Reflective Practice and Job Satisfaction in Classroom Management and Discipline / Refleksivna praksa i zadovoljstvo poslom u upravljanju razredom

Abstract Classroom management and discipline (CMD) is most often mentioned as an area of educational work in which teachers experience the most difficulties and at the same time feel the least qualified for, both during their formal education and training for the profession of a teacher as well as in their later professional training. The aim of this paper was to determine the impact of Reflective Practice (RP) on the level of job satisfaction in the field of classroom management and discipline after a professional training. The research included lower elementary and subject teachers who wished to participate in the research, i.e. those who applied voluntarily for one of the two offered professional training programmes: Classroom management and discipline and / or How to introduce changes into practice. Before making their choice, the teachers were familiarized with the content and method of work: the former programme was based on lecturing and the latter, in addition to the lecture, included participation in the workshop on reflective practice and one-month implementation of reflective practice in their own classroom using the Reflective Practice Guide. After the training, the self-assessment scale of teachers’ job satisfaction in terms of CMD was applied. Only the teachers who decided to apply for one-month implementation of reflective practice (N=111) made up the sample of this research. The results did not show that reflective practice (RP) has an impact on job satisfaction of lower elementary and subject teachers and the suitability parameters of the model are not acceptable. Nevertheless, this research provided a quality foundation for further research on the observed variables as some indications that there is some relationship have been found. Key words: classroom management; discipline, reflective practice; teachers. --- Sažetak Upravljanje razredom i disciplina najcesce se spominje kao podrucje odgojno-obrazovnog rada u kojem ucitelji doživljavaju najvise teskoca, a ujedno se za to osjecaju i najmanje osposobljenima: kako za vrijeme redovnog obrazovanja i osposobljavanja za poziv ucitelja tako i u kasnijem strucnom osposobljavanju. Cilj ovoga rada bio je utvrditi utjecaj edukacije o refleksivnoj praksi (RP) na razinu zadovoljstva poslom u podrucju upravljanja razredom i disciplinom (URID). U istraživanju su sudjelovali ucitelji razredne i predmetne nastave koji su pristali sudjelovati, tj. oni koji su se prijavili za jednu od dvije ponuđene edukacije strucnoga usavrsavanja: Upravljanje razredom i disciplina i/ili Kako uvoditi promjene u praksi. Prije odluke o izboru, ucitelji su bili upoznati sa sadržajem i nacinom rada, tj. da se prva edukacija temelji na predavanju, a druga edukacija osim predavanja ukljucuje i sudjelovanje u radionici o refleksivnoj praksi, kao i njezino jednomjesecno provođenje u vlastitome razredu uz koristenje Vodica za refleksivnu praksu. U uzorak za ovo istraživanje ukljuceni su samo ucitelji koji su se odlucili za jednomjesecnu primjenu refleksivne prakse (N=111). Rezultati nisu pokazali da RP ima znacajnog utjecaja na zadovoljstvo poslom ucitelja, odnosno, nije se potvrdila prikladnost parametara pretpostavljenog modela. Međutim, buduci da postoje indicije kako određena povezanost među promatranim varijablama ipak postoji, ovo može biti dobar temelj za naredna istraživanja. Kljucne rijeci: disciplina; refleksivna praksa; ucitelji; upravljanje razredom.