Reflective Practice: A Method to Improve Teachers’ Well-Being. A Longitudinal Training in Early Childhood Education and Care Centers

Abstract

Various studies focused on educational contexts (0–6 years) point out that early childhood multi-age classrooms provide better learning strategies and socio-emotional competences of children, compared to single-grade classrooms. However, these studies have also shed light on the significant role of teachers. The multi-age classroom in particular is an opportunity for child development, provided that teachers consider problem-solving, flexibility, and co-construction as effective education strategies. Starting from these reflections, this study aimed to verify the efficacy of longitudinal training for the purpose of advancing the perceived well-being of early childhood teachers of multi-age groupings (18–54 months). Eight teachers and one pedagogical coordinator of an Italian Early Childhood Education and Care center took part in the study. All the participants were females. The critical aspect identified by the teachers was the multi-age classroom, which was perceived as making teaching and learning very difficult and ineffective for both themselves and for the children. The training lasted 10 months and implied a methodology focused on observations of some activities and reflective practice in the group that concerned both teachers and the pedagogical coordinator. The training involved the drafting of two types of written protocols: the observational reports of the specific activities observed (20), and the descriptive reports of reflective sessions (6). The content analysis of the reports revealed various and interesting themes regarding the teachers’ perceived well-being, in terms of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. The qualitative and longitudinal analysis of the themes that emerged in these protocols highlighted different processes of change in the teachers’ perception, in particular with respect to three specific dimensions of well-being: sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and agency. At the end of the training, the teachers experienced a greater sense of belonging to the group of colleagues, a greater sense of self-efficacy, and an idea of themselves as active and meaningful participants. These results supported different reflections regarding the modalities through which to enhance the perceived well-being of teachers.

Full text

Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 26 November 2019
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02574
Edited by:
Wong Yau Ho Paul,
Tung Wah College, Hong Kong
Reviewed by:
Po Lin Chan,
The Education University of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Po Lin Becky Lau,
The Education University of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
*Correspondence:
Ada Cigala
ada.cigala@unipr.it
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to
Organizational Psychology,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Received: 09 July 2019
Accepted: 30 October 2019
Published: 26 November 2019
Citation:
Cigala A, Venturelli E and Bassetti M
(2019) Reective Practice: A Method
to Improve Teachers’ Well-Being.
A Longitudinal Training in
Early Childhood Education
and Care Centers.
Front. Psychol. 10:2574.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02574
Reective Practice: A Method to
Improve Teachers’ Well-Being. A
Longitudinal Training in Early
Childhood Education and
Care Centers
AdaCigala1
*, ElenaVenturelli1 and MartinaBassetti1,2
1
Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries, University of Parma, Parma, Italy, 2
PRO.GES. TRENTO-
s.c.s. Cooperativa Sociale, ONLUS, Trento, Italy
Various studies focused on educational contexts (0–6years) point out that early childhood
multi-age classrooms provide better learning strategies and socio-emotional competences
of children, compared to single-grade classrooms. However, these studies have also shed
light on the signicant role of teachers. The multi-age classroom in particular is an opportunity
for child development, provided that teachers consider problem-solving, exibility, and
co-construction as effective education strategies. Starting from these reections, this study
aimed to verify the efcacy of longitudinal training for the purpose of advancing the perceived
well-being of early childhood teachers of multi-age groupings (18–54months). Eight teachers
and one pedagogical coordinator of an Italian Early Childhood Education and Care center
took part in the study. All the participants were females. The critical aspect identied by the
teachers was the multi-age classroom, which was perceived as making teaching and
learning very difcult and ineffective for both themselves and for the children. The training
lasted 10months and implied a methodology focused on observations of some activities
and reective practice in the group that concerned both teachers and the pedagogical
coordinator. The training involved the drafting of two types of written protocols: the
observational reports of the specic activities observed (20), and the descriptive reports of
reective sessions (6). The content analysis of the reports revealed various and interesting
themes regarding the teachers’ perceived well-being, in terms of thoughts, behaviors, and
feelings. The qualitative and longitudinal analysis of the themes that emerged in these
protocols highlighted different processes of change in the teachers’ perception, in particular
with respect to three specic dimensions of well-being: sense of belonging, self-efcacy,
and agency. At the end of the training, the teachers experienced a greater sense of belonging
to the group of colleagues, a greater sense of self-efcacy, and an idea of themselves as
active and meaningful participants. These results supported different reections regarding
the modalities through which to enhance the perceived well-being of teachers.
