher education bachelor’s program. For all participants written informed consent was obtained after they had received information in which the purpose of the research project and its methods were explained, and voluntary participation and confidentiality were emphasized.

Study design

To test and evaluate the TARGET-tool within the PE context participants were asked to experiment with the TARGET-tool for a period of 4 to 6 weeks within their PE practice. Leading up to the experimental phase the participants received login details and instructions to set up their individual TARGET-tool accounts. Based on the idea that teachers should be able to work with the tool individually and independently, no further instructions on how to use the tool were provided to the participants.

Data collection

Individual semi-structured interviews.

Individual online interviews were conducted to explore PE teachers’ perceptions of the usability of the TARGET-tool and gain insights into the process of teacher professional development. A semi-structured approach was used to ensure data comparability and coverage of relevant topics while allowing for follow-up questions (Fontana & Frey, 2005 ). Each participating teacher was interviewed individually for approximately 30–40 min using the Microsoft Teams platform. The interviews consisted of a series of questions that focused (i) on the perceived usability (e.g., ‘How did you use the TARGET-tool in your PE practice and what were your findings?’), and (ii) on the process of professional development (e.g., ‘What did you do differently in your PE lessons and what did that look like?’). The interview guide was constructed based on the concepts of usability and professional development to identify relevant variables and provide a basis for data interpretation. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.

System Usability Scale

The System Usability Scale (SUS; Brooke, 1996 , 2013 ; Lewis, 2018 ) was used to collect quantitative data regarding the perceived usability of the TARGET-tool. The SUS is a standardized and validated questionnaire designed to assess the perceived usability of a wide range of systems, products, and services (Brooke, 1996 , 2013 ; Sauro, 2011 ). The instrument consists of 10 items (e.g., ‘I thought the tool was easy to use’), each scored on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The questionnaire was administered online by using Microsoft Forms. To examine potential changes in the perceived usability over time, the SUS was carried out at the mid-term and the end of the experimental phase.

Data analysis

The data were analyzed using the Framework Method (Gale et al., 2013 ). This method organizes and analyzes teachers’ interview data systematically, identifying overlaps and inconsistencies in their perceptions (Gale et al., 2013 ; Nowell et al., 2017 ). While themes were pre-defined based on specific areas of interest and existing theory (deductive approach), the method also allows for the emergence of new themes from the data (i.e., inductive approach; (Gale et al., 2013 ; Nowell et al., 2017 ). After the audio recordings were transcribed verbatim, the coding process commenced. To minimize bias throughout the coding process and optimize the trustworthiness (Nowell et al., 2017 ) of the data analysis, several sequential and interconnected steps were taken. The first author checked each transcript with the audio recordings for accuracy and with that became familiar with the data. Thereafter the coding process took place using ATLAS.ti Mac version 22.0.0 software. With the pre-defined themes from the interviews, the first and second authors of this study first generated a code set independently and subsequently discussed this to reach a consensus about an initial working version of the code set. Next, two transcripts were independently coded by both researchers. The coded transcripts, including notes containing suggestions for new or adapted themes or codes, were compared and discussed before agreement on the final set of codes applicable to all transcripts (see Table  1 ). All transcripts were then coded, and following the Framework Method, quotes were lifted from the transcripts and charted into a framework matrix. Each quote was summarized and placed within a specific row (participant) and column (code) which allowed us to compare the views of all participants concerning each theme. This matrix structure was then employed for interpreting the data.

Although the SUS evaluates perceived elements of effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction, the instrument yields a single number representing a composite measure of the overall perceived usability of the system or product. To compute the overall SUS score, the following calculation methodology is used: For the positively worded items (odd numbers), the score contribution is the scale position minus 1. For negatively worded items (even numbers), the score contribution is 5 minus the scale position. Ultimately, to calculate the final SUS score, the sum of the item score contributions was multiplied by 2.5. This generates a score that ranges from 0 (very poor perceived usability) to 100 (excellent perceived usability) in 2.5-point increments (Bangor et al., 2009 ). To analyze the differences between the SUS scores at the mid-term and the end of the experimental phase, a paired sample t-test was conducted after examining the assumptions of normality. In addition, the effect size was calculated using Hedges’ g , which is appropriate for relatively small sample sizes (Hedges, 1981 ). Cohen’s criteria were used for interpretation as follows: ≤ 0.20 as small, 0.50 as medium, ≥ 0.80 as large (Cohen, 2013 ).

The results will be presented along two main themes, i.e., perceived usability and professional development, and the underlying subthemes. These findings will be illustrated by quotes to support the narrative.

• Perceived usability

Learnability

Regarding the learnability of the TARGET-tool, which refers to how easy it is for users to learn to perform basic tasks effectively the first time they are dealing with the tool, the teachers valued and pointed out the importance of the ‘progressive’ dashboard. This dashboard seems to contribute to the learnability of the tool. It optimizes the navigability of the user interface and supports teachers going through the whole process independently:

" Well, I like the dashboard, and the different steps were easy to go through, so it went pretty smoothly" [R7].

Overall, the different functionalities of the tool (e.g., conduct a self-scan, select TARGET dimensions, and perform student scans) are experienced as being relatively easy to learn and understand:

" The tool is very handy in use, and very simple. Clear symbols, I really like that" [R2].

To generate passwords for conducting the student scans the teacher first needs to schedule the student scans. Most teachers, however, experienced this functionality in the tool as highly complex. It frustrated teachers and impeded their ability to perform the task efficiently for the first time:

" But, uh, I find the schedule feature a bit confusing" [R5].

Lastly, the teachers indicated that despite the introduction video on the home page in which the function and functionalities of the TARGET tool are explained, the effective use of the tool in the initial stage could increase if they were provided with an overview and some more explanation of the tool before the implementation:

" What I found difficult at the beginning of the process was the lack of an overview of all functionalities of the tool. The introduction clip was helpful, but not enough to get a good picture" [R2].

Concerning how quickly and accurately users can perform the intended tasks within the tool (i.e., efficiency), the teachers were particularly positive about the self-scan and student scans. They described how simply they could perform the self-scan by which they gained information on their strengths and opportunities within the different TARGET teaching dimensions. The teachers noted how easily they could perform the student scan within PE practice and efficiently gain information on students’ PE experience and identify opportunities to optimize the motivational climate:

" Well, it’s nice that the scans can be conducted on students’ mobile phones. Students could complete them very quickly at the beginning or end of the lesson" [R10].

In addition, some teachers reported on the complexity of locating and analyzing the student scan results per class. They seem to overlook the functionality within the tool by which the results can be presented per class, gender, and period, and that enables comparison between groups and over time as well. After the teacher has critically reviewed the TARGET-scan results and identified professional development opportunities, the tool prompts the teacher to select relevant and applicable potential motivating strategies to experiment with in their PE practice. The number of potential motivating strategies provided by the tool, however, is perceived by some teachers as overwhelming and therefore dysfunctional:

" Then I ended up with the motivational strategies. And, to be honest, I kind of dropped out. I found all those motivational strategies so extensive that I found it difficult to select a few" [R1].

Error frequency

With respect to the error frequency which refers to how many errors the users make while interacting with the tool, and how easily they can recover from them, it was notable that the (dis)functionality of scheduling student scans emerged from the data once more. Aside from the complexity of this functionality impacting the learnability of the tool, it was reported that once the teachers discovered what went wrong, they could recover from it:

" Those passwords didn’t work. So that was a bit of a hassle with my students. But I soon realized what the problem was, so I rescheduled the scan" [R7].

No further references were made regarding the error frequency of the tool.

Satisfaction

Satisfaction refers to the level of comfort the user experiences when using the tool and involves the user’s attitude toward the tool. In general, the teachers in the present study expressed a positive attitude towards the TARGET-tool and valued the intention of the tool by which they were encouraged to examine student PE experiences more objectively, and critically reflect on their existing teaching practice and improve it:

" I think it’s an interesting instrument. It stimulates you to take a critical look at teaching practice and routines" [R2].

The emphasis of the tool is placed on the supportive, individualized, and private character. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that teachers would find it stressful to collect data among students concerning their teaching practice. The teachers stated that they were aware that asking for student feedback put them in a vulnerable position, yet, they considered this feedback very useful and noticed that students appreciated the opportunity to provide the teachers with information about their PE experiences:

" On the one hand, it [i.e., student feedback] makes you vulnerable, but at the same time, children appreciate it very much if you ask for their opinion and respect their opinion. And especially if you say, that you would like to learn from this feedback and do better" [R10].

System usability scale

In addition to the qualitative data, the SUS was used to collect quantitative data regarding the perceived usability of the TARGET-tool. The total mean SUS score at mid-term was 57.3 (SD = 20.7) and at the end of the experimental phase 67.0 (SD = 21.2) out of 100. These scores indicate that the perceived usability of the tool can be considered ‘OK’ (Bangor et al., 2009 ). The mean increase represents a medium effect size ( g  = 0.47). However, the change was not statistically significant (p = 0.38).

Tool improvements

The results highlighted several key areas for tool improvement. Firstly, many teachers found the feature for scheduling student scans and generating passwords too complex and in need of improvement. Additionally, it was suggested that the tool could assist teachers in the selection process of motivating strategies by providing a curated list of strategies. The visibility and accessibility of the function that allows results to be presented per class, gender, and period, enabling comparisons over time and between groups, should also be enhanced. Some specific suggestions were made for tool improvements and expansion, such as including an option to generate QR codes alongside passwords. To provide teachers with just-in-time information and assistance, adding a FAQ feature with video tutorials was recommended. Furthermore, it was suggested to include additional theoretical background information and offer practical suggestions at different levels to cater to variations in teachers’ knowledge, skills, and abilities:

" Well, I think I already know quite a bit, maybe more than some colleagues. So perhaps it is interesting to refer to literature based on the suggestions that are given or to offer these suggestions at different levels" [R10].

Although the motivating teaching strategies are printable, it was proposed to also deliver a tangible card set of these strategies along with the digital TARGET-tool to keep drawing attention to these teaching strategies and stimulate the discussion within the PE department:

" Because the tool is digital, the focus on the strategies and their implementation into PE practice may move into the background. By using physical cards and placing them on a wall or other visible locations, for example, the strategies are kept in the teacher’s attention. This could also encourage PE colleagues to consider the strategies as well" [R7].

Lastly, the idea of building a learning community by connecting a forum feature to the tool, for example, was proposed. Some teachers described their need for a supportive environment where TARGET-tool users can collaborate, learn from each other, and expand their knowledge and skills. Especially when the teacher is the only member of the PE department using the tool:

" It would be very nice if you could exchange ideas with someone who is also using the tool and wants to improve their PE practice. Preferably this happens among teachers from the same PE department. However, if you are the only one in the team then it would be nice to share ideas with other users from other schools" [R10].

Professional development

Individual online interviews were conducted to gain insights into the complex process of teacher professional development as a result of using the TARGET-tool. This process involves ongoing reflection and enactment in four interrelated domains.

External domain

With regard to the external domain, the teachers described how the tool provided them with new knowledge, and how the tool encouraged them to start thinking about and discussing student motivation and motivating teaching strategies within PE:

" As I said, with the TARGET-tool you are getting informed about student motivation and provided with tools to get started in your lessons. […] It is also a stimulus to start conversations with your colleagues about this topic" [R5].

