The Fitness Fulcrum

1
The Fitness Fulcrum

• A Systematic Exploration of Managing Teacher
  Stress Through Exercise

2
Outline

• Reason for my choice of topic.
• Stress
• Bodys Response to Stress
• Effects on Schools and School Division
• Causes of Teacher Stress
• Rationale for Exercise
• Benefits
• Negative Aspects
• Division-wide Wellness Program
• With an Exercise Component

3
My Interest in Stress, 2001

• Principal
• Basketball ref (gt100 games)
• Masters Degree
• 2 classes from April-June, plus 3 weeks over the
  summer
• Family
• Those people who live in my house.
• Uncertain about my ability to return in the fall

4
Change in Attitude

• After 3 weeks at the U of L, I felt refreshed,
  renewed, and rejuvenated due to increased amount
  of physical activity.
• Lifting weights before classes.
• A 40 minute run after classes.
• I felt better at the end of summer than I did at
  the beginning.

5
At the Gym

• Significant number of teachers and administrators
  from my old division.
• How many were there when I wasnt?
• How many werent there?
• What effects could a comprehensive fitness
  program instituted on a Division wide basis have
  on teachers and teaching?
• Will it help alleviate stress?

6
Stress

• Factors that can cause physical, emotional, and
  behavioral disorders which can affect your
  health, vitality, peace-of-mind, as well as
  personal and professional relationships.
• National Mental Health Association, n.d.
• Internal or external conditions, incidents, or
  occurrences that cause the body to struggle.

7
Definitions

• Stressors those factors that cause stress.
• Distress negative form of stress.
• Eustress positive form of stress.
• Acute stress a stressful incident of a very
  large magnitude.
• Chronic stress stress of a long term,
  continuous nature.

8
Perceptions

• Stress occurs as a result of a perception of an
  event.
• Not objective, depends on the person.
• Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan, 2000
• Same event, different day (or person) may cause a
  different response.

9
Eustress

• Positive or curative stress.
• Can be important since it helps us react to
  situations by mobilizing our energy and
  motivating us to greater efforts and
  achievements.
• A factor in promoting and maintaining optimal
  health and performance in our personal and
  professional lives.
• ASEBP, 2000

10
Distress

• Negative stress.
• Does not have a severe negative effect on our
  bodies.
• The human body reacts the same way to all events
  that are perceived as stressful.

11
Acute Stress

• Acute stress arises from threats to our health
  and safety as well as both normal and
  catastrophic life events.
• ASEBP, 2000
• ASEBP indicates that serious stress related
  troubles are less like to develop due to large,
  life-altering stressors than people might think.

12
Acute Stress

• Uncomfortable and creates trying occurrences.
• Can usually deal with them without severe
  physical repercussions.
• Human body is designed to deal with them.

13
Chronic Stress

• Less extreme than acute stress.
• More likely to cause major health problems.
• Long term nature of continue stress response
  create serious consequences for health and
  well-being.

14
Stress Response

• Fight or flight syndrome.
• Threatening events cause physiological response
  to help humans run away from or defeat the cause
  of the threat.

15
Bodys Response to Stress

• Autonomic nervous and endocrine systems react.
• Cortisol, aldosterone, ephinephrine,
  norepinephrine, and thyroxine are released.
• Engs (1987)

16
Bodys Response to Stress
17
Stress Response

• No change from stressor to stressor.
• Our bodies react predictably and consistently to
  every event and circumstance we perceive as
  threatening our well being.
• ASEBP, 2000, p. 51

18
Chronic Stress

• Body is designed to return to normal after a
  stressful event.
• Biological processes, such as digestion,
  circulation, etc., are interfered with if the
  stress does not abate.
• Even though stress is a fact of life and cannot
  be eliminated, this normal human protective
  response for survival is linked with the
  development of many illnesses that claim the
  lives of countless people every year. The impact
  of excessive, prolonged, or poorly managed stress
  is far reaching.
• ASEBP, 2000, p. 49

19
Side Effects of Chronic Stress

• Reuters Health (2001) indicates that continued
  exposure to stressful conditions can result in a
  variety of physical, mental, and emotional
  problems.

20
Physical Side Effects

• Overstimulation of the autonomic nervous system.
• May lead to heart attacks, irritable bowel
  syndrome, and chronic headaches.
• Ulcers due to increased acid and decreased blood
  flow in digestive system.

21
Physical Side Effects

• Depressed immune response may contribute to other
  diseases since development of healthy T-cells is
  reduced.
• Infections, HIV and AIDS, Herpes, and Multiple
  Sclerosis.
• Rheumatoid arthritis aggravated by chronic stress.