Keywords: well-being, preschool teachers, longitudinal training, self-efcacy, sense of belonging, agency,
multi-age classroom, reective practice

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 2 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
INTRODUCTION
In recent years from many sides, a number of eorts have
emerged to increase children’s access to high-quality Early
Childcare and Education Centers (ECEC), but various authors
argue that some attention and study must be given also to
the teachers and to their workplaces, with particular focus on
their perceived well-being in these contexts (Roey, 2012;
Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016). Indeed, some recent studies have
pointed out that many preschool teachers report serious
psychological health problems (e.g., Whitaker et al., 2013). It
is indeed stressful and tiring work both from a physical and
psychological point of view, having to deal with the care and
education of very young children, some even just a few
months old.
Moreover, the literature on the teachers’ well-being in the
school context, and in particular in the Early Childcare and
Education Centers, shows a rather fragmented framework of
data and empirical models (Hall-Kenyon etal., 2014; De Stasio
et al., 2017; Benevene et al., 2018). e studies specically
show that the well-being construct has been described in
dierent terms by dierent authors (Bowling etal., 2010; Hall-
Kenyon etal., 2014). It can benoted that most of the research
had focused on the individual dimensions that contribute to
the teachers’ well-being, such as emotional competence,
temperament, self-esteem, educational qualications, and
years of professional experience (Hall-Kenyon et al., 2014;
De Stasio et al., 2017; Benevene et al., 2018).
Fewer authors have proposed to analyze teachers’ well-being
addressing the social or systemic dimensions. In the theoretical
framework of these studies, teachers’ well-being is conceptualized
as an emerging quality of a complex of interactions between
various factors, such as relationships with children, between
colleagues, with managers, and with parents, as well as the
interactions with the elements of the space of the school context
(Holmes, 2005; Critchley and Gibbs, 2012; Roey, 2012;
Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016).
ese studies, albeit not numerous, appear to be very
interesting, as they have a high ecological value (Roey, 2012);
central to these contributions is the concept of “workplace
environment” that includes dierent aspects (spatial, psychological,
and behavioral) interacting reciprocally and taking on several
congurations (Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016).
An in-depth analysis of these studies allows us to highlight
how the authors in the various studies focused on dierent
aspects of the workplace, proposing specic and dierent
constructs. For example, some studies have shown that there
is a close positive relationship between the teachers’ well-being
and the perception of internal social support, dened as the
possibility for teachers to experiment with spaces of constructive
sharing between colleagues and with the manager that are
aimed to identify functional strategies to deal with complex
and dicult professional situations (Halbesleben, 2006;
Karademas, 2006; Sanglim and Sungeun, 2016).
In other studies, instead, the concept of psychological safety
of the environment was introduced, understood as the perception
of the work group as a context in which there is respect,
acceptance, care, and mutual professional trust. On a personal
level, a school system perceived as psychologically secure gives
teachers the experience of feeling valued, respected, and cared
for (Edmondson, 1999; Dollard and Bakker, 2010; Roey, 2012;
Edmondson and Lei, 2014).
According to Zinsser and Zinsser (2016), “One critical
component of the supportive workplace climates is the
construction of a workplace environment that teachers perceive
as psychologically safe and in which they feel capable of engaging
in the challenging work of early childhood education” (p.49).
Still within the research overview on the teachers’ well-being,
other authors have introduced the concept of sense of belonging
to the school or, in particular, to the group of colleagues,
which has been declined as the perception of having a precise
role within the system, a role that is also recognized by other
group members. On a personal level, the sense of belonging
for an individual corresponds to feeling acknowledged, valued,
and included (Rowe et al., 2007; Wike and Fraser, 2009;
Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2010; Roey, 2012).
is sense of belonging, expressed by some authors as
connectedness (Rowe etal., 2007) or sense of community (McGinty
et al., 2008; Hall-Kenyon et al., 2014), is deeply related to the
quality of interactions, in particular when the teachers in the
group of colleagues feel that trust and reciprocity predominate,
that they are positively connected with each other, and that
there is a greater chance to perceive well-being.