By performing the student scans, the teachers noted that they were provided with new information and insights into students’ perceptions and experiences within PE, and how this information increased their self-awareness and formed a stimulus for potential change:

" I think I am quite well informed and doing well in PE, but it was interesting to find out that students experience things differently than I intended" [R6].

Domain of practice

The teachers explained how they experimented with the motivating teaching strategies recommended by the TARGET-tool (i.e., domain of practice). Some teachers, for example, selected the grouping dimension and implemented strategies that focused on working with smaller and more flexible groups and involving students in the grouping process:

“In the last 10 minutes of the two versus two basketball game, the students were allowed to change and determine new pairs” [R1]. “So, I varied in the student groups. Sometimes I let the students choose themselves, at times I made the groups myself, and we varied between heterogeneous and homogeneous groups” [R2].

Further, a teacher described how experimenting with motivating teaching strategies within the evaluation dimension also led to the development of new educational materials, such as an assessment rubric. And how this assessment tool subsequently aided the teacher in providing students with feed-up, feedback, and feed-forward information to scaffold the learning process:

" Based on this rubric I first let the students perform a self-assessment, and I did a formative assessment in the second lesson. Based on the scores the students knew exactly how they performed on the task [i.e., somersault] and could see what they could do to perform better. According to the motivating strategy, this information is important for student motivation" [R4].

Another example of how teachers experimented within their own PE practice, is related to the authority dimension. Teachers translated the suggestion to enhance students’ involvement in decision-making processes (i.e., teaching strategy) by providing opportunities for choice and self-regulation:

" With korfball, for example, the students were allowed to change or develop new playing rules to improve the game" [R6].

Domain of consequence

Concerning the domain of consequence, which refers to the salient outcomes and impact of teachers’ new teaching practice, they noted that their experiments generally worked out well and that students appreciated the changes:

" I also asked some students how they experienced it. They told me that they found it very motivating because they now know what is expected from them and how to improve" [R4].

Although the teaching strategies within the different TARGET dimensions provided by the tool can be considered as motivating for all students, the teachers in the present study pointed out the potential differential outcomes or impact on different (groups of) students:

" The changes have been well received by most students, however less so by some other students. I don’t think that it is possible to please all students and ensure enjoyment with all students in PE" [R7].

Personal domain

As a result of working with the TARGET-tool there were some changes reported regarding the personal domain. The teachers described how they gained new knowledge and insights:

" Well, I noticed that students have a need for autonomy and that they can bear the associated responsibility as well" [R3].

Teachers also reflected on how their personal experiences when implementing new teaching practices have led to changes in their thoughts or convictions and attitudes toward specific teaching strategies:

" I have become convinced that I can provide my students with more opportunities for self-regulation and that I sometimes have to change my teaching habits to ensure more enjoyable experiences for my students" [R2].

Constraints for professional development

The teachers pointed out some (potential) barriers that could limit their professional development opportunities. All teachers referred to the time aspect and how hectic situations in schools often demand immediate attention and consume a significant amount of time and resources:

" I just didn’t get around to it due to lack of time" [R1]. " I actually worked with the tool less than I had planned. Because we just have a new sports hall and you can’t imagine how much extra work that takes" [R9].

While teachers emphasized the importance of consultation and collaboration among PE teachers in the school for professional development, there were limited moments or opportunities created for meaningful discussions:

" Increasing the debate on this in the team would be beneficial and necessary" [R7].

One teacher also reflected on how resistance or reluctance towards adopting new PE practices among certain colleagues can frustrate professional development:

" We still practice some outdated methods which I want to change. But it is challenging to bring my older colleagues on board and embrace other practices" [R2].

Concerning the digital TARGET-tool specifically, another potential barrier was highlighted in the interviews. It was noted that the implementation of stricter policies regarding mobile device use in schools could jeopardize the use of student scans to gain objective data on students’ perceptions within PE:

" I wanted to perform quick scans as well, but in our new school policies, the use of mobile phones in the classroom will become prohibited. So, therefore I restricted myself to the target scans [R10].

Discussion and conclusion

CPD is crucial for enhancing effective teaching, bridging the theory–practice gap, and addressing the complexity of teaching (Armour et al., 2017 ; Atencio et al., 2012 ; Lander et al., 2022 ; Parker & Patton, 2017 ; Yoon et al., 2007 ). Digital tools offer new opportunities for supporting CPD (An, 2021 ; Hennessy et al., 2022 ; Philipsen et al., 2019 ; Walker et al., 2012 ). However, integrating these tools successfully in educational practice requires adhering to CPD prerequisites and recognizing the complexity of the professional development process. In this study, we examined the perceived applicability of the TARGET-tool in real-life secondary school PE contexts and gained insights into the complex process of teachers’ professional development as a result of using the digital tool. The most salient outcomes and implications will be discussed.

Perceived usability plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness and user acceptance of a product (Yang et al., 2012 ). The present study provides valuable insights into aspects of the usability of the TARGET-tool, including perceived learnability, efficiency, error frequency, and satisfaction. Overall, teachers indicated that the usability of the TARGET-tool can be considered satisfactory. The teachers valued, for example, the ‘progressive’ dashboard which improved the learnability of the tool by enhancing user interface navigability. It enabled them to become familiar with the tool’s functionalities gradually and perform tasks independently and effectively. When user interfaces are easy to understand and navigate, and the technology is relatively simple to learn, users are more likely to adopt and integrate it into their work routines (Carroll et al., 2003 ; Roldán-Álvarez et al., 2016 ). Some teachers, however, expressed the need for a more comprehensive overview and explanation of the TARGET-tool before implementation to improve its effectiveness in the initial stages. This finding highlights the importance of providing teachers with additional information and instruction prior to the TARGET-tool usage. This is in line with the findings of Havard et al. ( 2018 ) and O’Neal et al. ( 2017 ) who emphasized the value of supporting teachers in integrating technology effectively into their educational practice. Accordingly, the TPACK model (Koehler et al., 2013 ; Mishra & Koehler, 2006 ), which focuses on incorporating technology effectively into teaching, stresses the importance of teachers’ technological content knowledge (TCK) and technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK). Therefore, equipping PE teachers with information on how the TARGET-tool can enhance or transform specific PE content areas (TCK) and providing insights on its use and integration in PE teaching practice (TPK) would be beneficial.

The present study highlighted the tool’s effectiveness in providing PE teachers with valuable information about their teaching practices. Teachers highly appreciated the simplicity and ease of use of the self-scan feature, which allowed them to quickly identify their strengths and areas for improvement across TARGET dimensions. The student scan feature was found efficient in gathering information about students’ PE experience and identifying opportunities to enhance the motivational climate. However, some teachers felt overwhelmed by the abundance of motivating strategies provided by the tool. This perception of overload may hinder the tool’s usability, as the efficiency of digital tools impacts teachers’ adoption and integration of technology into their teaching practices (Kearney et al., 2018 ). Therefore, it is important to address this issue by refining the tool’s design and presentation of motivating strategies to enhance usability.

Despite areas identified for improvement, such as simplifying complex features and providing additional support and resources, this study indicates that teachers had a positive attitude towards the TARGET-tool. They expressed satisfaction with its intention and purpose, seeing it as potentially beneficial for objectively examining students’ PE experiences, critical reflection on their teaching practice, and making improvements. This positive attitude highlights the tool’s potential to foster self-reflection and professional growth among teachers.

Teachers need to be recognized as active learners who shape their professional development through reflection and enactment in various domains, including the external domain, the domain of practice, the domain of consequence, and the personal domain (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 ). The results of this study provided insights into the various aspects of these domains and their impact on PE teachers’ professional development.

The IMPG perspective suggests that learning and growth occur when changes in one domain lead to changes in another through the mediating process of reflection and enactment (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 ). Our study revealed the impact of working with the TARGET-tool on teachers’ knowledge and understanding of student motivation and motivating teaching strategies in PE. For example, the tool introduced them to the theoretical TARGET framework (Ames, 1992 ; Epstein, 1989 ) which was previously unknown to them, expanding their insights into student motivation. Moreover, the TARGET-tool prompted teachers to critically reflect on student motivation and their teaching strategies. By conducting student scans, teachers gained a deeper understanding of how students perceive PE and their own instructional approaches. The tool seemed to increase teachers’ self-awareness and stimulate reflection, potentially leading to changes in their teaching practices. These findings indicate that the TARGET-tool effectively supports teachers in acquiring new knowledge and encourages reflection, aligned with the intended goals of the tool.

The results of our study showed how the teachers experimented with motivating teaching strategies recommended by the TARGET-tool within the domain of practice. According to the IMPG, professional experimentation is key to CPD, and professional development should be deliberately designed to offer teachers the opportunity to enact change in a variety of forms (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 ). The TARGET-tool allowed teachers to select and try out teaching strategies that they considered suitable in their specific context. An example of this put forward by the teachers involved the authority dimension in which they explored the suggestion to enhance students’ involvement in decision-making processes, aiming to foster autonomy and self-regulation. These teachers saw this as fitting because the data collected with the TARGET-tool suggested this was an area for improvement. Furthermore, it was described how the experimentation within the evaluation dimension, led to the development of new educational materials to support student learning. Coenders and colleagues ( 2015 , 2019 ) demonstrated how the development of educational material substantially contributed to teacher growth. Therefore, they revised the IMPG to the ‘Extended Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth’ (Coenders & Terlouw, 2015 ; Coenders & Verhoef, 2019 ) by adding the ‘developed material domain’. The examples of teachers’ experimentation with motivating teaching strategies, as well as evidence of changes in the domains, showcased the potential impact of the TARGET-tool on teachers’ professional development.

Within the domain of consequence, the findings of this study indicated that the experiments conducted by teachers generally yielded positive results. The teachers’ reflections on the consequences of their new teaching practices revealed a sense of satisfaction. They expressed, for example, that seeing their experiments work out well was a rewarding experience. The positive outcomes experienced by teachers in our study can therefore be considered important for reinforcing their confidence and beliefs in the applied teaching strategies and for encouraging them to further explore alternative teaching strategies.

Our study suggests that using the TARGET-tool can impact teachers’ personal domain. They reported gaining new knowledge and insights which suggest that the TARGET-tool is supportive in bridging the gap between theory and practice and thereby meeting a significant prerequisite of effective professional development tools (Armour et al., 2017 ; Grimshaw et al., 2012 ). Moreover, our study revealed that the teachers’ personal experiences in using the tool and implementing new teaching strategies played a role in shaping their thoughts, convictions, and attitudes toward specific teaching strategies. As teachers experimented with different instructional approaches, they encountered evidence of the impact these strategies had on student outcomes. According to the seminal work by Guskey ( 1986 ) and Guskey and Yoon ( 2009 ) teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about effective teaching strategies, will change only after they have personally experienced positive changes in students’ learning outcomes. This ‘proven’ added value is deemed to be important for teachers’ willingness to innovate their teaching practice and ensure professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002 ; Parker & Patton, 2017 ). The TARGET-tool motivates teachers to implement and experiment with motivating teaching strategies. Our findings suggest that this experiential learning process prompted a reflection on their existing beliefs and practices, leading to a reconsideration and, in some cases, a modification of it. The willingness to re-evaluate beliefs and embrace new teaching strategies suggests an openness to change and a commitment to continuous improvement. Indeed, active involvement and conducting iterative cycles of experimentation and reflection are considered crucial for effective CPD (Korthagen, 2017 ; Sargent & Calderón, 2021 ; Tannehill et al., 2021 ).