22
Physical Side Effects

• Reuters Health (2001) lists the following
  conditions as associated with continuous
  distress.
• Allergies and skin disorders, sexual dysfunction
  and infertility, strokes, muscle and joint pain,
  and diabetes.
• Cardiovascular and musculoskeletal problems are
  also attributed to long term stress, due to
  decreased autoimmune response, increased muscle
  tension, and lack of energy.

23
Physical Side Effects

• Increased biochemical response to the presence of
  long term stressors, including higher than normal
  corticoid steroid hormones, may lead to
• Exhaustion, head or muscle aches, and the
  inability to sleep and/or improper sleeping
  patterns.
• Excessive cortisol levels can be characterized by
  rapid weight gain (esp. around middle), high
  blood pressure, and excessive fatigue.
• Alexander (2000)

24
Physical Side Effects

• Snowballing of physical symptoms and ailments.
• Stress researcher, Kenneth Pelletier, estimates
  as much as 70 percent 80 percent of many common
  health problems, from heart disease to cancer,
  the flu to the common cold, are associated with
  continuous stress. It is also thought to hasten
  aging.
• ASEBP, 2000, p. 49

25
Physical Side Effects

• The National Institute of Occupational Safety and
  Health (NIOSH, n.d) estimates that 75-90 percent
  of all visits to primary care physicians are for
  stress related problems.

26
Mental and Emotional Side Effects

• Depression and anxiety are related to increased
  levels of tension.
• Reuters Health (2001) 2/3 of subjects who
  experienced a stressful situation had nearly six
  times the chances of developing depression that
  month.

27
Mental and Emotional Side Effects

• Depersonalization, a feeling of unreality
  associated with anxiety and stress, can be caused
  by the stress response when people start to take
  deeper, more frequent breaths (hyperventilation
  and increased CO2 levels which lead to
  light-headedness, dizziness, and feeling of being
  outside their own body).
• Mayo Clinic (2003)

28
Mental and Emotional Side Effects

• Chronic stress and increased cortisol levels
  contribute to shrinkage in hippocampus area of
  brain, which is associated with memory.
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder subjects had 8
  decrease in hippocampus.
• Reuters Health (2001)
• Other studies indicate a 20-50 decrease in
  memory function due to stress.

29
Mental and Emotional Side Effects

• NIOSH (n.d.) suggests that mood swings and family
  problems are associated with episodes of chronic
  tension.

30
Mental and Emotional Side Effects

• As side effects build, we begin to lose physical,
  mental, and social functioning.
• This is the grinding stress that wears people
  away day after day, year after year. Chronic
  stress destroys bodies, minds and lives. It
  wreaks havoc through long-term attrition.
• American Psychological Association (1997)

31
Effects on Schools

• Although teacher stress has certainly existed as
  long as teaching, recognition of a serious morale
  problem among teachers in this country has become
  more explicit in the last twenty to thirty
  years.
• Farber, 1991, p. 2

32
Burnout

• Pattern of exhaustion one experiences when
  subjected to unavoidable pressures at the same
  time that there do not appear to be available
  sources of satisfaction.
• Moss (1981), cited by Quick and Quick, (1984)

33
Burnout

• Burnout is a work-related syndrome that stems
  from an individuals perception of a significant
  discrepancy between effort (input) and reward
  (output), this perception being influenced by
  individual, organizational, and social factors.
  It occurs most often in those who work face to
  face with troubled or needy clients and is
  typically marked by withdrawal from and cynicism
  towards clients, emotional and physical
  exhaustion, and various psychological symptoms,
  such as irritability, anxiety, sadness, and
  lowered self-esteem.
• Farber 1991, p. 24

34
Costs of Teacher Stress

• According to Quick and Quick, 1984, there are
  direct and indirect costs.

35
Direct Costs

• Absenteeism, expense of staff turnover and
  training, compensation awards and benefits, and
  the decreased productivity and efficiency of an
  individual.
• Classroom stress awards have already been awarded
  in the following amounts 47,000 (Joseph, 2000)
  and 250,000 (Jarvis, 2002).

36
Direct Costs

• Teachers stress may have an impact on teachers
  as individuals, on the schools in which they work
  and on the pupils they teach. It is also
  estimated to have an economic impact on the
  education system in terms of lost teaching time
  and additional costs of replacement teachers.
  Unfortunately, it is difficult to quantify these
  costs because reported effects may actually be
  strategies to help teachers cope and it would be
  unsafe to assume that those who report no
  symptoms are necessarily stress free.
• Scottish Council of Research in Education, 2002

37
Direct Costs

• The human and financial costs of stress for
  individuals and workplaces are tremendous.
  Allocating a specific portion of the cost of any
  disease to stress is difficult because it is only
  one of many factors in a chain of events that
  leads to illness, but the estimated costs
  associated with stress in Canada are in the
  billions of dollars annually.
• (ASEBP, 2000, p. 49)
• At 143.18/day, it doesnt take long for the
  costs of absent teachers to add up.