Finally, still within the relational-systemic approach to the
study of the teachers’ well-being, the construct of agency appears
to be extremely relevant. e perceived agency refers to the
perception by teachers of the possibility to participate in
organizational decision-making (Sanglim and Sungeun, 2016)
and to have an active role within the school system, a role that
is recognized by the whole group of colleagues (Wilson and
Deaney, 2010; Priestley et al., 2013; Hadar and Benish-Weisman,
2019). Specically, the agentic capacity refers to the concept
that teachers do not simply repeat given practices, rather, they
have a capacity for pro-active and autonomous actions, that
favor important transformations and changes both in themselves
and in the whole workplace environment (Hadar and Benish-
Weisman, 2019). For Wilson and Deaney (2010), agency can
beconsidered a combination of intention and action that inuences
experience. Several studies have investigated the relationship
between the teachers’ perceived agency and the perception of
their well-being within the workplace, highlighting interesting
connections (Helgeson, 1994; Buchanan and Bardi, 2015;
Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019).
In all these studies, the authors emphasized the need to
orient future research toward teachers’ well-being in a more
ecological direction, favoring qualitative, situational, and
longitudinal methodologies, which allow us to analyze the processual
and interactive dimensions of teachers’ well-being. ese
indications address the research toward studies focused on specic
situations considered particularly challenging from the point of
view of the school system; in this sense, the case studies seem
to be a suitable method (Critchley and Gibbs, 2012; Ro ey,
2012; Cook et al., 2016; Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019;
Heyeres et al., 2019).

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 3 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
In accordance with this perspective, the present research-
intervention was designed to study the well-being of preschooler
teachers, conceptualized, not so much as a construct in general,
but rather as well-being perceived in a specic situation
considered critical and problematic from the teachers’ point
of view. In particular, the study involves pre-school teachers
engaged in the management of a multi-age group (18–54months)
that include children from two dierent classes.
It is important to underline that the incentive to create
multi-age classes is part of a general orientation in Italian
Early Childcare and Education Centers toward the construction
of an integrated 0–6years system. e Italian childcare services
are today mostly structured according to a split 0–3/3–6 years
system, but recently, there has been a move toward the
construction of an integrated system according to a recent
law (Law no. 107/2015, art. 1, paragraph 181, letter e; legislative
decrees 2017).
e literature on multi-age classrooms in the pre-school
age highlights interesting aspects (Maeda, 1994; Veenman,
1996; Dersheid, 1997; McClellan and Kinsey, 1999; Aina,
2001; Gerard, 2005; Logue, 2006; Quann and Wien, 2006;
Edwards et al., 2009).
Among the various studies on the topic, the contribution
of Edwards et al. (2009) appears to be very interesting; it is
a longitudinal study conducted in the preschool educational
services in Australia for a period of 11 months. In this study,
the teachers’ point of view with respect to the multi-age classes
was surveyed by analyzing their ideas, their speech, and their
practices in the workplace context.
In general, the results of these studies show that multi-age
classes foster children’s cognitive and social learning. In particular,
the multi-age classes are contexts that promote language
acquisition, problem-solving skills, active participation in the
learning process (Maeda, 1994; Chapman, 1995), the positive
management of peer relations, positive conict resolution, and
greater attention to individual dierences both by teachers
and children (Aina, 2001; Baumgartner and Bombi, 2005;
Edwards et al., 2009).
But the most interesting aspect that, in dierent ways, seems
to emerge from the research, is that in the preschool period
the multi-age class context fosters child development only if the
teachers share some aspects of the educational approach.
Specically, the multi-age class represents a developmental context
when the teachers consider: (1) dierences between children as
a resource for all, (2) problem-solving as an important learning
strategy both for themselves and for the children, and (3) exibility,
planning, and continuous communication as essential skills for
their educational work (Aina, 2001; Edwards et al., 2009).
Research shows that this educational approach adopted in
the multi-age class context helps to improve teachers’ perception
of self-ecacy and the perception of their well-being in the
workplace (Cook et al., 2016).
