Home > Leaders > Leaders' Library > Teacher Development > Teacher Development Survey > Results: Questions & Data

Results of the Survey: Questions and Data

Characterization of current approaches to preparing and supporting teachers.

When asked to respond to the request, "Briefly describe the content you focus on in your current approach to preparing and supporting teachers in your program," religious educators presented summary responses that painted a picture of both content and process. Some comments include:

"Teachers learn by "doing" in our teacher training. We don't just talk about children's worship, we start with one, we play games for them to learn that they will then bring to the classes, we go on a scavenger hunt around the church to locate, rooms, and supplies. We also give everyone a teacher handbook, with outlines of their responsibilities and material about different kinds of learning styles, and developmental stages."
"Team building ...Inspiration ...Safe Congregations issues/policies ...Classroom management ...Ritual/worship in the classroom ...Ages and stages ...Curriculum specific issues ...Logistical issues ...The how-tos and data issues .... These topics are covered in three types of trainings: 1) Team trainings for all team members to talk about ages and stages, their specific curriculum, specific concerns and issues, room use, and communications; 2) All leader orientation which includes team building, inspiration, worship, safe congregations issues, and general new information; and 3) New leader orientation which includes all the how-to stuff that returning leaders already know. This is also a time for reassurance, and more questions and answers. Leaders are encouraged to focus on their class members and to a lesser extent on the material to be presented. Most preparation work is done by staff and committee members to help facilitate the ability of leaders to focus on the class itself."
"My approach is through memory. I invite those who are teaching for the first time to recall something they have learned and the details surrounding that learning. It may be from any time in their lives from learning to tie their shoes, riding a bike, learning quantum physics, anything. Invariably, they recall a person who was involved and the qualities and characteristics exhibited by that person or they identify some personal strength if they were learning alone, although independent learning is rarely recalled. Then we talk about the implications of that learning on how they will be with the children or youth of our congregation. The conclusion that usually emerges from these conversations is that they need to remember to model the kind of behaviors, attitudes, etc., that they valued. They need to be the kind of adults that they wish the children to become."
"I encourage them to be creative, and to use curricula only as a guide. I encourage them to let the kids teach them and to be flexible about the RE time so as to take into account what is going on personally for the kids, and in the community. They can simply have worship with the kids, sharing time, candles, songs, and conversation. It's multi-aged and usually very meaningful."

What is the current focus of teacher training and support efforts?

Summary. What is religious educators' primary focus in their current approach to training and supporting teachers? Religious educators indicated that they always address:

Safe Congregations Guidelines (64.2%)
Logistics (57.5%)
Unitarian Universalism (49.1%)
Team Teaching (47.7%)
Classroom Management (39.3%)
Curriculum (32.1%)
Supplies (30.5%)
Developmental Characteristics of Children and Youth (25.2%)
Worship (25.2%)
Families (15%)
Adult (teacher) Spiritual Development (15%)
Anti-bias Education (12.6%)

When asked to rank their top five priorities in their current approach to preparing and supporting teachers, religious educators similarly responded: Unitarian Universalism, curriculum, team teaching; classroom management; and logistics. Covering the pragmatic, essential elements of the faith development program are indicated as the priorities of current teacher training and support practices.

Details. Analyzing the closed-ended questions in light of the qualitative data revealed a gap. The underlying pulse of many teacher training and support efforts—a call to envision and embody teaching as spiritual practice—is obscured in participants' item-by-item responses. When asked to write freely in response to the open-ended question, "What is the current content for training and supporting teachers?" respondents consistently emphasized their commitment to helping teachers see and find meaning in their work. In their open-ended writing, adult faith development was a palpable priority for religious educators.