Despite the positive aspects of the TARGET-tool, several potential barriers to professional development were identified by the teachers. Time constraints emerged as a major challenge, with teachers expressing the difficulty of allocating sufficient time and resources for professional development due to the demanding nature of their work. This problem was already highlighted prior to the commencement of the current study when nine PE teachers withdrew due to time constraints and excessive workload. These teachers indicated they were engaged in a demanding period at school, which left them unable to participate in this study despite their initial commitments. Consistent with previous studies related to teacher professional development (e.g., Khalid et al., 2014 ; Parker et al., 2012 ; Slingerland et al., 2021 ; Taylor, 2020 ; Xue et al., 2021 ) our findings emphasize the importance of providing teachers with sufficient time and opportunities for professional development activities.

The limited opportunities for meaningful discussions and collaboration among PE teachers within and between schools were also pointed out by the teachers in this study. This implies there is a need for opportunities to exchange ideas, experiences, and expertise among teachers. Indeed, several studies (e.g., Hunuk et al., 2013 ; Parker et al., 2012 ; Tannehill & MacPhail, 2017 ; Trust et al., 2016 ; vanOostveen et al., 2019 ) stress the importance of building learning communities to impact the professional development of teachers positively. Research has shown that participation in (online or in-person) learning communities leads to, for example, the enhancement of teachers’ content knowledge and the improvement of their teaching practice (Makopoulou & Armour, 2011 ; Yu & Chao, 2022 ). In addition, participation in learning communities can support teacher empowerment (Parker et al., 2010 ; Tannehill & MacPhail, 2017 ), increase their willingness to jointly solve problems (Yu & Chao, 2022 ) and enhance their confidence in implementing digital technologies into their practice (OECD, 2014 ; Sheffield et al., 2018 ). Hence, we strongly advocate for facilitating collaborative opportunities among users of the TARGET-tool to optimize its potential and ensure the effective professional development of PE teachers.

Contribution and implications

We presented a comprehensive case study detailing the implementation and evaluation of the TARGET-tool, a unique teacher professional development tool designed to support PE teachers in creating an inclusive and motivating learning environment within secondary school PE settings. Our study contributes to various academic domains, including educational technology, human–computer interaction (HCI), teacher professional development, and physical education.

The theoretical contributions of our research are twofold. Firstly, we advance pedagogical knowledge by showcasing how technology, such as the TARGET-tool, could effectively bridge the theory–practice gap in teacher professional development. In doing so, we respond to the call made by a substantial group of international HCI experts, to gain insights into how technologies can be effectively integrated into the complex educational context and better tailored to the specific needs of teachers (Stephanidis et al., 2019 ). Secondly, we add to the theoretical foundations of technology integration in pedagogy, emphasizing the importance of aligning technology with pedagogical objectives, as put forward in the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) model (Koehler et al., 2013 ; Mishra & Koehler, 2006 ).

On the practical front, our study provides valuable insights into the importance of the perceived usability of technology in educational settings. We explored factors such as learnability, efficiency, error frequency, and satisfaction, underlining the potential for successful integration of technology such as the TARGET-tool into teachers’ work routines. Moreover, since our study has established the potential effectiveness of the TARGET-tool for enhancing motivating teaching practices, it offers PE teachers a tangible instrument for critical reflection and professional development. Our research illustrates how a technological tool could impact various domains of teachers’ professional growth, including changes in knowledge, teaching strategies, and personal beliefs. However, this study has also uncovered practical challenges, such as time constraints and limited collaboration opportunities as barriers to professional development. This emphasizes the importance of providing teachers with conditions for effective use of digital tools in the educational context (e.g., adequate time and establishing collaborative learning communities). Despite acknowledging the positive aspects of the use of the TARGET-tool, our study shows the importance of ongoing support, refinement, and collaborative opportunities for sustaining the long-term impact of professional development tools. Overall, our study not only highlights the practical applicability of the TARGET-tool but also makes substantive contributions to the broader discourse on optimizing educational technology for enhanced teaching practices and student engagement in the field of PE.

Strengths and limitations

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the context of PE in which a digital tool for teacher professional development is presented and evaluated. We did not only evaluate the perceived usability of the tool in the authentic PE setting, we also explored its intended function of supporting the process of teachers’ professional development. With that, the tool was reviewed from a broader perspective in which the interrelationship between technology and pedagogy was acknowledged. We believe our research contributes to the understanding of how digital tools can effectively be embedded in the educational process and enhance teaching practices. However, there are limitations to consider. The findings are based on the subjective perspectives of a small, convenience sample of teachers, potentially leading to sampling bias. Future research with a larger and more diverse sample would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the process of professional development as a result of using the TARGET-tool. Additionally, studying the tool’s usability and impact over a longer period would be valuable.

Conclusion and recommendations

The TARGET-tool has demonstrated its potential as an effective tool for supporting teachers’ professional development in a secondary school context. Furthermore, it has been shown how the use of the TARGET-tool engages teachers as active and reflective participants in their professional development and induces changes across all domains of professional growth.

Future opportunities for TARGET-tool development and improvement have been identified. Based on the findings of the present study, it is recommended to enhance the perceived usability of the TARGET-tool by simplifying complex features such as scheduling student scans, generating scan passwords, analyzing student scan results, and selecting motivating teaching strategies. To enhance the tool’s effectiveness in the initial stages, it is suggested to provide PE teachers with a more comprehensive overview and insights on its use and integration in teaching practice before using the tool. For instance, organizing a brief online introduction meeting for new users could be beneficial. Moreover, facilitating learning communities among TARGET-tool users is recommended to optimize its effective implementation. Utilizing platforms like Microsoft Teams can facilitate the creation of such a learning community, connecting users and enabling them to discuss, learn from one another, collaboratively resolve issues, and enhance their teaching practices. Additionally, these communities could offer teachers support, empowering them to build confidence in integrating the TARGET-tool into their unique teaching practices.

Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Weeldenburg, G., Slingerland, M., Borghouts, L.B. et al. Evaluation of the digital teacher professional development TARGET-tool for optimizing the motivational climate in secondary school physical education. Education Tech Research Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-024-10379-5

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Teachers’ lived experiences nurturing the development of self-regulated learning to address academic outcomes for high school students with low reading achievement: a phenomenological study.

Kimberly Mazie Wilson , Liberty University Follow

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Gail Collins

Reading achievement, high school students with reading deficits, Phenomenological study, Self-regulated Learning, Active View of Reading, Reading disability

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Wilson, Kimberly Mazie, "Teachers’ Lived Experiences Nurturing the Development of Self-Regulated Learning to Address Academic Outcomes for High School Students with Low Reading Achievement: A Phenomenological Study" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects . 5527. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5527

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine teachers’ lived experiences nurturing the development of self-regulated learning to address academic outcomes for high school students with low reading achievement. The two conceptual frameworks that guided this study were Zimmerman’s self-regulated learning, derived from Bandura’s social cognitive theory, and Duke and Cartwright’s active view of reading. These frameworks both provided contributing factors of self-regulatory skills for improved learning and reading outcomes. The research method used for this study was qualitative, and the design was transcendental phenomenology. Using the qualitative method gave a voice to the participants’ lived experiences. It captured their in-depth accounts through semi-structured interviews, teachers’ letters of advice, and focus groups. The study included 10 participants, certified in general or special education, who worked with high school students with a reading disability. The development of themes emerged using the data analysis processes outlined by Moustakas and yielded five themes: (a) challenges, (b) building relationships, (c) differentiated instruction, (d) fostering motivation and engagement, and (e) strategy instruction. The results indicated that the participants helped high school students with low reading achievement develop self-regulated learning by building relationships, making content accessible, and giving choices to demonstrate knowledge and teaching strategies, all of which aided high school students in using self-regulatory skills for improved academic performance.

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Nursing students’ stressors and coping strategies during their first clinical training: a qualitative study in the United Arab Emirates

• Jacqueline Maria Dias 1 ,
• Muhammad Arsyad Subu 1 ,
• Nabeel Al-Yateem 1 ,
• Fatma Refaat Ahmed 1 ,
• Syed Azizur Rahman 1 , 2 ,
• Mini Sara Abraham 1 ,
• Sareh Mirza Forootan 1 ,
• Farzaneh Ahmad Sarkhosh 1 &
• Fatemeh Javanbakh 1  

BMC Nursing volume  23 , Article number:  322 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Understanding the stressors and coping strategies of nursing students in their first clinical training is important for improving student performance, helping students develop a professional identity and problem-solving skills, and improving the clinical teaching aspects of the curriculum in nursing programmes. While previous research have examined nurses’ sources of stress and coping styles in the Arab region, there is limited understanding of these stressors and coping strategies of nursing students within the UAE context thereby, highlighting the novelty and significance of the study.

A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews. Overall 30 students who were undergoing their first clinical placement in Year 2 at the University of Sharjah between May and June 2022 were recruited. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim and analyzed for themes.

During their first clinical training, nursing students are exposed to stress from different sources, including the clinical environment, unfriendly clinical tutors, feelings of disconnection, multiple expectations of clinical staff and patients, and gaps between the curriculum of theory classes and labatories skills and students’ clinical experiences. We extracted three main themes that described students’ stress and use of coping strategies during clinical training: (1) managing expectations; (2) theory-practice gap; and (3) learning to cope. Learning to cope, included two subthemes: positive coping strategies and negative coping strategies.

Conclusions

This qualitative study sheds light from the students viewpoint about the intricate interplay between managing expectations, theory practice gap and learning to cope. Therefore, it is imperative for nursing faculty, clinical agencies and curriculum planners to ensure maximum learning in the clinical by recognizing the significance of the stressors encountered and help students develop positive coping strategies to manage the clinical stressors encountered. Further research is required look at the perspective of clinical stressors from clinical tutors who supervise students during their first clinical practicum.

Peer Review reports

Nursing education programmes aim to provide students with high-quality clinical learning experiences to ensure that nurses can provide safe, direct care to patients [ 1 ]. The nursing baccalaureate programme at the University of Sharjah is a four year program with 137 credits. The programmes has both theoretical and clinical components withs nine clinical courses spread over the four years The first clinical practicum which forms the basis of the study takes place in year 2 semester 2.

Clinical practice experience is an indispensable component of nursing education and links what students learn in the classroom and in skills laboratories to real-life clinical settings [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. However, a gap exists between theory and practice as the curriculum in the classroom differs from nursing students’ experiences in the clinical nursing practicum [ 5 ]. Clinical nursing training places (or practicums, as they are commonly referred to), provide students with the necessary experiences to ensure that they become proficient in the delivery of patient care [ 6 ]. The clinical practicum takes place in an environment that combines numerous structural, psychological, emotional and organizational elements that influence student learning [ 7 ] and may affect the development of professional nursing competencies, such as compassion, communication and professional identity [ 8 ]. While clinical training is a major component of nursing education curricula, stress related to clinical training is common among students [ 9 ]. Furthermore, the nursing literature indicates that the first exposure to clinical learning is one of the most stressful experiences during undergraduate studies [ 8 , 10 ]. Thus, the clinical component of nursing education is considered more stressful than the theoretical component. Students often view clinical learning, where most learning takes place, as an unsupportive environment [ 11 ]. In addition, they note strained relationships between themselves and clinical preceptors and perceive that the negative attitudes of clinical staff produce stress [ 12 ].