Based on these reections and on the training experience
of the authors as consultants in the eld of the Early Childcare
and Education Centers, an interesting research question arises:
could the reective practice in the work group enhance the
teachers’ perceived well-being?
Specically, encouraged by the results of some previous
studies (Karademas, 2006; Critchley and Gibbs, 2012; Zinsser
and Zinsser, 2016; Venturelli and Cigala, 2017), wehave identied
an important research question: there are some relationships
between the systematic reective practice on some critical
aspects of daily education strategies in class and some dimensions
of teachers’ perceived well-being. ese include: the sense of
belonging (Roey, 2012), self-ecacy (Critchley and Gibbs,
2012), and agency (Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019). is
specic relationship nds signicance in the fact that the
reective practice adopted by a work group in a systematic
and continuous way allows the teachers, on the one hand, to
feel more actively involved with respect to work processes in
recognizing their specic role, and on the other hand, the
reection within the group allows the teachers not to perceive
themselves as isolated individuals facing diculties, but rather
as a “thinking group” that guarantees protection and safety.
Consequently, the reective practice also enhances a sense of
competence in the teachers in identifying solutions and directions
for a possible improvement in work practices.
Starting from this research question, this study aimed to
verify the ecacy of longitudinal training for the purpose of
advancing the perceived well-being of early childhood teachers
of multi-age groupings (18–54 months).
In particular, the aim of the present study was to investigate,
with a qualitative methodology, the possible changes that occur
in the perceived well-being of teachers in the course of a
training path focused on reective practice, which is a method
that promotes spaces for discussion and reection among
teachers on work-related practices (Schon and DeSanctis, 2011;
Pollard, 2014). More specically, in this study teachers were
oered a training course that hinged mainly on those concrete
aspects, inherent to work practices, considered by the teachers
themselves to becritical and problematic, with respect to which
they felt the need to identify new ways to manage them and
to forge new directions of work (Venturelli and Cigala, 2017).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Participants
Eight teachers and one pedagogical coordinator of an Italian
Early Childhood Education and Care Center took part in the
study. All the participants were females, of Italian origin, aged
between 28 and 55 (average age: 43) with at least 5 years’
work experience and belonging to middle socioeconomic
status families.
Four teachers belonged to the “young” children class made
up of 20 children (from 18months to 3 years). Four teachers
belonged to the “big” children class, made up of 25 children
(from 30 months to 5 years). e two classes were adjacent
and placed in the same building, a nursery school building
hosting a total of four classes. e training course is part of
a three-year course which involved the participation of other
schools. e training lasted 10 months, from September to
June, and was conducted by two trainers, experts in the eld
of early childhood education.

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
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Prior to the data collection, the parents’ and the teachers’
informed written consent was obtained, in compliance with the
ethical norms dened by the American Psychological Association.
Training Method: Reective Practice
e training methodology, already used in other similar paths
(see Venturelli and Cigala, 2017), provided for dierent
recursive phases:
1. Emergent theme (October);
2. Observational reports (T1 time: November);
3. Reections on actions (T1 time: December–January);
4. Re-design (T1 time February);
5. Observational reports (T2 time: March);
6. Reections on actions (T2 time: April–May);
7. Re-design (T2 time: June)
Emergent theme: all of the teachers and the coordinator
identied an emerging theme through a meeting in which a
sharing of and a negotiation between the dierent teachers’
points of view takes place. e emergent themes refer to certain
aspects that concern the educational practices and that the
work group considers to be critical, salient, and signicant at
that particular time. In a subsequent meeting the identied
emergent theme was shared with the trainers that contributed
to dening it in detail. ese meetings took place in October.
Observational reports: all the teachers, the pedagogical
coordinator, and one trainer carried out two observations
focused on the emergent theme, and subsequently they had
to draw up a written protocol (observational report) of each
of these observations. e observations took place at two
dierent times: T1 time at the beginning of the training (in
November) and T2 time in the second part of training (in
March). In each period, 10 observational reports were draed
for a total of 20 reports. e observational reports were shared
among all teachers.
