U.S. Teachers Work More Hours Than Their Global Peers. Other Countries Are Catching Up
-
Loading... - benjamin square
- 06 Oct 2022
- 74 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
As districts across the country look for ways to recruit and retain more teachers, international data for the 2021-22 school year suggest looking to other countries for ideas on pay and supports.
In its new Education at a Glance 2022 data release, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation finds U.S. teachers at most grades spend more time working on average than their colleagues in other countries. However, elementary and secondary teachers globally have seen their workloads tick up closer to those of their American peers since the pandemic.
How Much Do Teachers and Principals Work, Worldwide?
In all but preschool, U.S. teachers tend to work more hours per year on average than do teachers across all countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to OECD data.
For example, U.S. elementary school teachers’ work hours haven’t changed much since 2019, but at more than 1,000 a year on average, American educators work more than 200 more hours than their peers worldwide. U.S. elementary and high school teachers work more hours than those in any OECD country but Costa Rica, and middle school teachers work more hours than their peers everywhere but Costa Rica and Mexico.
The report also found about half of OECD countries changed their laws around instruction to make it easier for students and teachers to use virtual learning, and the majority have increased teacher training for both remote instruction and technology use in the classroom.
“Probably we have seen more technological change in schools in the last two years than in the last 20 years before,” said Andreas Schleicher, OECD’s director for education and skills and special adviser on education policy to the secretary-general, in a briefing on the data earlier this week. As a result, teachers now spend more of their work time in direct instruction, and countries are dedicating more time to training teachers in how to use technology in their classrooms.
“Instruction time has increased, and it’s become much more targeted to ensuring that students do have opportunities to catch up,” Schleicher said. “You can see very clearly that enhanced provision of digital training for students is either in planning or in place. You can see also enhanced provision of in-service digital training to teachers.”
“That has been one of the main lessons: You can have great technology, but if it’s not effectively integrated in the pedagogical practice, it’s of limited use,” he said. Read More…