The effects of stress on nursing students often involve a sense of uncertainty, uneasiness, or anxiety. The literature is replete with evidence that nursing students experience a variety of stressors during their clinical practicum, beginning with the first clinical rotation. Nursing is a complex profession that requires continuous interaction with a variety of individuals in a high-stress environment. Stress during clinical learning can have multiple negative consequences, including low academic achievement, elevated levels of burnout, and diminished personal well-being [ 13 , 14 ]. In addition, both theoretical and practical research has demonstrated that increased, continual exposure to stress leads to cognitive deficits, inability to concentrate, lack of memory or recall, misinterpretation of speech, and decreased learning capacity [ 15 ]. Furthermore, stress has been identified as a cause of attrition among nursing students [ 16 ].

Most sources of stress have been categorized as academic, clinical or personal. Each person copes with stress differently [ 17 ], and utilizes deliberate, planned, and psychological efforts to manage stressful demands [ 18 ]. Coping mechanisms are commonly termed adaptation strategies or coping skills. Labrague et al. [ 19 ] noted that students used critical coping strategies to handle stress and suggested that problem solving was the most common coping or adaptation mechanism used by nursing students. Nursing students’ coping strategies affect their physical and psychological well-being and the quality of nursing care they offer. Therefore, identifying the coping strategies that students use to manage stressors is important for early intervention [ 20 ].

Studies on nursing students’ coping strategies have been conducted in various countries. For example, Israeli nursing students were found to adopt a range of coping mechanisms, including talking to friends, engaging in sports, avoiding stress and sadness/misery, and consuming alcohol [ 21 ]. Other studies have examined stress levels among medical students in the Arab region. Chaabane et al. [ 15 ], conducted a systematic review of sudies in Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, Oman, Palestine and Bahrain, and reported that stress during clinical practicums was prevalent, although it could not be determined whether this was limited to the initial clinical course or occurred throughout clinical training. Stressors highlighted during the clinical period in the systematic review included assignments and workload during clinical practice, a feeling that the requirements of clinical practice exceeded students’ physical and emotional endurance and that their involvement in patient care was limited due to lack of experience. Furthermore, stress can have a direct effect on clinical performance, leading to mental disorders. Tung et al. [ 22 ], reported that the prevalence of depression among nursing students in Arab countries is 28%, which is almost six times greater than the rest of the world [ 22 ]. On the other hand, Saifan et al. [ 5 ], explored the theory-practice gap in the United Arab Emirates and found that clinical stressors could be decreased by preparing students better for clinical education with qualified clinical faculty and supportive preceptors.

The purpose of this study was to identify the stressors experienced by undergraduate nursing students in the United Arab Emirates during their first clinical training and the basic adaptation approaches or coping strategies they used. Recognizing or understanding different coping processes can inform the implementation of corrective measures when students experience clinical stress. The findings of this study may provide valuable information for nursing programmes, nurse educators, and clinical administrators to establish adaptive strategies to reduce stress among students going clinical practicums, particularly stressors from their first clinical training in different healthcare settings.

A qualitative approach was adopted to understand clinical stressors and coping strategies from the perspective of nurses’ lived experience. Qualitative content analysis was employed to obtain rich and detailed information from our qualitative data. Qualitative approaches seek to understand the phenomenon under study from the perspectives of individuals with lived experience [ 23 ]. Qualitative content analysis is an interpretive technique that examines the similarities and differences between and within different areas of text while focusing on the subject [ 24 ]. It is used to examine communication patterns in a repeatable and systematic way [ 25 ] and yields rich and detailed information on the topic under investigation [ 23 ]. It is a method of systematically coding and categorizing information and comprises a process of comprehending, interpreting, and conceptualizing the key meanings from qualitative data [ 26 ].

Setting and participants

This study was conducted after the clinical rotations ended in April 2022, between May and June in the nursing programme at the College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates. The study population comprised undergraduate nursing students who were undergoing their first clinical training and were recruited using purposive sampling. The inclusion criteria for this study were second-year nursing students in the first semester of clinical training who could speak English, were willing to participate in this research, and had no previous clinical work experience. The final sample consisted of 30 students.

Research instrument

The research instrument was a semi structured interview guide. The interview questions were based on an in-depth review of related literature. An intensive search included key words in Google Scholar, PubMed like the terms “nursing clinical stressors”, “nursing students”, and “coping mechanisms”. Once the questions were created, they were validated by two other faculty members who had relevant experience in mental health. A pilot test was conducted with five students and based on their feedback the following research questions, which were addressed in the study.

How would you describe your clinical experiences during your first clinical rotations?

In what ways did you find the first clinical rotation to be stressful?

What factors hindered your clinical training?

How did you cope with the stressors you encountered in clinical training?

Which strategies helped you cope with the clinical stressors you encountered?

Data collection

Semi-structured interviews were chosen as the method for data collection. Semi structured interviews are a well-established approach for gathering data in qualitative research and allow participants to discuss their views, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs in a positive environment [ 27 ]. This approach allows for flexibility in questioning thereby ensuring that key topics related to clinical learning stressors and coping strategies would be explored. Participants were given the opportunity to express their views, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs in a positive environment, encouraging open communication. These semi structured interviews were conducted by one member of the research team (MAS) who had a mental health background, and another member of the research team who attended the interviews as an observer (JMD). Neither of these researchers were involved in teaching the students during their clinical practicum, which helped to minimize bias. The interviews took place at the University of Sharjah, specifically in building M23, providing a familiar and comfortable environment for the participant. Before the interviews were all students who agreed to participate were provided with an explanation of the study’s purpose. The time and location of each interview were arranged. Before the interviews were conducted, all students who provided consent to participate received an explanation of the purpose of the study, and the time and place of each interview were arranged to accommodate the participants’ schedules and preferences. The interviews were conducted after the clinical rotation had ended in April, and after the final grades had been submitted to the coordinator. The timings of the interviews included the month of May and June which ensured that participants have completed their practicum experience and could reflect on the stressors more comprehensively. The interviews were audio-recorded with the participants’ consent, and each interview lasted 25–40 min. The data were collected until saturation was reached for 30 students. Memos and field notes were also recorded as part of the data collection process. These additional data allowed for triangulation to improve the credibility of the interpretations of the data [ 28 ]. Memos included the interviewers’ thoughts and interpretations about the interviews, the research process (including questions and gaps), and the analytic progress used for the research. Field notes were used to record the interviewers’ observations and reflections on the data. These additional data collection methods were important to guide the researchers in the interpretation of the data on the participants’ feelings, perspectives, experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. Finally, member checking was performed to ensure conformability.

Data analysis

The study used the content analysis method proposed by Graneheim and Lundman [ 24 ]. According to Graneheim and Lundman [ 24 ], content analysis is an interpretive technique that examines the similarities and differences between distinct parts of a text. This method allows researchers to determine exact theoretical and operational definitions of words, phrases, and symbols by elucidating their constituent properties [ 29 ]. First, we read the interview transcripts several times to reach an overall understanding of the data. All verbatim transcripts were read several times and discussed among all authors. We merged and used line-by-line coding of words, sentences, and paragraphs relevant to each other in terms of both the content and context of stressors and coping mechanisms. Next, we used data reduction to assess the relationships among themes using tables and diagrams to indicate conceptual patterns. Content related to stress encountered by students was extracted from the transcripts. In a separate document, we integrated and categorized all words and sentences that were related to each other in terms of both content and context. We analyzed all codes and units of meaning and compared them for similarities and differences in the context of this study. Furthermore, the emerging findings were discussed with other members of the researcher team. The final abstractions of meaningful subthemes into themes were discussed and agreed upon by the entire research team. This process resulted in the extraction of three main themes in addition to two subthemes related to stress and coping strategies.

Ethical considerations

The University of Sharjah Research Ethics Committee provided approval to conduct this study (Reference Number: REC 19-12-03-01-S). Before each interview, the goal and study procedures were explained to each participant, and written informed consent was obtained. The participants were informed that participation in the study was voluntary and that they could withdraw from the study at any time. In the event they wanted to withdraw from the study, all information related to the participant would be removed. No participant withdrew from the study. Furthermore, they were informed that their clinical practicum grade would not be affected by their participation in this study. We chose interview locations in Building M23that were private and quiet to ensure that the participants felt at ease and confident in verbalizing their opinions. No participant was paid directly for involvement in this study. In addition, participants were assured that their data would remain anonymous and confidential. Confidentiality means that the information provided by participants was kept private with restrictions on how and when data can be shared with others. The participants were informed that their information would not be duplicated or disseminated without their permission. Anonymity refers to the act of keeping people anonymous with respect to their participation in a research endeavor. No personal identifiers were used in this study, and each participant was assigned a random alpha-numeric code (e.g., P1 for participant 1). All digitally recorded interviews were downloaded to a secure computer protected by the principal investigator with a password. The researchers were the only people with access to the interview material (recordings and transcripts). All sensitive information and materials were kept secure in the principal researcher’s office at the University of Sharjah. The data will be maintained for five years after the study is completed, after which the material will be destroyed (the transcripts will be shredded, and the tapes will be demagnetized).

In total, 30 nursing students who were enrolled in the nursing programme at the Department of Nursing, College of Health Sciences, University of Sharjah, and who were undergoing their first clinical practicum participated in the study. Demographically, 80% ( n  = 24) were females and 20% ( n  = 6) were male participants. The majority (83%) of study participants ranged in age from 18 to 22 years. 20% ( n  = 6) were UAE nationals, 53% ( n  = 16) were from Gulf Cooperation Council countries, while 20% ( n  = 6) hailed from Africa and 7% ( n  = 2) were of South Asian descent. 67% of the respondents lived with their families while 33% lived in the hostel. (Table  1 )

Following the content analysis, we identified three main themes: (1) managing expectations, (2) theory-practice gap and 3)learning to cope. Learning to cope had two subthemes: positive coping strategies and negative coping strategies. An account of each theme is presented along with supporting excerpts for the identified themes. The identified themes provide valuable insight into the stressors encountered by students during their first clinical practicum. These themes will lead to targeted interventions and supportive mechanisms that can be built into the clinical training curriculum to support students during clinical practice.

Theme 1: managing expectations

In our examination of the stressors experienced by nursing students during their first clinical practicum and the coping strategies they employed, we identified the first theme as managing expectations.

The students encountered expectations from various parties, such as clinical staff, patients and patients’ relatives which they had to navigate. They attempted to fulfil their expectations as they progressed through training, which presented a source of stress. The students noted that the hospital staff and patients expected them to know how to perform a variety of tasks upon request, which made the students feel stressed and out of place if they did not know how to perform these tasks. Some participants noted that other nurses in the clinical unit did not allow them to participate in nursing procedures, which was considered an enormous impediment to clinical learning, as noted in the excerpt below:

“…Sometimes the nurses… They will not allow us to do some procedures or things during clinical. And sometimes the patients themselves don’t allow us to do procedures” (P5).

