The Work Behavior of Elementary School Teachers

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Abstract
Structured observations were used to investigate the work behavior of elementary school teachers. Procedures employed were an attempt to replicate an earlier study that was conducted using high school teachers as subjects. Five sixth-grade elementary school teachers were observed for 5 days each by a single observer in the classroom. To supplement the observations, interviews with teachers and principals were conducted. The five teachers in the study were in school more than 40 hours per week ( 8 hours and 25 minutes per day), and spent an additional 2 hours per day on work at home. In addition, the teachers in the study had less private time than high school teachers, but spent more time in direct instruction. The teachers engaged in a wide variety of activities during the school day with almost constant verbal interaction with students and others. The elementary school teachers taught an average of seven different subjects daily with little free time for planning and preparation. A notable adaptive mechanism employed by the teachers was an ability to perform several tasks simultaneously, which was necessitated by the complex demands of their work environment.

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