"I'm focusing primarily on format rather than content as we are using small group ministry this year.... I train teachers by leading them through the process. During these sessions we have focused on talents they bring to working with children as well as how/when they came to Unitarian Universalism."
"I periodically take a survey of questions to evaluate how the year is going. The evaluation has the teachers rate their experiences on a scale of 1-10 and provides a place for comments about each question: 1. To what extent has this teaching experience deepened your relationship with one or more child/youth? 2. To what extent has this teaching experience deepened your relationship with one or more other adult? 3. To what extent has this teaching experience deepened your sense of belonging to this community? 4. To what extent has this teaching experience given you new knowledge or insights about your faith? That's how I judge success."
"In teacher training, I talk about teaching as ministry. More important than the curriculum is modeling to our young how to be in right relationship with each other. Also, there is the importance of providing a safe space to question and explore together. We learn from each other. The teacher is learner is teacher. Learning is a lifelong process. Don't be afraid to say you don't know the answer."

The challenge or tension revealed by religious educators is between their commitment to creating and deepening teaching as a faith development experience for teachers and their commitment to covering information and materials that ensure the operation of the religious education program.

What are the current formats used for teacher training and support?

Summary. What formats do religious educators use to engage teachers in training and support? The majority of religious educators provide written materials, including some guidelines on teaching and curriculum. Many provide communication venues including feedback forms, email, meetings upon request, and periodic newsletter or updates. Almost all respondents indicated that they provide one or more teaching training/orientation session for volunteer teachers, with many offering repeated trainings.

Participants said that they always encourage teachers to engage in or with:

Written Materials (including handbooks, book, articles) (75%)
Group Training Sessions (67.3%)
Opportunities for Written Reflection (43.3%)
Specific curricular Trainings (e.g. OWL) (42.2%)
Workshops (28.2%)
Teaching Team Meetings (27.9%)
Intergenerational Programs (24.5%)
Individual Meetings with teachers and religious educator (13.5%)
Mentorships (11.7%)
UU Weeklong Camps or Conferences (11.7%)
Renaissance Modules (10.6%)
Retreats for religious education teachers (8.8%)
General Assembly (8.8%)
Small Group Ministry (5.8%)
Local community and/ or academic workshops (4.9%)

Details. In addition to assessing how often they engage teachers with specific practices or materials, religious educators commented freely and frequently. The need to balance resources of time, money, and efforts was evident. A sample of comments is offered below.

Comments about Written Materials and Opportunities for Written Reflection include:

"I give out a handbook that has the church and classroom policies, information on multiple intelligences, information on spiritual development of children and access to stuff in my library."
"Each teacher receives a complete curriculum, a syllabus and materials each week in the classroom to supplement the lesson."
"I give teachers a letter from me each week with room for them to write back to me. Few use it—but it is always fresh and available."

Comments about Group Training Sessions, Individual Meetings, and Team Teaching Meetings include:

"I do one large training at the beginning of the year and offer monthly sessions as well."
"I hold these kinds of group meetings annually: Team Meetings for each group of teachers focusing on team communication, nuts and bolts, and the contents of the Teacher Manual; Teacher Rally Day focusing on philosophy and UU theology in a worship setting and team meetings; New Teacher Training for those new to teaching covering classroom management, child faith development, team building, and philosophy; Workshops on special topics such as arts in the classroom or communication with teens and OWL Training or youth advisor trainings."
"I don't meet in person with individual teachers unless I need to. I did many individual trainings to accommodate volunteer work schedules. Although we don't meet in person, we have e-mail lists where I communicate on a weekly basis with all my teachers."
"I'm always available to meet with individuals to develop lesson ideas. Several newer teachers rely on this individual time together."
"Generally I get the teams up and moving and meet with them as needed."

Comments on Specific Curricular Trainings, Workshops, GA, and Renaissance Modules include:

"We train OWL facilitators and youth advisors each year. There are fewer opportunities for training for teachers of young children."
"We do trainings only when necessary, like with OWL. It's expensive."
"Often teachers are resistant to put in any more time by the time workshops roll around. Occasionally though I have really committed teachers who get interested in these opportunities."
"I have encouraged RE Committee members to attend Renaissance Modules." "Renaissance Modules are too long for most teachers."
"GA is a very expensive way to support teachers, so if they want to go for their own reasons I would encourage it, but I don't push it as a training opportunity."