Some of the students noted that they felt they did not belong and felt like foreigners in the clinical unit. Excerpts from the students are presented in the following quotes;

“The clinical environment is so stressful. I don’t feel like I belong. There is too little time to build a rapport with hospital staff or the patient” (P22).

“… you ask the hospital staff for some guidance or the location of equipment, and they tell us to ask our clinical tutor …but she is not around … what should I do? It appears like we do not belong, and the sooner the shift is over, the better” (P18).

“The staff are unfriendly and expect too much from us students… I feel like I don’t belong, or I am wasting their (the hospital staff’s) time. I want to ask questions, but they have loads to do” (P26).

Other students were concerned about potential failure when working with patients during clinical training, which impacted their confidence. They were particularly afraid of failure when performing any clinical procedures.

“At the beginning, I was afraid to do procedures. I thought that maybe the patient would be hurt and that I would not be successful in doing it. I have low self-confidence in doing procedures” (P13).

The call bell rings, and I am told to answer Room No. XXX. The patient wants help to go to the toilet, but she has two IV lines. I don’t know how to transport the patient… should I take her on the wheelchair? My eyes glance around the room for a wheelchair. I am so confused …I tell the patient I will inform the sister at the nursing station. The relative in the room glares at me angrily … “you better hurry up”…Oh, I feel like I don’t belong, as I am not able to help the patient… how will I face the same patient again?” (P12).

Another major stressor mentioned in the narratives was related to communication and interactions with patients who spoke another language, so it was difficult to communicate.

“There was a challenge with my communication with the patients. Sometimes I have communication barriers because they (the patients) are of other nationalities. I had an experience with a patient [who was] Indian, and he couldn’t speak my language. I did not understand his language” (P9).

Thus, a variety of expectations from patients, relatives, hospital staff, and preceptors acted as sources of stress for students during their clinical training.

Theme 2: theory-practice gap

Theory-practice gaps have been identified in previous studies. In our study, there was complete dissonance between theory and actual clinical practice. The clinical procedures or practices nursing students were expected to perform differed from the theory they had covered in their university classes and skills lab. This was described as a theory–practice gap and often resulted in stress and confusion.

“For example …the procedures in the hospital are different. They are different from what we learned or from theory on campus. Or… the preceptors have different techniques than what we learned on campus. So, I was stress[ed] and confused about it” (P11).

Furthermore, some students reported that they did not feel that they received adequate briefing before going to clinical training. A related source of stress was overload because of the volume of clinical coursework and assignments in addition to clinical expectations. Additionally, the students reported that a lack of time and time management were major sources of stress in their first clinical training and impacted their ability to complete the required paperwork and assignments:

“…There is not enough time…also, time management at the hospital…for example, we start at seven a.m., and the handover takes 1 hour to finish. They (the nurses at the hospital) are very slow…They start with bed making and morning care like at 9.45 a.m. Then, we must fill [out] our assessment tool and the NCP (nursing care plan) at 10 a.m. So, 15 only minutes before going to our break. We (the students) cannot manage this time. This condition makes me and my friends very stressed out. -I cannot do my paperwork or assignments; no time, right?” (P10).

“Stressful. There is a lot of work to do in clinical. My experiences are not really good with this course. We have a lot of things to do, so many assignments and clinical procedures to complete” (P16).

The participants noted that the amount of required coursework and number of assignments also presented a challenge during their first clinical training and especially affected their opportunity to learn.

“I need to read the file, know about my patient’s condition and pathophysiology and the rationale for the medications the patient is receiving…These are big stressors for my learning. I think about assignments often. Like, we are just focusing on so many assignments and papers. We need to submit assessments and care plans for clinical cases. We focus our time to complete and finish the papers rather than doing the real clinical procedures, so we lose [the] chance to learn” (P25).

Another participant commented in a similar vein that there was not enough time to perform tasks related to clinical requirements during clinical placement.

“…there is a challenge because we do not have enough time. Always no time for us to submit papers, to complete assessment tools, and some nurses, they don’t help us. I think we need more time to get more experiences and do more procedures, reduce the paperwork that we have to submit. These are challenges …” (P14).

There were expectations that the students should be able to carry out their nursing duties without becoming ill or adversely affected. In addition, many students reported that the clinical environment was completely different from the skills laboratory at the college. Exposure to the clinical setting added to the theory-practice gap, and in some instances, the students fell ill.

One student made the following comment:

“I was assisting a doctor with a dressing, and the sight and smell from the oozing wound was too much for me. I was nauseated. As soon as the dressing was done, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. I asked myself… how will I survive the next 3 years of nursing?” (P14).

Theme 3: learning to cope

The study participants indicated that they used coping mechanisms (both positive and negative) to adapt to and manage the stressors in their first clinical practicum. Important strategies that were reportedly used to cope with stress were time management, good preparation for clinical practice, and positive thinking as well as engaging in physical activity and self-motivation.

“Time management. Yes, it is important. I was encouraging myself. I used time management and prepared myself before going to the clinical site. Also, eating good food like cereal…it helps me very much in the clinic” (P28).

“Oh yeah, for sure positive thinking. In the hospital, I always think positively. Then, after coming home, I get [to] rest and think about positive things that I can do. So, I will think something good [about] these things, and then I will be relieved of stress” (P21).

Other strategies commonly reported by the participants were managing their breathing (e.g., taking deep breaths, breathing slowly), taking breaks to relax, and talking with friends about the problems they encountered.

“I prefer to take deep breaths and breathe slowly and to have a cup of coffee and to talk to my friends about the case or the clinical preceptor and what made me sad so I will feel more relaxed” (P16).

“Maybe I will take my break so I feel relaxed and feel better. After clinical training, I go directly home and take a long shower, going over the day. I will not think about anything bad that happened that day. I just try to think about good things so that I forget the stress” (P27).

“Yes, my first clinical training was not easy. It was difficult and made me stressed out…. I felt that it was a very difficult time for me. I thought about leaving nursing” (P7).

I was not able to offer my prayers. For me, this was distressing because as a Muslim, I pray regularly. Now, my prayer time is pushed to the end of the shift” (P11).

“When I feel stress, I talk to my friends about the case and what made me stressed. Then I will feel more relaxed” (P26).

Self-support or self-motivation through positive self-talk was also used by the students to cope with stress.

“Yes, it is difficult in the first clinical training. When I am stress[ed], I go to the bathroom and stand in the front of the mirror; I talk to myself, and I say, “You can do it,” “you are a great student.” I motivate myself: “You can do it”… Then, I just take breaths slowly several times. This is better than shouting or crying because it makes me tired” (P11).

Other participants used physical activity to manage their stress.

“How do I cope with my stress? Actually, when I get stressed, I will go for a walk on campus” (P4).

“At home, I will go to my room and close the door and start doing my exercises. After that, I feel the negative energy goes out, then I start to calm down… and begin my clinical assignments” (P21).

Both positive and negative coping strategies were utilized by the students. Some participants described using negative coping strategies when they encountered stress during their clinical practice. These negative coping strategies included becoming irritable and angry, eating too much food, drinking too much coffee, and smoking cigarettes.

“…Negative adaptation? Maybe coping. If I am stressed, I get so angry easily. I am irritable all day also…It is negative energy, right? Then, at home, I am also angry. After that, it is good to be alone to think about my problems” (P12).

“Yeah, if I…feel stress or depressed, I will eat a lot of food. Yeah, ineffective, like I will be eating a lot, drinking coffee. Like I said, effective, like I will prepare myself and do breathing, ineffective, I will eat a lot of snacks in between my free time. This is the bad side” (P16).

“…During the first clinical practice? Yes, it was a difficult experience for us…not only me. When stressed, during a break at the hospital, I will drink two or three cups of coffee… Also, I smoke cigarettes… A lot. I can drink six cups [of coffee] a day when I am stressed. After drinking coffee, I feel more relaxed, I finish everything (food) in the refrigerator or whatever I have in the pantry, like chocolates, chips, etc” (P23).

These supporting excerpts for each theme and the analysis offers valuable insights into the specific stressors faced by nursing students during their first clinical practicum. These insights will form the basis for the development of targeted interventions and supportive mechanisms within the clinical training curriculum to better support students’ adjustment and well-being during clinical practice.

Our study identified the stressors students encounter in their first clinical practicum and the coping strategies, both positive and negative, that they employed. Although this study emphasizes the importance of clinical training to prepare nursing students to practice as nurses, it also demonstrates the correlation between stressors and coping strategies.The content analysis of the first theme, managing expectations, paves the way for clinical agencies to realize that the students of today will be the nurses of tomorrow. It is important to provide a welcoming environment where students can develop their identities and learn effectively. Additionally, clinical staff should foster an environment of individualized learning while also assisting students in gaining confidence and competence in their repertoire of nursing skills, including critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills [ 8 , 15 , 19 , 30 ]. Another challenge encountered by the students in our study was that they were prevented from participating in clinical procedures by some nurses or patients. This finding is consistent with previous studies reporting that key challenges for students in clinical learning include a lack of clinical support and poor attitudes among clinical staff and instructors [ 31 ]. Clinical staff with positive attitudes have a positive impact on students’ learning in clinical settings [ 32 ]. The presence, supervision, and guidance of clinical instructors and the assistance of clinical staff are essential motivating components in the clinical learning process and offer positive reinforcement [ 30 , 33 , 34 ]. Conversely, an unsupportive learning environment combined with unwelcoming clinical staff and a lack of sense of belonging negatively impact students’ clinical learning [ 35 ].

The sources of stress identified in this study were consistent with common sources of stress in clinical training reported in previous studies, including the attitudes of some staff, students’ status in their clinical placement and educational factors. Nursing students’ inexperience in the clinical setting and lack of social and emotional experience also resulted in stress and psychological difficulties [ 36 ]. Bhurtun et al. [ 33 ] noted that nursing staff are a major source of stress for students because the students feel like they are constantly being watched and evaluated.

We also found that students were concerned about potential failure when working with patients during their clinical training. Their fear of failure when performing clinical procedures may be attributable to low self-confidence. Previous studies have noted that students were concerned about injuring patients, being blamed or chastised, and failing examinations [ 37 , 38 ]. This was described as feeling “powerless” in a previous study [ 7 , 12 ]. In addition, patients’ attitudes towards “rejecting” nursing students or patients’ refusal of their help were sources of stress among the students in our study and affected their self-confidence. Self-confidence and a sense of belonging are important for nurses’ personal and professional identity, and low self-confidence is a problem for nursing students in clinical learning [ 8 , 39 , 40 ]. Our findings are consistent with a previous study that reported that a lack of self-confidence was a primary source of worry and anxiety for nursing students and affected their communication and intention to leave nursing [ 41 ].