38
Direct Costs

• Job performance decreases. When stress becomes
  distress because the degree has passed the
  optimum level for the individual, then either the
  quality or the quantity of the employees work
  suffers, or both.
• Quick and Quick, 1984, p. 86

39
Direct Costs

• Teachers who experience burnout are less
  sympathetic toward students, are less committed
  to and involved in their jobs, have a lower
  tolerance for classroom disruption, are less apt
  to prepare adequately for class, and are
  generally less productive.
• Leithwood, cited in Dyck, 2001

40
Loss of Teachers

• There is little doubt that one of the major
  problems facing the teacher profession is the
  large number of teachers who decide to leave the
  profession after only a few years of service and
  those who continue but who become disaffected.
• Kyriacou, 2001, p. 33

41
Teacher Loss

• Some teachers are tired of the stress, and
  burning out. Some leave the profession.
• Many younger teachers are burning out early,
  leaving in less than 5 years. Farber (1991)
  indicates between 40-50.
• As well, Farber cites a source stating that
  around ¼ of our teachers are considering leaving
  in the next 5 years.

42
Direct Costs

• Teacher training.
• Loss of skilled veterans.
• Failure to attract new teachers.

43
Indirect Costs

• Lower productivity of others in the organization,
  and inability to maintain proper communication.
• Loss of school climate.
• Increased stress on those left behind.

44
Teacher Shortages

• ¼ of Ontario teachers will retire by 2003, ½ by
  2008 (CTF, 1999) 77,000 jobs.
• BBC (2001) indicates teacher shortages in the
  U.K. are at their worst level in decades.
• CTF (1999) suggests a shortage of primary and
  secondary school teachers in Australia.
• U.S. is facing the largest teacher shortage in
  history, needing 200,000 teachers per year for
  the next ten years (Phi Delta Kappan, cited in
  CTF, 1999)

45
Alberta Shortages

• PWC Consulting states that there is not a teacher
  shortage in Alberta.
• However, in their study
• 78 respondents said that retirements in next 5
  years would impact teacher shortages.
• 75 said that fewer graduates from education
  programs would impact teacher shortages

46
Alberta Shortages

• CASS (College of Alberta School Superintendents,
  2001) survey found that
• 94 of respondents had trouble filling sr. high
  science positions.
• 88 had trouble filling sr. math positions.
• 84 had trouble with CTS positions.

47
Increased Trouble

• With a worldwide shortage of teachers, fewer
  graduates, the continued loss of skilled veterans
  and idealistic rookies is a recipe for disaster.
• We must find a way to maintain the staff that we
  do have.
• Active measures are necessary.

48
Causes of Stress For Teachers

• Jarvis (2002) breaks causal factors into 3 main
  areas
• Factors intrinsic to teaching.
• Cognitive factors affecting the individual.
• Systemic factors at institutional and political
  level.

49
Factors Intrinsic to Teaching

• Workload and long working hours (Jarvis, 2002,
  Arnold, 2002, SCRE, Naylor, 2001a, Michelson
  Harvey, 2000, and Stinnett, 1970)
• Teaching complexity inclusion of special needs
  students, larger class sizes, disruptive
  students, and curriculum changes. (Friesen, 1990)
• Decrease in fiscal support. (CMEC, 1996)

50
Cognitive Vulnerability

• Sense of self-efficacy and self-defeating
  beliefs.
• Coping styles low social support,
  disengagement, and suppression of competing
  activities lead to higher stress.
• (Jarvis, 2002)

51
Systemic Factors

• Implementing curriculum change.
• Implementing policies you disagree with.
• Changing provincial policies regarding programs.
• Media treatment of teaching profession.
• Friesen, 1990 and Naylor, 2001b

52
Rationale for Exercise as a Stress Management Tool

• Active role to prevent loss through burnout.
• While we try to make second order changes to the
  system, we must make first order changes to help
  individuals cope.
• Teacher health and well-being is a key area.
• The most common individually oriented approaches
  include activities that fall within the category
  of stress-reduction techniques meditation,
  relaxation training, jogging, swimming, and other
  forms of physical exercise.
• Farber, 1991, p. 298

53
Importance of Exercise

• The popularity of physical exercise as a means
  of stress management is reflected in the fact
  that nearly every recent publication on stress
  management includes discussion on physical
  exercise.
• Quick and Quick, 1984, p. 249
• Without ongoing attention to the maintenance of
  the health of our bodies, minds and spirits, it
  is a lot easier for unhealthy stress to take its
  toll on our overall wellness.
• Hammill, Moxey, OHalloran, Thede, p. 24

54
Athletic Training for Teaching

• Domenech (1996) suggests that being an
  administrator is like being an athlete. Peak
  performance requires mental and physical stamina.
• We must train ourselves and our teachers to
  prepare for pressure.

