For years, the national conversation about lifting student outcomes has centred on curriculum, assessment and the quality of instruction. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the people delivering it, and how they are coping.
According to new research, that may be a costly oversight.
A landmark meta-analysis from the Australian Catholic University (ACU), drawing on nearly five decades of research and data from more than 350,000 teachers, has found a consistent positive association between teacher wellbeing and student motivation and achievement.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reverse is also true. Where teachers are struggling, the research found a slightly smaller but still consistent link with poorer student outcomes, a finding that should give every school leader pause.
“We rightly spend a lot of time thinking about student wellbeing and how we can support young people to succeed at school,” the study’s lead author, Professor Theresa Dicke from the ACU's Institute of Positive Psychology and Education, said in a statement. “But not a lot of time is spent thinking about the wellbeing of the people standing in front of them every day. Happier, healthier teachers are linked to students who are more motivated and achieve more.”
The study found that while the links between wellbeing and student outcomes were modest in size, they were consistent across the evidence base.
The research also found the connection was more pronounced in secondary schools than in primary schools, which Professor Dicke said may reflect how much students' lives change as they move through adolescence.
“As students move into secondary school, they rely more on teachers for academic guidance and gain more independence over their learning, which may be why their teachers' wellbeing is more influential,” she said.
The findings come amid growing concerns about workforce challenges globally and at home, including high attrition rates and shortages of qualified teachers.
“The teaching profession is in a workforce crisis,” Professor Dicke said. “Higher levels of well-being are associated with greater job satisfaction, lower burnout, increased resilience, and higher job retention.”
For Professor Dicke, teacher wellbeing is worth investing in regardless. But her research suggests schools also need to take it seriously because of what it could mean for students in the classroom.
“The overall health and happiness of teachers have long been viewed as an employment issue, but our findings suggest it may also be a student outcomes issue,” she said. “If we want students to be driven, engaged and achieving at school, we can’t overlook the happiness of the people teaching them.”
Still, Professor Dicke was careful to point out that the findings were correlational. Whether teacher wellbeing directly shapes student outcomes, she said, is a question that will need further long-term research to answer.
“However, at a time when the profession is under more scrutiny than ever, this gives us yet another reason to believe that teacher wellbeing should be prioritised by policy makers and school leaders.”