Reections on actions: these meetings, which involved all
the participants, were aimed at reecting on the observed
practices and at sharing the dierent points of view and
meanings that emerged from the observations. ese meetings
followed the observation phases. Six reections in action sessions
were conducted, divided into two periods: three meetings were
realized in the rst part of the training aer the rst 10
observations (T1 time December–January) and the other three
meetings took place in the nal part of the training aer the
second observation period (T2 time April–May). All the meetings
were video-recorded and transcribed verbatim by one of the
two trainers (descriptive reports).
Re-designing: in the light of the reections that emerged in
previous meetings, the teachers were invited to meet in the
colleague group in order to identify and explore alternative
practices and re-design new ways of acting with respect to
the topic considered critical (emerging topic). e re-design
phases occurred in two periods: T1 time in February and T2
time in June; in T2 time in particular the redesign session
was addressed to the future work of the teachers.
Narrative Material Collected
e narrative material that documents the training process
consists of the observational reports of the specic activities
observed (no. 20) and the descriptive reports of reective meetings
(no. 6). As we explained before, these protocols are collected
in the course of the training, in particular in two specic
periods (T1 and T2).
e observational reports of the specic activities observed
were draed by all eight teachers, by the coordinator, and by
a trainer. Each actor made two observations at dierent times,
in November (T1) and in March (T2). e task given to the
teachers was to describe what had been observed as objectively
as possible; it should be pointed out that these teachers oen
used observational reports as a working method, so this request
was very understandable for them.
e descriptive reports of reective meeting concern the reports
of the reection meetings held in the presence of all the
protagonists of the path, coordinator, teachers, and trainers
and were carried out in two dierent periods of time along
the training (T1: December–January and T2: in April–May).
e second trainer draed these reports and they consisted
of verbatim transcriptions of the video-recording of the
reection meetings.
Two dierent qualitative analyzes were performed on the
material collected:
1. A narrative analysis of the 20 observational reports was
carried out in order to point out the processes that had
unfolded in the course of the training.
2. A content analysis of the six descriptive reports of the
reective meetings was carried out in order to highlight
the change in the perception of teachers’ well-being over
time: from the beginning of the course (T1: December–
January) to the end of the course (T2: April–May).
Process Analysis of Reective Practice
Denition of the Emerging Theme
During this moment, the teachers were invited to reect, and
to propose an aspect that they experienced as being particularly
critical on which they would have liked to turn their attention,
and therefore on which to work within a specic path with
the help of the trainers. e critical theme shared by the
group was that of the sleeping and relaxation moment in the
multi-age classroom. at is to say a moment shared by the
two classes, small and big children, which provides for the
collaboration by the teachers of the two classes and a common
management of the space.
In particular, the analysis of the situation shows that, aer
a meal, both classes are oered a moment of relaxation, which
takes place in a dedicated room equipped with mattresses or
cots. Not all the children sleep (especially in the 3–6 age
group) or at least not all at the same time, so in parallel an
educational activity/play is proposed for children who stay
awake. In this specic situation, the teachers’ working group
and the pedagogical coordinator, for about a year, started an
inter-class project, focused on the creation of an educational

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space that can welcome both big and small children in a
sharing of spaces and educational resources.
From the exchange of teachers’ views, it emerged that this
interclass sleeping and relaxation moment was recognized by
teachers as a highly complex situation and was perceived as
very tiring and dicult, both for the division of roles between
teachers and for the organization of space. In the next meeting,
the teachers shared with the trainers our analysis of the focused
critical aspects; the discussion of dierent points of view, internal
to the educational system (the teachers) and from outside the
system (the trainers), enabled a more detailed analysis of the
moment. In particular, the most critical aspect that emerged
from the discussion was that the teachers in the interclass sleeping
and relaxation moment having to take into consideration the
dierent needs of children of dierent ages, who belong to two
dierent classes that work separately during the rest of the day.
Finally, by means of the brainstorming technique, the group
identied some questions to be highlighted through the
observations, in order to improve their understanding of this
moment and to better organize it: What are the real needs of
dierent children? How do we respond to all the dierent needs
of children at that time? What is the role of the dierent adults
present? How should it becoordinated in a more functional way?