55
Useful Tool

• Exercise will help, but is not a panacea.
• Continue to work to reduce stress causation.
• Use other techniques to benefit teachers in the
  short term.
• Teaching diverse segments of the population to
  use exercise as a stress-management technique
  provides an effective, efficient, and inexpensive
  approach to health enhancement. As Selye (1975)
  noted nearly a generation ago, stress management
  is critical to pursuing the well-lived life.
  (Berger, 1994, p. 113)

56
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• WHO active lifestyle is an important way of
  maintaining personal health and well being.
  (Grantham, 1997)

57
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• Elevates metabolism.
• Increased aerobic capacity, strength, stamina,
  endurance, flexibility, mobility, speed, power,
  coordination, and reaction time.
• Decreases blood pressure.
• Increases break down of fat, promoting weight
  control.

58
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• Improved appetite control.
• Increases HDL cholesterol (the good kind) and
  decreases total blood cholesterol.
• Improves heart efficiency.
• Increases hemoglobin concentrations in blood.
• Increases bone strength, helping to prevent
  osteoporosis.

59
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• Helps build and maintain healthy bones, muscles,
  and joints.
• Increases the number and enlarges the size of
  blood vessels in the heart and other muscles.
• Decreases triglyceride levels in blood stream.
• Improves control of blood sugar.
• Improves digestion.
• Increased physical work capacity.

60
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• Increased joint range of motion or flexibility.
• Boosts immune function, helping ward off colds
  and other illnesses.
• Reduces risk of premature death, and risk of
  death from heart disease.
• Reduces risk of developing colon and breast
  cancer.
• Reduces the risk of stroke.
• Reduces risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

61
Physical Benefits of Exercise

• Enhances capacity to handle physical stress.
• Improved energy levels.
• Helps prevent injury.
• Increased chance of better quality of life.
• List adapted from Berger, 1994 American
  Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Landry
  Center for Disease Control Canadian Fitness and
  Lifestyle Research Institute the Mayo Clinic
  the National Institutes of Health, 1997 and
  Georgia State University.

62
Physical Benefits

• By preventing physiological problems and many
  diseases, it is clear that exercise is a powerful
  deterrent to lost time and decreased productivity
  since physically active people at all ages
  exhibit fewer health problems than the very
  sedentary.
• Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research
  Institute, Getting the words straight.

63
Mental and Emotional Benefits

• Improved body function, improved mental and
  emotional function.
• Reverses many mental afflictions including
• Anxiety, depression.
• Improves self-esteem, self-concept, and
  self-efficacy.
• Improves sleep patterns, cognitive ability,
  well-being, quality of life, mood, and ability to
  recover more quickly from psychosocial stressors.

64
Mental and Emotional Benefits

• Creates self-discipline.
• Increases likelihood of participation in
  individual, social, and community activities.
• Great effect on decreasing stress.
• Adapted from Landers Berger (1994) Reid, Dyck,
  McKay, Frisby (2000)

65
Negative Aspects of Exercise

• Not a cure all.
• Will not get rid of stress, just helps deal with
  the problems associated with it.
• Self-diagnosis/prescription of exercise is
  dangerous.
• Not the only method.
• Focus on dealing with the issue.

66
Negative Aspects of Exercise

• Inherent risks to being active.
• Especially for sedentary individuals.
• Exercise addiction.
• Danger of over-training.
• Exercise withdrawal.

67
Proposal for Wellness Program

• Active measures.
• Stress its importance.
• Allocate dollars.
• Gym memberships, fitness purchases, purchase
  plans
• Revenue neutral? Minor costs.
• Promotion and advertising.
• Administrators must model the behaviour.
• RDPS promotion.
• Creativity and flexibility.

68
Proposal for Wellness Program

• Incorporate into PD/Three Year Plans.
• Wellness goals in TPGP.
• PD presentations on exercise, nutrition, stress
  reduction, etc.
• Create a culture of physical fitness.
• Embrace the idea that being fit is important.
• Try new things.
• Celebrate successes.

69
Conclusion

• Stress is on the rise, and so are stress related
  illnesses and complaints.
• Chronic stress is the main problem, creating
  physical, psychological, and emotional ailments
  which can then lead to burnout.
• Teacher loss is increasing.
• Replacing teachers lost to stress or retirement
  is getting more difficult.

70
Conclusion

• Must mount an active campaign to deal with the
  symptoms of stress while we work to relieve the
  causes of stress.
• Exercise is one of many ways to deal with stress.
  
• It is an excellent method because it has
  physical, mental, and emotional benefits to the
  health and well-being of educators.
• Division wide exercise initiatives can be started
  as part of a comprehensive teacher wellness plan.