In the second theme, our study suggests that students encounter a theory-practice gap in clinical settings, which creates confusion and presents an additional stressors. Theoretical and clinical training are complementary elements of nursing education [ 40 ], and this combination enables students to gain the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to provide nursing care. This is consistent with the findings of a previous study that reported that inconsistencies between theoretical knowledge and practical experience presented a primary obstacle to the learning process in the clinical context [ 42 ], causing students to lose confidence and become anxious [ 43 ]. Additionally, the second theme, the theory-practice gap, authenticates Safian et al.’s [ 5 ] study of the theory-practice gap that exists United Arab Emirates among nursing students as well as the need for more supportive clinical faculty and the extension of clinical hours. The need for better time availability and time management to complete clinical tasks were also reported by the students in the study. Students indicated that they had insufficient time to complete clinical activities because of the volume of coursework and assignments. Our findings support those of Chaabane et al. [ 15 ]. A study conducted in Saudi Arabia [ 44 ] found that assignments and workload were among the greatest sources of stress for students in clinical settings. Effective time management skills have been linked to academic achievement, stress reduction, increased creativity [ 45 ], and student satisfaction [ 46 ]. Our findings are also consistent with previous studies that reported that a common source of stress among first-year students was the increased classroom workload [ 19 , 47 ]. As clinical assignments and workloads are major stressors for nursing students, it is important to promote activities to help them manage these assignments [ 48 ].

Another major challenge reported by the participants was related to communicating and interacting with other nurses and patients. The UAE nursing workforce and population are largely expatriate and diverse and have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Therefore, student nurses encounter difficulty in communication [ 49 ]. This cultural diversity that students encounter in communication with patients during clinical training needs to be addressed by curriculum planners through the offering of language courses and courses on cultural diversity [ 50 ].

Regarding the third and final theme, nursing students in clinical training are unable to avoid stressors and must learn to cope with or adapt to them. Previous research has reported a link between stressors and the coping mechanisms used by nursing students [ 51 , 52 , 53 ]. In particular, the inability to manage stress influences nurses’ performance, physical and mental health, attitude, and role satisfaction [ 54 ]. One such study suggested that nursing students commonly use problem-focused (dealing with the problem), emotion-focused (regulating emotion), and dysfunctional (e.g., venting emotions) stress coping mechanisms to alleviate stress during clinical training [ 15 ]. Labrague et al. [ 51 ] highlighted that nursing students use both active and passive coping techniques to manage stress. The pattern of clinical stress has been observed in several countries worldwide. The current study found that first-year students experienced stress during their first clinical training [ 35 , 41 , 55 ]. The stressors they encountered impacted their overall health and disrupted their clinical learning. Chaabane et al. [ 15 ] reported moderate and high stress levels among nursing students in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. Another study from Bahrain reported that all nursing students experienced moderate to severe stress in their first clinical placement [ 56 ]. Similarly, nursing students in Spain experienced a moderate level of stress, and this stress was significantly correlated with anxiety [ 30 ]. Therefore, it is imperative that pastoral systems at the university address students’ stress and mental health so that it does not affect their clinical performance. Faculty need to utilize evidence-based interventions to support students so that anxiety-producing situations and attrition are minimized.

In our study, students reported a variety of positive and negative coping mechanisms and strategies they used when they experienced stress during their clinical practice. Positive coping strategies included time management, positive thinking, self-support/motivation, breathing, taking breaks, talking with friends, and physical activity. These findings are consistent with those of a previous study in which healthy coping mechanisms used by students included effective time management, social support, positive reappraisal, and participation in leisure activities [ 57 ]. Our study found that relaxing and talking with friends were stress management strategies commonly used by students. Communication with friends to cope with stress may be considered social support. A previous study also reported that people seek social support to cope with stress [ 58 ]. Some students in our study used physical activity to cope with stress, consistent with the findings of previous research. Stretching exercises can be used to counteract the poor posture and positioning associated with stress and to assist in reducing physical tension. Promoting such exercise among nursing students may assist them in coping with stress in their clinical training [ 59 ].

Our study also showed that when students felt stressed, some adopted negative coping strategies, such as showing anger/irritability, engaging in unhealthy eating habits (e.g., consumption of too much food or coffee), or smoking cigarettes. Previous studies have reported that high levels of perceived stress affect eating habits [ 60 ] and are linked to poor diet quality, increased snacking, and low fruit intake [ 61 ]. Stress in clinical settings has also been linked to sleep problems, substance misuse, and high-risk behaviors’ and plays a major role in student’s decision to continue in their programme.

Implications of the study

The implications of the study results can be grouped at multiple levels including; clinical, educational, and organizational level. A comprehensive approach to addressing the stressors encountered by nursing students during their clinical practicum can be overcome by offering some practical strategies to address the stressors faced by nursing students during their clinical practicum. By integrating study findings into curriculum planning, mentorship programs, and organizational support structures, a supportive and nurturing environment that enhances students’ learning, resilience, and overall success can be envisioned.

Clinical level

Introducing simulation in the skills lab with standardized patients and the use of moulage to demonstrate wounds, ostomies, and purulent dressings enhances students’ practical skills and prepares them for real-world clinical scenarios. Organizing orientation days at clinical facilities helps familiarize students with the clinical environment, identify potential stressors, and introduce interventions to enhance professionalism, social skills, and coping abilities Furthermore, creating a WhatsApp group facilitates communication and collaboration among hospital staff, clinical tutors, nursing faculty, and students, enabling immediate support and problem-solving for clinical situations as they arise, Moreover, involving chief nursing officers of clinical facilities in the Nursing Advisory Group at the Department of Nursing promotes collaboration between academia and clinical practice, ensuring alignment between educational objectives and the needs of the clinical setting [ 62 ].

Educational level

Sharing study findings at conferences (we presented the results of this study at Sigma Theta Tau International in July 2023 in Abu Dhabi, UAE) and journal clubs disseminates knowledge and best practices among educators and clinicians, promoting awareness and implementation of measures to improve students’ learning experiences. Additionally we hold mentorship training sessions annually in January and so we shared with the clinical mentors and preceptors the findings of this study so that they proactively they are equipped with strategies to support students’ coping with stressors during clinical placements.

Organizational level

At the organizational we relooked at the available student support structures, including counseling, faculty advising, and career advice, throughout the nursing program emphasizing the importance of holistic support for students’ well-being and academic success as well as retention in the nursing program. Also, offering language courses as electives recognizes the value of communication skills in nursing practice and provides opportunities for personal and professional development.

For first-year nursing students, clinical stressors are inevitable and must be given proper attention. Recognizing nursing students’ perspectives on the challenges and stressors experienced in clinical training is the first step in overcoming these challenges. In nursing schools, providing an optimal clinical environment as well as increasing supervision and evaluation of students’ practices should be emphasized. Our findings demonstrate that first-year nursing students are exposed to a variety of different stressors. Identifying the stressors, pressures, and obstacles that first-year students encounter in the clinical setting can assist nursing educators in resolving these issues and can contribute to students’ professional development and survival to allow them to remain in the profession. To overcome stressors, students frequently employ problem-solving approaches or coping mechanisms. The majority of nursing students report stress at different levels and use a variety of positive and negative coping techniques to manage stress.

The present results may not be generalizable to other nursing institutions because this study used a purposive sample along with a qualitative approach and was limited to one university in the Middle East. Furthermore, the students self-reported their stress and its causes, which may have introduced reporting bias. The students may also have over or underreported stress or coping mechanisms because of fear of repercussions or personal reasons, even though the confidentiality of their data was ensured. Further studies are needed to evaluate student stressors and coping now that measures have been introduced to support students. Time will tell if these strategies are being used effectively by both students and clinical personnel or if they need to be readdressed. Finally, we need to explore the perceptions of clinical faculty towards supervising students in their first clinical practicum so that clinical stressors can be handled effectively.

Data availability

The data sets are available with the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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The authors are grateful to all second year nursing students who voluntarily participated in the study.

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Jacqueline Maria Dias, Muhammad Arsyad Subu, Nabeel Al-Yateem, Fatma Refaat Ahmed, Syed Azizur Rahman, Mini Sara Abraham, Sareh Mirza Forootan, Farzaneh Ahmad Sarkhosh & Fatemeh Javanbakh

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JMD conceptualized the idea and designed the methodology, formal analysis, writing original draft and project supervision and mentoring. MAS prepared the methodology and conducted the qualitative interviews and analyzed the methodology and writing of original draft and project supervision. NY, FRA, SAR, MSA writing review and revising the draft. SMF, FAS, FJ worked with MAS on the formal analysis and prepared the first draft.All authors reviewed the final manuscipt of the article.

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Dias, J.M., Subu, M.A., Al-Yateem, N. et al. Nursing students’ stressors and coping strategies during their first clinical training: a qualitative study in the United Arab Emirates. BMC Nurs 23 , 322 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01962-5

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Competency gap among graduating nursing students: what they have achieved and what is expected of them

• Majid Purabdollah 1 , 2 ,
• Vahid Zamanzadeh 2 , 3 ,
• Akram Ghahramanian 2 , 4 ,
• Leila Valizadeh 2 , 5 ,
• Saeid Mousavi 2 , 6 &
• Mostafa Ghasempour 2 , 4  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  546 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Nurses’ professional competencies play a significant role in providing safe care to patients. Identifying the acquired and expected competencies in nursing education and the gaps between them can be a good guide for nursing education institutions to improve their educational practices.

In a descriptive-comparative study, students’ perception of acquired competencies and expected competencies from the perspective of the Iranian nursing faculties were collected with two equivalent questionnaires consisting of 85 items covering 17 competencies across 5 domains. A cluster sampling technique was employed on 721 final-year nursing students and 365 Iranian nursing faculties. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and independent t-tests.

The results of the study showed that the highest scores for students’ acquired competencies and nursing faculties’ expected competencies were work readiness and professional development, with mean of 3.54 (SD = 0.39) and 4.30 (SD = 0.45), respectively. Also, the lowest score for both groups was evidence-based nursing care with mean of 2.74 (SD = 0.55) and 3.74 (SD = 0.57), respectively. The comparison of competencies, as viewed by both groups of the students and the faculties, showed that the difference between the two groups’ mean scores was significant in all 5 core-competencies and 17 sub-core competencies ( P  < .001). Evidence-based nursing care was the highest mean difference (mean diff = 1) and the professional nursing process with the lowest mean difference (mean diff = 0.70).

The results of the study highlight concerns about the gap between expected and achieved competencies in Iran. Further research is recommended to identify the reasons for the gap between the two and to plan how to reduce it. This will require greater collaboration between healthcare institutions and nursing schools.

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Introduction| Background

Nursing competence refers to a set of knowledge, skills, and behaviors that are necessary to successfully perform roles or responsibilities [ 1 ]. It is crucial for ensuring the safe and high-quality care of patients [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. However, evaluating nursing competence is challenging due to the complex, dynamic, and multi factorial nature of the clinical environment [ 3 ]. The introduction of nursing competencies and their assessment as a standard measure of clinical performance at the professional level has been highlighted by the Association of American Colleges of Nursing [ 6 , 7 ]. As a result, AACN (2020) introduces competence assessment as an emerging concept in nursing education [ 7 ].