Observation and Reections on Actions
in Time T1
Aer identifying the emerging theme, the teachers, the
pedagogical coordinator, and the trainer carried out the
observations focused on the sleeping and relaxation moment
in the multi-age classroom. In the subsequent reective meetings,
the trainers proposed three key aspects that emerged from the
observations and that seemed particularly signicant in relation
to the critical points highlighted by the teachers: the children’s
needs, the adult’s role, and the intergroup system.
e Children’s Needs
From the teachers’ observations, dierent needs emerged that
the children expressed in the multi-age classroom at the sleeping
and relaxation moment, such as: the need to sleep and relax
in dierent ways, the need to play, and the need to share
some stories and some readings with the adult. ese needs
were very dierent from each other, with major dierences
especially identied between small children (18months-3years)
and the bigger ones (3–5 years).
Role of Adult
e analysis of observation through the lens of the adult’s
role allowed us to highlight dierent aspects. On the one hand,
many teachers’ movements appeared very dispersive and without
a clear objective. Moreover, from the observational reports, it
was highlighted that the teachers were an eective reference
only for the children of their class, by whom they were
recognized and to whom they proposed themselves as such.
ey did not represent a real point of reference for all the
children in the class. erefore, each teacher represented a
resource for the other class only potentially but not at the
level of practice. ere was not a real availability of teachers
for the whole inter-group. Finally, from the analysis of the
observational report a good and consolidated coordination
among the teachers of each class emerged.
Interclass System
As regards the lens of the interclass system, the analysis of
the observational reports pointed out how the two classes,
while occupying the same physical place, did not really seem
integrated with each other. ere were few contacts between
the big and small children of the two classes, the teachers
did not seem to perceive themselves as resources for the whole
group, and there were many diculties in fullling the dierent
needs of big and small children, such as the need to relax
and sleep, and the need to play and share.
A level of practice, and a clear and unique interclass project
did not emerge; from the reports, it was noted that the two
groups, although sharing the same physical space, seemed to
be two dierent contiguous but unintegrated subsystems, with
dierent times and routines.
Even the spatial organization of the room did not facilitate
relationships between children, between adults, and between
adults and children from dierent classes.
Re-design
In this phase of the training, the teachers were engaged in
the re-design of the sleeping and relaxation moment of multi-age
classroom starting from the reections that emerged during
the previous meetings. In particular, the trainers asked the
group of teachers to design, implement, and document an
interclass project linked to the sleeping and relaxation moment
of the multi-age group, that contained a design shared and
co-constructed by the teachers of both classes and the
documentation of the project implementation.
Starting from this proposed task and from the new awareness
acquired following the reections shared in the previous meetings,
the teachers agreed to work together to make the sleeping
and relaxation place more familiar and more beautiful for all
children and teachers.
e goal of the project was to allow all the teachers and
all the children to experience this moment and the environment
dedicated to this moment as being more familiar, so that
everyone could feel a greater sense of belonging.
To do this, the teachers devised and planned several moments
of inter-group activities that would involve all the children
and all the teachers.
In particular, the project developed by the teachers included
an initial circle time conversation in small groups with the
children in order to highlight their experiences, thoughts,
feelings about the sleeping and relaxation moment in the
multi-age classroom, and their suggestions to improve it.
Two workshops then followed in small multi-age groups
proposed to children in order to carry out some proposals to
improve the spaces that had emerged in the conversation.

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In a workshop, a structured activity was carried out for
the construction of airplanes and stars, as proposed by the
children themselves in the circle time; in the second workshop,
the children were engaged in sky painting and in the graphic
reproduction of nocturnal animals.
e children and teachers of both classes were involved in
each of the proposed activities.
Finally, the multi-age sleeping area was used and furnished
with new materials produced by children.
Observation and Reections on Actions
in Time T2
From the observational reports of the second period of the
training, in the sleeping and relaxation moment, we highlight
multiple relationships between big and small children of the
two dierent classes and several occasions of shared knowledge,
just as it was observed that the teachers of the dierent classes
started to coordinate among them.
Moreover, the analysis of the observational reports showed
how everyone occupied the space indiscriminately. In working
together for explicitly shared common goals, the class of big
children and the class of small children began to integrate
within a single system.
e re-design phase at the end of the training involved a
general planning of the multi-age group project to be carried
out for the following year based on the new methodologies
and awareness acquired during the training.