Comments on Intergenerational Programs and Mentorships include:

"We do not have a lot of intergenerational events, but I encourage them—including social action projects, intergenerational worship, and fellowship events."
"We do multi-generational worship services once an month and teachers are encouraged to help plan and participate in many of them."
"When we have a new teacher, we pair him or her with an experienced teacher. This is not formal mentorship, however. I just make sure it happens."
"As we develop master teachers in program areas they mentor new leaders each year in their area."

Comments on Small Group Ministry include:

"I think that Small Group Ministry may be the key to keeping teachers from feeling burned out and cut off from the rest of the church because this gives them the opportunity for a spiritual component ."
"It is very difficult to move people from thinking of teaching as just a volunteer job to thinking of it as an opportunity for their own faith development. I take advantage of whatever opportunities I have to use a small group ministry format with teachers, knowing that it really enhances the their own experience. There is, however, resistance on the part of over-scheduled people to spending time doing that."

What do volunteer teachers request for support and training?

Summary. Many religious educators indicated that volunteers do not request any specific support. Analysis of this open-ended question revealed that when seeking support volunteer teachers most often ask for resources on management issues, curriculum, child development, and the connection between what they are teaching and Unitarian Universalism. Some teachers seek stories to use with children or worship materials. Many want help with specific children, including those with designated special needs. Volunteer teachers are very busy. Many religious educators indicated that teachers seem to want "less" rather than "more" from Sunday mornings, while others struggle with finding room for their own spiritual work. Categorizing and tallying the items mentioned in the open-ended question, we found the following areas most frequently mentioned:

Management
Curriculum
Child development
Connection between religious education and Unitarian Universalism
More art & music resources
Integrating children with special needs
Background information on sessions
UU Stories and/or picture books
Spiritual aspects of teaching

Details. Comments from religious educators about what their volunteer teachers request include:

" There are rarely specific requests. Most often teachers express lack of confidence in expressing their own sense of Unitarian Universalism. Classroom management is also a recurring issue."
"They all wish they knew more. People who are not teachers during the week ask for feedback."
"They want curriculum, supplies, and some developmental stages of faith."
"Behavior management/classroom management—anything to do with this, except they don't want to be handed an article. They want to know how to motivate children so that every child is enjoying and getting something out of RE."
"They want more self-guide resources."
"Teachers ask for logistics support; how to incorporate into the program diversity or children and special needs; and workshops on curriculum enhancements—using stories, games, and music."
"They would like every item for a lesson to be provided (busy people). They would like a teachers' meeting that actually took no time (busy people)."
"They want to know: What can I do Sunday morning? How can I find time to do my own spiritual work?"

What are religious educators' future visions for providing teacher training and support?

Summary. Part, but not all, of religious educators' ideal future visions is realized in their current approaches to provide teacher training and support. Overwhelmingly, religious educators expressed interest in providing more relational, group forums, that would afford teachers the opportunity to deepen their spiritual connection to teaching and to each other. The yearning to provide forums for teacher reflection which frame teaching as ministry is clear. In addition, religious educators seek ways to streamline the provision of needed pragmatic resources for teaching, including online or CD resources to learn about Unitarian Universalism, child development, group management, and other topics. Religious educators indicated that they would ideally offer :

Small Group Ministry (75.8%)
Trainings, such as OWL trainings (72.4%)
Workshops (71.3%)
Online Learning Opportunities (70.5%)
Videos for home learning (67%)
Meetings of teachers with religious educator (65.9%)
CDs on topics for home learning (65.9%)
Articles and books (64.8%)
Intergenerational programs (63.7%)

Details. When asked to reflect on their future visions for training and supporting teachers, religious educators wrote fluently and often elegantly. Religious educators hold many ideas, nested in their strong belief that teaching can be a journey of faith. Some comments on specific areas include:

Comments on Small Group Ministry include:

"This is a great way to provide opportunities for teachers to connect at a deeper level versus a training workshop which is useful but is on a more intellectual level."
"Teachers miss church services—Small Group Ministry would fill in some of the gaps."
"To create a group of just teachers might just exacerbate the complaint that RE is cut off from the rest of the church."
"I would like to get these going for parents and teachers to talk together."

