Yes – Calvin has returned 🙂

He may have done a bit of brainstorming to come up with that answer…

…or perhaps he needed to use his creativity this time to escape the boredom of memorization 🙂

Either way – he speaks to an issue I have been reading about lately.

Most areas of research that interest me are related to motivation and now, specifically – ‘job satisfaction.’ For example, I am interested in how professional development influences teaching satisfaction – through self-efficacy, stress, worry and anxiety, enjoyment, engagement, work commitment, relatedness and collegial connectivity…my list keeps growing each week 🙂

Recently, I read about a new (new-to-me) term for job satisfaction: “well-being” (Day & Qing, 2009, p. 15).For me, teaching was an all-consuming job. Therefore, the term well-being fits because it “encompasses the personal as well as the professional” (p. 15).

‘All-consuming’ could mean:

feeling immersed in work: 

Many teachers find their work personally satisfying, and attribute their job satisfaction [or well-being] to working with children (Klassen & Chiu, 2010)

…or feeling emotionally drained:

At this particular time in history many teachers work in environments that are hostile to their well-being (Day & Qing, 2009, p. 15).

Hostile? … Yikes…

Day & Qing (2009) proceed to identify a few ways in which teaching has changed over the decades. Similarly, there seems to be a consensus that bullying ‘at this particular time in history’ is exponentially different than days gone by… I’ll save that topic for another day (and hopefully Calvin and Hobbes can help with that one too…)

I think “well-being” can fully define satisfaction in a variety of jobs – not just teaching.

Even in my “job” as professional student 🙂

If provided with the opportunity, I believe most (all?) people wish for “well-being,” and can aim to “develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community” (Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project, 2008, p. 10).

Like “Calvin” – in the comic above – some think higher pay can be motivation enough for job satisfaction. Sure, money obviously motivates people to go to work – but more is required to enhance job satisfaction into the realm of “well-being.”

And I think teamwork is one of those keys to well-being.

Others can push us towards our potential, to be productive and creative – but I think we can only achieve true well-being when motivated within strong and positive relationships.

S0…here is where I would like  to paste a comic

illustrating ‘teamwork in a teacher’s lounge’ …

…but due to copyright, I invite you to follow this link instead to view the cartoon (since it seems I would have to pay about $40 to place the actual comic on this personal blog…)

These days, I am thankful for a motivational research group. Being part of that ‘team’ is enhancing my “well-being” during this journey.

___________

For more , here are a couple of interesting research articles on this topic:

Day, C. & Qing, G. (2009). Teacher emotions: Well-being and effectiveness. In P.A. Schutz and M. Zembylas (eds.), Advances in Teacher Emotion Research: The Impact on Teachers’ Lives, (pp. 15-31). Springer Science Business Media, LLC: doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-0564-2_2.

Klassen, R. M. & Chiu, M. M. (2010). Effects on teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 741-756. doi: 10.1037/a0019237.