Teacher coping strategies as factor of child’s success in educational process

¹ Irkutsk State University, Faculty of Psychology, Irkutsk, Russia
² Irkutsk State University, Department of Foreign Languages for Non-Linguistic Areas of Training, Irkutsk, Russia
³ Institute for the Development of Education, Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Irkutsk, Russia

^* Corresponding author: mirroy@mail.ru

Abstract

The authors analyze various approaches to the problem of factors that determine a child’s success in the educational process. The contradictory nature of modern research on this issue is established. There is no consensus on the impact of coping strategies on a child’s academic and creative success. The purpose of the study is to determine coping strategies of teachers with various experience levels and specialties that affect the success of children in the educational process. The sample consists of 314 teachers in Irkutsk with various experience levels and specialties. The authors utilize the methods “The Ways of Coping Questionnaire” by R. Lazarus and S. Folkman, “Methodology for determining individual coping strategies” by E. Heim as well as the analysis of the teachers’ professional results submitted for certification. It is found that the success of students depends on the coping strategies used by their teachers of various experience levels and specialties. In general, students are more successful if pedagogues use productive coping mechanisms. However, in some cases, due to the specialty and experience of teaching staff, unproductive copings can be efficient for learning. For subject teachers, the “Distancing” strategy can be efficient, which is an unproductive coping strategy. At the same time, the strategy “Seeking social support”, which is a productive coping mechanism, is inefficient for teachers of additional education. The results obtained are compared with other authors’ conclusions (W.F. Admiraal, K.C. Herman, M.M. Kashapov, etc.). The authors explain the discovered features of coping mechanisms for the success of children. The limitations of the study and possible further research areas are discussed.