RESULTS
The Perception of Teachers’ Well-Being
From the content analysis of the descriptive report of reective
meetings (Reections on actions), the perception of well-being
on the part of the teachers was detected. In particular, the
aim of this qualitative analysis was to observe the perception
of teachers’ well-being over time, verifying any changes that
occurred in the course of the training.
e conceptual model underlying this qualitative analysis,
as previously described, includes the idea that the longitudinal
and systematic reective practice that had engaged the teachers’
work group could improve the perceived well-being in some
dimensions, such as: sense of belonging, self-ecacy, and agency.
As discussed above in the introduction, the sense of belonging
refers to the perception of being part of a community/group, of
feeling acknowledged, valued and included, and to have a precise
role within the system, a role that is recognized by others (Rowe
et al., 2007; Wike and Fraser, 2009; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2010;
Roey, 2012).
e dimension of self-ecacy refers to one’s self-perception
as being capable of performing one’s work well and achieving
the set goals, and the feeling of personal satisfaction linked
to work (Karademas, 2006; Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;
Kim and Yang, 2016).
e dimension of the agency refers, instead, to the perception
of having a capacity for proactive and autonomous actions.
In particular, teachers with agentic capacity feel that they have
an active role within their community/work group and that
they are able to participate in organizational decision-making
(Wilson and Deaney, 2010; Priestley et al., 2013; Sanglim and
Sungeun, 2016; Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019).
In accordance with some contributions from the literature
(Karademas, 2006; Roey, 2012; Hadar and Benish-Weisman,
2019) for each of these dimensions, some specic indicators
of teacher well-being have been identied. Two non-independent
scholars who did not know the specic hypothesis of the
study, but who were experts in the research eld on the topic
of well-being, were engaged in order to identify from the
descriptive reports some specic indicators for each of the
target dimensions of well-being. rough a preliminary content
analysis of the descriptive reports, the scholars individuated
dierent indicators, each indicator being specic for a dimension
of well-being, and contributed to the description of only one
dimension, so that the dierentiation of the three dimensions
was guaranteed. is analysis consisted of a systematic and
repeated reading of the descriptive reports and of a progressive
identication of the content aspects that could identify the
teachers’ agency, sense of belonging, and self-ecacy. e
indices individuated through this method, albeit based on
previous studies (Karademas, 2006; Roey, 2012; Sanglim and
Sungeun, 2016; Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019), appear
quite new and original in the research eld on teachers’
well-being.
e indicators used for each teachers’ well-being dimension
are presented below.
Sense of Belonging
1. Use of singular/plural form
2. References to the colleagues of the class/colleagues of the
other class
3. References to the children of the class/children of the
other class
4. References to the whole work group
5. References to whole multi-age groups of children
6. Reference to positive emotions to stay in the multi-age
classroom/negative emotions to stay in the multi-age classroom
7. Arrangement of teachers in the space during the
reective meetings
Self-Efcacy
1. References to the teachers’ competence-ability-skills/teachers’
incompetence
2. References to goals achieved with children/failures with children
3. References to certainty/uncertainty at work
4. References to positive emotional state (satisfaction) linked
to self/negative emotional state (dissatisfaction) linked
to self
5. References to teachers’ autonomy
6. References to children’s positive emotions and to their positive
motivations to learning/to children’s negative emotions and
to their scarce motivations to learning

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Agency
1. References to teachers’ participation in organizational
decision-making/no teachers’ participation in organizational
decision-making
2. References to one’s role in the work group
3. References to colleagues’ role in the work group
4. References to co-design of the practices and of the space
5. References to re-design of the practices and of the space
6. Reference to positive changes
7. Number of teachers taking part in the reective meetings
with an active role
Following the identication of the well-being indicators,
each of the six descriptive reports was systematically coded
by two independent observers, reaching a satisfactory agreement
index (K mean = 0.85). e judges who proceeded with the
coding of the reports were unaware of the aims of the study
and did not participate in the path with the teachers. e
frequencies of the indicators for each dimension are shown
in Table 1.
