Professionally SpeakingThe Magazine of the Ontario College of Teachers
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In this issue

Upfront

Departments

Features

Cyberbullying

by Beatrice Schriever

 Full Article

State of the Profession 2007

by Lois Browne

 Full Article

Survey Results 

 Full Article

Do North!

by Wendy Harris

 Full Article

Does the Torch Burn Bright?

by Leanne Miller

 Full Article

Resources

Governing Ourselves

 
State of the Teaching Profession 2007

State of the Teaching Profession Survey Results

Survey conducted by COMPAS Inc.

Question wording presented below has been modified for brevity. See the full survey at State of the Teaching Profession 2007 (PDF).

Methodology: Professionally Speaking commissioned COMPAS Inc – a public opinion and customer research firm – to conduct a representative sample survey via telephone of more than 1,000 teachers during July. The overall results are deemed accurate to within 3.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20. Results for French-language respondents are deemed accurate to within 6.2 percentage points 19 times out of 20. French-language respondents were drawn from members who have chosen to communicate with the College in French.

Rounding: Due to rounding rules concerning survey results, percentages for some questions may not add up to 100 per cent.

Cyberbullying

As you know, there’s been some talk in the media about cyberbullying, where students publish obscene or defamatory pictures or statements online for the purpose of hurting others.

To what extent has each of the following experienced cyberbullying?

All Respondents

    definitely experienced definitely not  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
yourself personally 4.7 84 3 3 2 5 4
other teachers or administrators in your school 3.7 41 16 11 9 12 11
your students 3.3 33 11 14 12 18 11
students in your school 2.7 16 13 19 17 25 10

French-language Respondents

    definitely experienced definitely not  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
yourself personally 4.8 93 0 7 0 0 0
other teachers or administrators in your school 3.6 38 19 19 13 13 0
your students 3.3 21 21 29 21 7 0
students in your school 2.9 14 7 43 21 14 0

In what form have those incidents of cyberbullying typically occurred?

  1. e-mail
  2. chatroom or bashboard content
  3. content on personal web sites or blogs
  4. text messaging
  5. photographs or video clips
  6. personal voting-booth web sites

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

How serious are each of the following types of cyberbullying in e-mail or on a web site? 

    very serious not serious  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
criticism of a teacher’s clothing, appearance or mannerisms 2.3 8 12 21 21 35 3
criticism of a teacher’s fairness in grading 2.3 6 10 24 26 31 3
a subtle threat of physical harm 1.9 9 7 8 13 61 3
malicious gossip  1.8 5 6 11 21 54 3
an explicit threat of physical harm 1.7 10 6 6 5 71 3

Insofar as you can tell, to what extent does cyberbullying contribute to:

All Respondents

    definitely contributes definitely not  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
teachers leaving the profession prematurely 3.2 20 19 19 14 13 15
students dropping out of school 2.9 12 16 21 10 15 16
decreased classroom quality 2.7 10 13 24 23 20 10
decreased job satisfaction among teachers 2.7 11 15 21 22 22 10
students performing poorly 2.5 8 10 22 26 24 11

French-language Respondents

    definitely contributes definitely not  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
teachers leaving the profession prematurely 2.7 10 14 28 16 22 11
students dropping out of school 2.7 9 16 24 20 19 12
decreased classroom quality 2.7 10 13 28 23 19 8
decreased job satisfaction among teachers 2.5 6 12 25 25 22 10
students performing poorly 2.6 9 13 23 23 21 10

Which of the following opinions about the school’s or board’s role in protecting teachers from cyberbullying is closest to your own?

  1. School or boards should sanction students involved in harassing teachers online.
  2. Most or all incidents of cyberbullying should be reported to the police.
  3. There’s not much that schools or boards can do to protect teachers from students harassing them online.

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

(pie chart)

Which of the following best describes your school’s position on cyberbullying?

  1. There are formal, well understood rules with potential consequences.
  2. There may be formal rules but they are not widely understood.
  3. There are informal rules.
  4. There are no rules.

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Which of the following opinions on students harassing students with cyberbullying is closest to your own?

  1. Schools or boards should sanction students involved in harassing other students online.
  2. Most or all incidents of cyberbullying should be reported to the police.
  3. There’s not much that schools or boards can do to protect students from other students harassing them online.