Comments on Trainings, such as OWL trainings and Workshops include:

"More curriculum training to develop experts on specific curriculum would be good."
"If it's affordable...coming of age, teacher training, youth leadership and multiple learning styles workshops would be good."
"I would love a workshop on being a UU without baggage from previous religious traditions."
"Yes, I would like workshops on anything related to teacher development and social action."
"I would love to get my teachers involved in district conferences. As they feel less stressed and overwhelmed with their commitments for teaching, I think they will be more open to this."
"Workshops on teaching with spirituality would be good."
"In an ideal world, we would have a week-long retreat each summer to explore with each other our own spirituality and sense of mission. We would create a vision for the upcoming year as well as prepare for Sunday mornings. The faculty would emerge as a cohesive group energized to minister to our children."

Comments on Online Learning Opportunities, Videos and CDs for home learning include:

"This is absolutely essential—one of the best ways to deliver training to some volunteers."
"Absolutely, if it is quality stuff."
"I would love videos if they were extremely well done."
"I would love to use videos in my teacher trainings and make them available for check out."
"CDs would be an excellent way for my volunteers to learn. They currently borrow the taped sermons when they are scheduled to teach and miss one."
"All these things could enhance curricula and enrich teachers' experiences."
"Great! How about some UU identity stuff for teachers as well as for families."
"CDs and videos are okay, but online materials have the advantage of potentially linking teachers together—cross fertilization."

Comments on Meetings of teachers with religious educator include:

"I would like gatherings to discuss specific topics, not just the logistics of Sunday morning."
"I would love to do this if I had more hours."
"This would be so nice, but logistically a nightmare. Our teaching teams are 8-24 people!"
"We do this."

Comments on Articles and books include:

"It would be great to have a published collection of UU teacher basics, which congregations could provide to new teachers.
"I would especially like to offer them inspiration and empowerment."
"We do this already, but more resources would be great."
"Sure we would like articles. They are easy to distribute. But, will they get read without some group interaction?"

Comments on Intergenerational programs include:

"We offer intergenerational services, but I would love to see some family life education offerings because when families learn together, it is special."
"This is for the entire congregation, not just families."
"We already do this and can expand this."

Overall, religious educators have future visions of at-home learning resources from which teachers can learn UU "basics" and information about children, faith, and Unitarian Universalism. Additionally, religious educators envision supporting teachers through focused discussion and sharing. Specifically, they are interested in small group ministry and its possibilities for deepening teachers' experiences. Workshops and other trainings are also pivotal parts of religious educators' ideal future visions.

The survey results demonstrate a commitment to claiming teaching as both a ministry and as a faith enriching experience. Streamlining ways of attending to the important pragmatics of teaching and adding relational forums that affirm teachers' spiritual journeys are religious educators' priorities. When asked to share "their thoughts" at the close of the survey, religious educators provided many comments including:

"I believe teaching is one of the best ways to truly explore what our UU faith is about ...I'm trying to get teachers to say this now and am working to find ways to bring teaching before the congregation so they also know that this is a ministry we hold in high esteem."
"Teachers need to see their teaching as a spiritual practice. We must provide training and support which balances the intellectual and logistical aspects of what we do with the spiritual and pastoral care component of what we do when we work with children. It is not just teaching or facilitating, it is sharing who we are and how we live as UUs."
"Teaching needs to be defined as a ministry, and not a small group one, but a central ministry of the church. I am not knocking small group ministry, but am wary of piggy backing on another movement when we should be creating our own."
"The more teaching can be ministry and not a chore or job or one more thing in an already busy life, the better it will be for everyone."

Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.