Special and rehabilitation pedagogues are exposed to various situations during workday that can cause stress. With that, working professionals’ effectiveness declines and they are more likely to experience apathy. Therefore, relaxation techniques have a positive impact on stress regulation and affect certain hormones that play a role in memory and attention.
The aim of this paper was to explore, with the help of theoretical research, effects of relaxation techniques (including wakefulness) on attention, concentration, memory and motivation but mostly on work productivity of special and rehabilitation pedagogues. It also wishes to research how they tackle stress and how relaxation techniques affect their personal lives as well as their execution of individual consultations for additional support expertise. As for the methodology, a qualitative multiple case study approach and a descriptive method of pedagogical research were implemented. For the empirical part, questionnaires and half-structured interviews for special and rehabilitation pedagogues were used based on the literature studied. 7 female special and rehabilitation pedagogues from four different statistical regions of Slovenia participated in the study. Those participants practice additional support expertise in primary school and nursery. Their answers were analyzed qualitatively.
According to the results, majority of the participants interviewed do experience stress at the workplace. The causes for it are mainly external stressors, tied to the nature of the work. Only one interviewee reported not feeling stressed. Further data show that practicing relaxation techniques does not necessarily mean completely diminishing stress, however, it does impact how one tackles stressful situations. We discovered, special and rehabilitation pedagogues, whose work entails constantly moving, generally feel more stressful compared to others because of such working conditions. Data show practicing relaxation techniques does have a positive impact on one’s psychophysical health. The participants reported on having less headaches, being less tired, having more energy, better attention and concentration as well as motivation. However, we did not discover any correlations between length of service and age with practice of relaxation techniques and stress exposure. The use of relaxation techniques can also be implemented in certain sessions of additional support expertise. Results show, many special and rehabilitation pedagogues do not have time to practice more demanding techniques for relaxation during their workday but nevertheless try to implement shorter sessions, such as reorienting of thoughts and conversation. Based on their subjective views and personal experience, the participants reported not transmitting stress on students. However, we discovered that the quality of additional support expertise sessions is impacted by their level of stress. For that reason, they use simple exercises and techniques to diminish it. We also learned that certain wakefulness techniques have whether not yet been implemented in Slovene education system or not practiced by professionals in their daily lives. With this research, we found positive effects relaxation techniques use and their impact on the work of special and rehabilitation pedagogues and their students. We discovered that using different relaxation exercises impacts participants’ tackling with stress as well as enhances their attention and concentration.
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