The effects of human relations skills training on teacher job satisfaction and self-efficacy when assisting emotionally distressed students and parents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a 12 hour human relations training workshop upon the variables: (1) teacher rating of daily student and parent communications support self-efficacy; (2) teacher perceptions of the outcome of their daily supportive communication; (3) teacher feelings of competency when addressing specific student populations; and (4) daily ratings of job satisfaction. Participants included 28 of 35 Title I reading and mathematics teachers from Marion County, Fairmont, West Virginia. A time series, quasi-experiment design (similar to the multiple baseline design across behaviors) was utilized as a means of examining teacher reports of daily communication support self-efficacy and daily reports of job satisfaction. Mean examinations of mean, level, trend, variability, and latency of daily communication self-efficacy and job satisfaction were completed. Results suggest that the treatment had an overall positive effect upon levels of teacher self-efficacy and levels of teacher daily job satisfaction. Resulting data examining teachers\u27 perceptions of the outcome of their daily supportive communication suggested that a large majority of participants perceived more positive communication outcomes after treatment and during follow-up. Resulting data examining teachers\u27 feelings of competency when communicating support to special Title 1 populations suggested that overall, participants reported less difficulty when communicating support to all eight student populations after treatment was provided. Correlational data examining the relationships between daily reports teacher communication support self-efficacy and daily reports of teacher job satisfaction suggested a similar and proportional relationship between teacher daily reports of self-efficacy and daily reports of job satisfaction within phases. Such results appear to support the current evidence suggesting some relationship between one\u27s self-efficacy and job satisfaction (independent of treatment). Correlations were computed examining the relationship between various teacher demographics and teacher daily reports of job satisfaction, daily reports of communication self-efficacy and self-efficacy when communicating with specific Title I student populations. These data support research suggesting that a teachers\u27 physical maturity and experience contribute to more positive perceptions of work-related ability and job satisfaction. These data suggest that once treatment occurred, such demographics had less impact upon teachers ratings, thus implying treatment effect