On the other hand, the main responsibility of nursing education is to prepare graduates who have the necessary competencies to provide safe and quality care [ 3 ]. Although it is believed that it is impossible to teach everything to students, acquiring some competencies requires entering a real clinical setting and gaining work experience [ 8 ]. However, nursing students are expected to be competent to ensure patient safety and quality of care after graduation [ 9 ]. To the extent that the World Health Organization (WHO), while expressing concern about the low quality of nursing education worldwide, has recommended investing in nursing education and considers that the future to require nurses who are theoretically and clinically competent [ 5 ]. Despite efforts, the inadequate preparation of newly graduated nursing students and doubts about the competencies acquired in line with expectations to provide safe care for entering the nursing setting have become a global concern [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. The results of studies in this field are different. The results of Amsalu et al. showed that the competence of newly graduated nursing students to provide quality and safe care was not satisfactory [ 14 ]. Some studies have also highlighted shortcomings in students’ “soft” skills, such as technical competency, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, helping roles, and professionalism [ 15 ]. Additionally, prior research has indicated that several nursing students have an unrealistic perception of their acquired competencies before entering the clinical setting and they report a high level of competence [ 2 ]. In other study, Hickerson et al. showed that the lack of preparation of nursing students is associated with an increase in patient errors and poor patient outcomes [ 16 ]. Some studies also discussed nursing competencies separately; Such as patient safety [ 17 ], clinical reasoning [ 18 ], interpersonal communication [ 19 ], and evidence-based care competence [ 20 ].

On the other hand, the growing need for safe nursing care and the advent of new educational technologies, the emergence of infectious diseases has increased the necessity of nursing competence. As a result, the nursing profession must be educated to excellence more than ever before [ 5 , 21 , 22 ]. Therefore, the self-assessment of students’ competence levels as well as the evaluation of nursing managers about the competencies expected from them is an essential criterion for all healthcare stakeholders, educators, and nursing policymakers to ensure the delivery of safe, and effective nursing care [ 9 , 23 , 24 ].

However, studies of nurse managers’ perceptions of the competence of newly graduated nursing students are limited and mostly conducted at the national level. Hence, further investigation is needed in this field [ 25 , 26 ]. Some other studies have been carried out according to the context and the needs of societies [ 3 , 26 , 27 , 28 ]. The results of some other studies in the field of students’ self-assessment of perceived competencies and managers’ and academic staff’s assessment of expected competency levels are different and sometimes contradictory, and there is the “academic-clinical gap” between expected and achieved competencies [ 25 , 29 , 30 ]. A review of the literature showed that this gap has existed for four decades, and the current literature shows that it has not changed much over time. The academe and practice settings have also been criticized for training nurses who are not sufficiently prepared to fully engage in patient care [ 1 ]. Hence, nursing managers must understand the expected competencies of newly graduated students, because they have a more complete insight into the healthcare system and the challenges facing the nursing profession. Exploration of these gaps can reveal necessities regarding the work readiness of nursing graduates and help them develop their competencies to enter the clinical setting [ 1 , 25 ].

Although research has been carried out on this topic in other countries, the educational system in those countries varies from that of Iran’s nursing education [ 31 , 32 ]. Iran’s nursing curriculum has tried to prepare nurses who have the necessary competencies to meet the care needs of society. Despite the importance of proficiency in nursing education, many nursing graduates often report feeling unprepared to fulfill expected competencies and they have deficiencies in applying their knowledge and experience in practice [ 33 ]. Firstly, the failure to define and identify the expected competencies in the nursing curriculum of Iran led to the absence of precise and efficient educational objectives. Therefore, it is acknowledged that the traditional nursing curriculum of Iran focuses more on lessons organization than competencies [ 34 ]. Secondly, insufficient attention has been given to the scheduling, location, and level of competencies in the nursing curriculum across different semesters [ 35 ]. Thirdly, the large volume of content instead of focusing on expected competencies caused nursing graduates challenged to manage complex situations [ 36 ]. Therefore, we should not expect competencies such as critical thinking, clinical judgment, problem-solving, decision-making, management, and leadership from nursing students and graduates in Iran [ 37 ]. Limited research has been conducted in this field in Iran. Studies have explored the cultural competence of nursing students [ 38 ] and psychiatric nurses [ 39 ]. Additionally, the competence priorities of nurses in acute care have been investigated [ 40 ], as well as the competency dimensions of nurses [ 41 ].

In Iran, after receiving the diploma, the students participate in a national exam called Konkur. Based on the results of this exam, they enter the field of nursing without conducting an aptitude test interview and evaluating individual and social characteristics. The 4-year nursing curriculum in Iran has 130 units including 22 general, 54 specific, 15 basic sciences, and 39 internship units. In each semester, several workshops are held according to the syllabus [ 42 ]. Instead of the expected competencies, a list of general competencies is specified as learning outcomes in the program. Accepted students based on their rank in the exam and their choice in public and Islamic Azad Universities (non-profit), are trained with a common curriculum. Islamic Azad Universities are not supported by government funding and are managed autonomously, this problem limits the access to specialized human resources and sufficient educational fields, and the lower salaries of faculty members in Azad Universities compared to the government system, students face serious challenges. Islamic Azad Universities must pay exorbitant fees to medical universities for training students in clinical departments and medical training centers, doubling these Universities’ financial problems. In some smaller cities, these financial constraints cause students to train in more limited fields of clinical training and not experience much of what they have learned in the classroom in practice and the real world of nursing. The evaluation of learners in the courses according to the curriculum is based on formative and summative evaluation with teacher-made tests, checklists, clinical assignments, conferences, and logbooks. The accreditation process of nursing schools includes two stages internal evaluation, which is done by surveying students, professors and managers of educational groups, and external accreditation is done by the nursing board. After completing all their courses, to graduate, students must participate in an exam called “Final”, which is held by each faculty without the supervision of an accreditation institution, the country’s assessment organization or the Ministry of Health, and obtain at least a score of 10 out of 20 to graduate.

Therefore, we conducted this comprehensive study as the first study in Iran to investigate the difference between the expected and perceived competence levels of final year nursing students. The study’s theoretical framework is based on Patricia Benner’s “From Novice to Expert” model [ 43 ].

Materials and methods

The present study had the following three objectives:

Determining self-perceived competency levels from the perspective of final year nursing students in Iran.

Determining expected levels of competency from the perspective of nursing faculties in Iran.

To determine the difference between the expected competencies from the perspective of nursing faculties and the achieved competencies from the perspective of final-year nursing students.

This study is a descriptive-comparative study.

First, we obtained a list of all nursing schools in the provinces of Iran from the Ministry of Health ( n  = 31). From 208 Universities, 72 nursing schools were randomly selected using two-stage cluster sampling. Among the selected faculties, we chose 721 final-year nursing students and 365 nursing faculties who met the eligibility criteria for the study. Final-year nursing students who consented to participate in the study were selected. Full-time faculty members with at least 2 years of clinical experience and nurse managers with at least 5 years of clinical education experience were also included. In this study, nursing managers, in addition to their educational roles in colleges, also have managerial roles in the field of nursing. Some of these roles include nursing faculty management, nursing board member, curriculum development and review, planning and supervision of nursing education, evaluation, and continuous improvement of nursing education. The selection criteria were based on the significant role that managers play in nursing education and curriculum development [ 44 ]. Non-full-time faculty members and managers without clinical education experience were excluded from the study.

The instrument used in this study is a questionnaire developed and psychometrically tested in a doctoral nursing dissertation [ 45 ]. To design the tool, the competencies expected of undergraduate nursing students in Iran and worldwide were first identified through a scoping review using the methodology recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) and supported by the PAGER framework. Summative content analysis by Hsieh and Shannon (2005) was used for analysis, which included: counting and comparing keywords and content, followed by interpretation of textual meaning. In the second step, the results of the first step were used to create tool statements. Then the validity of the instrument was checked by face validity, content validity (determination of the ratio and index of content validity), and validity of known groups. Its reliability was also checked by internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha method and stability using the test-retest method. The competency questionnaire comprises 85 items covering 17 competencies across 5 domains: “individualized care” (4 competencies with 21 items), “evidence-based nursing care” (2 competencies with 10 items), “professional nursing process” (3 competencies with 13 items), “nursing management” (2 competencies with 16 items), and “work readiness and professional development” (6 competencies with 25 items) [ 45 ]. “The Bondy Rating Scale was utilized to assess the competency items, with ratings ranging from 1 (Dependent) to 5 (Independent) on a 5-point Likert scale [ 46 ]. The first group (nursing students) was asked to indicate the extent to which they had acquired each competency. The second group (nursing faculties) was asked to specify the level to which they expected nursing students to achieve each competency.

Data collection

First, the researcher contacted the deans and managers of the selected nursing schools by email to obtain permission. After explaining the aims of the study and the sampling method, we obtained the telephone number of the representative of the group of final year nursing students and also the email of the faculty members. The representative of the student group was then asked to forward the link to the questionnaire to 10 students who were willing to participate in the research. Informed consent for students to participate in the online research was provided through the questionnaires, while nursing faculty members who met the eligibility criteria for the study received an informed consent form attached to the email questionnaire. The informed consent process clarified the study objectives and ensured anonymity of respondent participation in the research, voluntary agreement to participate and the right to revoke consent at any time. An electronic questionnaire was then sent to 900 final year nursing students and 664 nursing faculties (from 4 March 2023 to 11 July 2023). Reminder emails were sent to nursing faculty members three times at two-week intervals. The attrition rate in the student group was reported to be 0 (no incomplete questionnaires). However, four questionnaires from nursing faculty members were discarded because of incomplete responses. Of the 900 questionnaires sent to students and 664 sent to nursing faculties, 721 students and 365 nursing faculty members completed the questionnaire. The response rates were 79% and 66% respectively.

Data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. Frequencies and percentages were used to report categorical variables and mean and standard deviations were used for quantitative variables. The normality of the quantitative data was confirmed using the Shapiro-Wilk and Skewness tests. An independent t-test was used for differences between the two groups.

Data analysis revealed that out of 721 students, 441 (61.20%) was female. The mean and deviation of the students’ age was 22.50 (SD = 1.21). Most of the students 577 (80%) were in their final semester. Also, of the total 365 faculties, the majority were female 253 (69.31%) with a mean of age 44.06 (SD = 7.46) and an age range of 22–65. The academic rank of most nursing faculty members 156 (21.60%) was assistant professor (Table  1 ).

The results of the study showed that in both groups the highest scores achieved by the students and expected by the nursing faculty members were work readiness and professional development with a mean and standard deviation of 3.54 (0.39) and 4.30 (0.45) respectively. The lowest score for both groups was also evidence-based nursing care with a mean and standard deviation of 2.74 (0.55) for students and 3.74 (0.57) for nursing faculty members (Table  2 ).

Also, the result of the study showed that the highest expected competency score from the nursing faculty members’ point of view was the safety subscale. In other words, faculty members expected nursing students to acquire safety competencies at the highest level and to be able to provide safe care independently according to the rating scale (Mean = 4.51, SD = 0.45). The mean score of the competencies achieved by the students was not above 3.77 in any of the subscales and the highest level of competency achievement according to self-report of students was related to safety competencies (mean = 3.77, SD = 0.51), preventive health services (mean = 3.69, SD = 0.79), values and ethical codes (mean = 3.67, SD = 0.77), and procedural/clinical skills (mean = 3.67, SD = 0.71). The other competency subscales from the perspective of the two groups are presented in Table  3 , from highest to lowest score.

