May 2025
Key Takeaways:
- Brief interventions can support highly committed teachers but require targeting
- Early career intervention timing is critical, but content must be appropriate
New teachers often experience a "reality shock" as they awaken to the disparity between their own professional expectations and the realities of teaching. LRDC Research Scientist and Associate Professor, School of Education, Brian Galla and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania tested a novel, easy to implement, online intervention for beginning teachers, administered during their first year of teaching - a time that typically does not include a focus on the development of teachers' social and emotional competencies (SECs) and adaptive mindsets' orientations toward teaching
Using a randomized controlled trial with 119 first-year K-12 classroom teachers from three graduate education programs, researchers examined whether a 30-minute wise intervention — featuring teacher testimonials and reflective writing exercises — could improve teachers' mindsets, well-being, and commitment to teaching.
Results showed no main effects of the intervention on outcomes measured immediately after treatment or at six-month follow-up. However, exploratory subgroup analyses revealed that highly committed teachers who underwent the intervention were more likely to hold a resilient mindset, a growth orientation toward teaching, and have greater self-efficacy six months following the intervention compared to highly committed teachers in the control group.
Baelen, R. N., Galla, B., & Maynard, R. A. (2025). Investigating a brief intervention to instill a self-compassionate perspective in teaching: A randomized field experiment with first-year classroom teachers. Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.