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Which of the following statements best describes any policy that your school or board may have on how students may communicate on the Internet and web sites or in e-mail and chat rooms?

  1. There are formal, well understood rules with potential consequences.
  2. There may be formal rules but they are not widely understood.
  3. There are informal rules.
  4. There are no rules.

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Do you communicate with parents by e-mail?

  1. never
  2. occasionally
  3. regularly

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Do you communicate with your students by e-mail?

  1. never
  2. occasionally
  3. regularly

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Which of the following describes your school’s or board’s policy on teacher-student e-mail communication?

  1. There are formal, well understood rules with potential consequences.
  2. There may be formal rules but they are not widely understood.
  3. There are informal rules.
  4. There are no rules.

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Career satisfaction

How satisfied are you with:

    very satisfied very dissatisfied  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
your teaching career 4.2 39 44 11 3 2 1
the job you are personally doing 4.1 34 44 11 4 2 5
the school you work in 4.0 36 34 16 5 2 7
the teaching profession as a whole 3.9 23 50 22 3 1 *
the quality of Ontario’s education system 3.5 8 46 37 6 2 1

* greater than zero and less than 0.5

Score the seriousness of each of the following challenges confronting schools in Ontario today.

    most serious Least serious  
  MEAN 5 4 3 2 1 DNK
standardized testing 2.9 11 18 31 20 17 4
condition of school facility 2.9 12 20 31 23 14 *
school safety 2.9 9 22 31 23 15 *
classroom management 2.8 8 20 32 28 13 *
inadequate time for classroom instruction 2.8 10 18 28 28 15 1
lack of resources 2.8 7 19 31 27 15 1
professional development to support diversified classrooms 2.8 6 20 34 26 12 2
lack of parental support 2.7 6 17 33 26 17 1
unrealistic expectations 2.6 4 15 32 29 19 1
lack of respect for the profession 2.5 4 16 29 32 19 *
integration of children with specialized needs 2.5 6 12 27 29 25 1

* greater than zero and less than 0.5

Thinking about how your career might develop over the next five years, how likely is it that you will be a teacher in five years’ time?

  1. very
  2. somewhat
  3. not really
  4. not at all
  5. has left for another occupation

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

How likely are you to retire within five years?

  1. very
  2. somewhat
  3. not really
  4. not at all
  5. is retired

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Rank the following professions in order of most to least respected by the public.

    most respected least respected  
  Grand score 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th NA
doctors 96 89 8 2 1 * 1 0
accountants 24 4 27 36 27 5 2 *
lawyers 17 3 38 20 16 9 15 *
teachers 16 3 25 33 26 7 5 0
real-estate agents -75 * 2 6 15 42 35 0
insurance agents -80 * 1 3 15 37 44 *

* greater than zero and less than 0.5

Do you perceive licensed teachers as receiving professional recognition in the community that is commensurate with their education and contributions?

  1. definitely
  2. probably
  3. probably not
  4. definitely not

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Quality of education

Insofar as you can tell, compared to five years ago has classroom quality improved, stayed the same or declined?

  1. improved
  2. stayed the same
  3. declined

DNK (do not know/no opinion)
(pie chart) (pie chart)

Insofar as you can tell, has the policy of a primary-class size cap been implemented in practice?

  1. definitely
  2. probably
  3. probably not
  4. definitely not

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

Insofar as you can tell, has the policy of a primary-class size cap of 20 students had a positive effect on the quality of teaching in the system?

  1. definitely
  2. probably
  3. probably not
  1. definitely not

DNK (do not know/no opinion)
(pie chart) (pie chart)

Supply and demand

To what extent is there an oversupply issue facing the teaching profession?

MEAN 2.7

 (pie chart)

There are reports that 8,000 more new teachers are licensed each year in Ontario than the number of teachers retiring from the profession. How aware are you of this?

  1. very aware
  2. somewhat aware
  3. not really aware
  4. not at all aware

DNK (do not know/no opinion)

 (pie chart)

How important is it to control the number of newly licensed teachers to a volume that can be absorbed by the education system?

MEAN 2.2

* greater than zero and less than 0.5

 (pie chart)

Given the shortage of teachers in French, math, science and technology, to what extent would you support a targeted enrolment strategy at faculties of education?

MEAN 2.1

 (pie chart)