The analysis of core competencies achieved and expected from both students’ and nursing faculty members’ perspectives revealed that, firstly, there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the two groups in all five core competencies ( P  < .001) and that the highest mean difference was related to evidence-based care with mean diff = 1 and the lowest mean difference was related to professional care process with mean diff = 0.70 (Table  4 ).

Table  5 indicates that there was a significant difference between the mean scores achieved by students and nursing faculty members in all 5 core competencies and 17 sub-core Competencies ( p  < .001).

The study aimed to determine the difference between nursing students’ self-perceived level of competence and the level of competence expected of them by their nursing faculty members. The study results indicate that students scored highest in work readiness and professional development. However, they were not independent in this competency and required support. The National League for Nursing (NLN) recognizes nursing professional development as the goal of nursing education programs [ 47 ] However, Aguayo-Gonzalez [ 48 ] believes that the appropriate time for professional development is after entering a clinical setting. This theme includes personal characteristics, legality, clinical/ procedural skills, patient safety, preventive health services, and mentoring competence. Personality traits of nursing students are strong predictors of coping with nursing stress, as suggested by Imus [ 49 ]. These outcomes reflect changes in students’ individual characteristics during their nursing education. Personality changes, such as the need for patience and persistence in nursing care and understanding the nurse identity prepare students for the nursing profession, which is consistent with the studies of Neishabouri et al. [ 50 ]. Although the students demonstrated a higher level of competence in this theme, an examination of the items indicates that they can still not adapt to the challenges of bedside nursing and to use coping techniques. This presents a concerning issue that requires attention and resolution. Previous studies have shown that nursing education can be a very stressful experience [ 51 , 52 , 53 ].

Of course, there is no consensus on the definition of professionalism and the results of studies in this field are different. For example, Akhtar et al. (2013) identified common viewpoints about professionalism held by nursing faculty and students, and four viewpoints emerged humanists, portrayers, facilitators, and regulators [ 54 ]. The findings of another study showed that nursing students perceived vulnerability, symbolic representation, role modeling, discontent, and professional development are elements that show their professionalism [ 55 ]. The differences indicate that there may be numerous contextual variables that affect individuals’ perceptions of professionalism.

The legal aspects of nursing were the next item in this theme that students needed help with. The findings of studies regarding the legal competence of newly graduated nursing students are contradictory reported that only one-third of nurse managers were satisfied with the legal competence of newly graduated nursing students [ 56 , 57 ]. Whereas the other studies showed that legality was the highest acquired competence for newly graduated nursing students [ 58 , 59 ]. However, the results of this study indicated that legality may be a challenge for newly graduated nursing students. Benner [ 43 ] highlighted the significant change for new graduates in that they now have full legal and professional responsibility for the patient. Tong and Epeneter [ 60 ] also reported that facing an ethical dilemma is one of the most stressful factors for new graduates. Therefore, the inexperience of new graduates cannot reduce the standard of care that patients expect from them [ 60 ]. Legal disputes regarding the duties and responsibilities of nurses have increased with the expansion of their roles. This is also the case in Iran. Nurses are now held accountable by law for their actions and must be aware of their legal obligations. To provide safe healthcare services, it is essential to know of professional, ethical, and criminal laws related to nursing practice. The nursing profession is accountable for the quality of services delivered to patients from both professional and legal perspectives. Therefore, it is a valuable finding that nurse managers should support new graduates to better deal with ethical dilemmas. Strengthening ethical education in nursing schools necessitates integrating real cases and ethical dilemmas into the curriculum. Especially, Nursing laws are missing from Iran’s undergraduate nursing curriculum. By incorporating authentic case studies drawn from clinical practice, nursing schools provide students with opportunities to engage in critical reflection, ethical analysis, and moral deliberation. These real cases challenge students to apply ethical principles to complex and ambiguous situations, fostering the development of ethical competence and moral sensitivity. Furthermore, ethical reflection and debriefing sessions during clinical experiences enable students to discuss and process ethical challenges encountered in practice, promoting self-awareness, empathy, and professional growth. Overall, by combining theoretical instruction with practical application and the use of real cases, nursing schools can effectively prepare future nurses to navigate ethical dilemmas with integrity and compassion.

However, the theme of evidence-based nursing care was the lowest scoring, indicating that students need help with this theme. The findings from studies conducted in this field are varied. A limited number of studies reported that nursing students were competent to implement evidence-based care [ 61 ], while other researchers reported that nursing students’ attitudes toward evidence-based care to guide clinical decisions were largely negative [ 20 , 62 ]. The principal barriers to implementing evidence-based care are lack of authority to change patient care policy, slow dissemination of evidence and lack of time at the bedside to implement evidence [ 10 ], and lack of knowledge and awareness of the process of searching databases and evaluating research [ 63 ]. While the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) framework and the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics introduce the ability to identify, critically appraise, and apply scientific information as expected learning outcomes for nursing students [ 64 , 65 ], the variation in findings highlights the complexity of the concept of competence and its assessment [ 23 ]. Evidence-Based Nursing (EBN) education for nursing students is most beneficial when it incorporates a multifaceted approach. Interactive workshops play a crucial role, providing students with opportunities to critically appraise research articles, identify evidence-based practices, and apply them to clinical scenarios. Simulation-based learning further enhances students’ skills by offering realistic clinical experiences in a safe environment. Additionally, clinical rotations offer invaluable opportunities for students to observe and participate in evidence-based practices under the guidance of experienced preceptors. Journal clubs foster a culture of critical thinking and ongoing learning, where students regularly review and discuss current research articles. Access to online resources such as databases and evidence-based practice guidelines allows students to stay updated on the latest evidence and best practices. To bridge the gap between clinical practice and academic theory, collaboration between nursing schools and healthcare institutions is essential. This collaboration can involve partnerships to create clinical learning environments that prioritize evidence-based practice, inter professional education activities to promote collaboration across disciplines, training and support for clinical preceptors, and continuing education opportunities for practicing nurses to strengthen their understanding and application of EBN [ 66 ]. By implementing these strategies, nursing education programs can effectively prepare students to become competent practitioners who integrate evidence-based principles into their clinical practice, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

The study’s findings regarding the second objective showed that nursing faculty members expected students to achieve the highest level of competence in work readiness and professional development, and the lowest in evidence-based nursing care competence. The results of the studies in this area revealed that there is a lack of clarity about the level of competence of newly graduated nursing students and that confusion about the competencies expected of them has become a major challenge [ 13 , 67 ]. Evidence of nurse managers’ perceptions of newly graduated nursing student’s competence is limited and rather fragmented. There is a clear need for rigorous empirical studies with comprehensive views of managers, highlighting the key role of managers in the evaluation of nurse competence [ 1 , 9 ]. Some findings also reported that nursing students lacked competence in primary and specialized care after entering a real clinical setting [ 68 ] and that nursing managers were dissatisfied with the competence of students [ 30 ].

The results of the present study on the third objective confirmed the gap between expected and achieved competence requirements. The highest average difference was related to evidence-based nursing care, and the lowest mean difference was related to the professional nursing process. The findings from studies in this field vary. For instance, Brown and Crookes [ 13 ] reported that newly graduated nursing students were not independent in at least 26 out of 30 competency domains. Similar studies have also indicated that nursing students need a structured program after graduation to be ready to enter clinical work [ 30 ]. It can be stated that the nursing profession does not have clear expectations of the competencies of newly graduated nursing students, and preparing them for entry into clinical practice is a major challenge for administrators [ 13 ]. These findings can be explained by the Duchscher transition shock [ 69 ]. It is necessary to support newly graduated nursing students to develop their competence and increase their self-confidence.

The interesting but worrying finding was the low expectations of faculty members and the low scores of students in the theme of evidence-based care. However, nursing students need to keep their competencies up to date to provide safe and high-quality care. The WHO also considers the core competencies of nurse educators to be the preparation of effective, efficient, and skilled nurses who can teach the evidence-based learning process and help students apply it clinically [ 44 ]. The teaching of evidence-based nursing care appears to vary across universities, and some clinical Faculties do not have sufficient knowledge to support students. In general, it can be stated that the results of the present study are in line with the context of Iran. Some of the problems identified include a lack of attention to students’ academic talent, a lack of a competency-based curriculum, a gap between theory and clinical practice, and challenges in teaching and evaluating the achieved competencies [ 42 ].

Strengths and limitations

The study was conducted on a national level with a sizable sample. It is one of the first studies in Iran to address the gap between students’ self-perceived competence levels and nursing faculty members’ expected competency levels. Nevertheless, one of the limitations of the study is the self-report nature of the questionnaire, which may lead to social desirability bias. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic coinciding with the student’s first and second years could potentially impact their educational quality and competencies. The limitations established during the outbreak negatively affected the nursing education of students worldwide.

Acquiring nursing competencies is the final product of nursing education. The current study’s findings suggest the existence of an academic-practice gap, highlighting the need for educators, faculty members, and nursing managers to collaborate in bridging the potential gap between theory and practice. While nursing students were able to meet some expectations, such as value and ethical codes, there is still a distance between expectations and reality. Especially, evidence-based care was identified as one of the weaknesses of nursing students. It is recommended that future research investigates the best teaching strategies and more objective assessments of competencies. The findings of this study can be used as a guide for the revision of undergraduate nursing education curricula, as well as a guide for curriculum development based on the development of competencies expected of nursing students. Nursing managers can identify existing gaps and plan to fill them and use them for the professionalization of students. This requires the design of educational content and objective assessment tools to address these competencies at different levels throughout the academic semester. This significant issue necessitates enhanced cooperation between healthcare institutions and nursing schools. Enhancing nursing education requires the implementation of concrete pedagogical strategies to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Simulation-based learning emerges as a pivotal approach, offering students immersive experiences in realistic clinical scenarios using high-fidelity simulators [ 70 ]. Interprofessional education (IPE) is also instrumental, in fostering collaboration among healthcare professionals and promoting holistic patient care. Strengthening clinical preceptorship programs is essential, with a focus on providing preceptors with formal training and ongoing support to facilitate students’ clinical experiences and transition to professional practice [ 71 ]. Integrating evidence-based practice (EBP) principles throughout the curriculum cultivates critical thinking and inquiry skills among students, while technology-enhanced learning platforms offer innovative ways to engage students and support self-directed learning [ 72 ]. Diverse and comprehensive clinical experiences across various healthcare settings ensure students are prepared for the complexities of modern healthcare delivery. By implementing these practical suggestions, nursing education programs can effectively prepare students to become competent and compassionate healthcare professionals.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors extend their gratitude to all the nursing students and faculties who took part in this study.

This article is part of research approved with the financial support of the deputy of research and technology of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.

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M P: conceptualized the study, data collection, analysis and interpretation, drafting of manuscript; V Z: conceptualized the study, analysis and interpretation, drafting of manuscript; LV: conceptualized the study, data collection and analysis, manuscript revision; A Gh: conceptualized the study, data collection, analysis, and drafting of manuscript; S M: conceptualized the study, analysis, and drafting of manuscript; M Gh: data collection, analysis, and interpretation, drafting of manuscript; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Purabdollah, M., Zamanzadeh, V., Ghahramanian, A. et al. Competency gap among graduating nursing students: what they have achieved and what is expected of them. BMC Med Educ 24 , 546 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05532-w

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05532-w

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