Sense of Belonging
Regarding the aspect of the sense of belonging during T1 time
(at the beginning of the training), the teachers were arranged
in the meeting room space separately, on one side were the
teachers of the rst class and on the other the teachers of the
second class, with the coordinator located in the middle. As
shown in Tab l e 1 , the teachers used the singular form referring
to both themselves and to their class (no. 25 references). In
descriptive reports, no reference was made to colleagues of the
other class, except in one case, but in all the remaining situations
they referred only to colleagues (no. 15 references) and children
in their class (no. 6 references). e teachers reported negative
emotions with respect to the inter-class context, especially
discomfort and a sense of estrangement (no. 10 references).
When I’m in the sleeping room Iwait for my class colleague…
Our children have dierent habits from those in the other class.
When we are in the sleeping room, we feel we are guests
of the class of younger children.
I do not quite feel I am myself in the multi-age classroom.
I do not feel this space to be mine.
e reference to the whole interclass work group was never
present except in the initial statements referring to the general
aim of the project. e teachers stated explicitly that there
are no moments of encounter between the dierent classes.
ere is little knowledge between us although we have been
working in the same complex for 3 years.
In time T2, during the last meetings, the dimension of
sense of belonging to the work group seemed to becharacterized
TABLE 1 | Number of references in teachers’ descriptive reports at T1 time and T2 time.
Dimensions Indicators T1 no. of references T2 no. of references
Sense of Belonging Use of singular form 2 3
Use of plural form 0 14
References to the colleagues of the class 15 8
Reference to colleagues of the other class 1 16
References to the children of the class 6 6
References to children of the other class 2 12
References to the whole work group 1 8
References to small multi-age groups of children 2 6
Reference to positive emotions to stay in the multi-age classroom 2 9
Reference to negative emotions to stay in the multi-age classroom 10 0
Arrangement of teachers in the space during the reective meetings Two classes are separated Independently from two
classes
Self-Efcacy References to the teachers’ competence ability-skills 0 10
References to the teachers’ incompetence 6 1
References to goals achieved with children 0 9
References to failures with children 6 0
References to certainty at work 2 7
References to uncertainty at work 9 1
References to positive emotional state (satisfaction) linked to self 1 18
References to negative emotional state (dissatisfaction) linked to self 5 0
References to teachers’ autonomy 0 6
References to children’s positive emotions and to their positive motivations to learning 1 6
References to children’s negative emotions and to their scarce motivations to learning 5 0
Agency References to teachers’ participations in organizational decision-making 1 12
References to no teachers’ no participation in organizational decision-making 4 1
References to one’s role in the work group 0 9
References to colleagues’ role in the work group 0 7
References to co-design of the practices and of the space 0 10
References to re-design of the practices and of the space 0 15
Reference to positive changes 4 18
Number of teachers taking part in the reective meetings with an active role 5 out of 9 9 out of 9

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dierently. First, the teachers occupied the space of the meeting
room independently from it belonging to the rst or second
class. In regard to the use of the singular/plural form, at this
point in the training, the teachers usually adopted the plural
form (no. 14 references) and referred to the children (no. 12
references) and to the colleagues (no. 16 references) regardless
of belonging to one or the other class. Moreover, the teachers
reported positive emotions in regard to the inter-class context,
especially spontaneity and ease (no. 9 references).
As teachers we decided to…
We confronted ourselves with colleagues in the other class…
We like doing things together.
We have learned to do things together.
No children of the “big” class or children of the “small” class,
but just children!
I felt free as an adult to address all children.
We are more spontaneous and relaxed.
Furthermore, there are several references to the whole work
group (no. 8 references) and to the small multi-age groups
of children (no. 6 references).
We have co-constructed a new way of working and approaching
each other through mutual knowledge and moments of sharing.
A work project has started for adults. e path began with
mental availability to each other, fruitful collaboration, and sharing.
e rst step in the change is the sharing between adults.
In general, the distribution of the frequencies of indicators
showed that at the beginning of the training path the teachers
perceived themselves as “individual practitioners”; the work
group dimension did not emerge. Moreover, the analysis of
the reports in time T1 showed how the interclass moment
was perceived as being very dicult to handle and as being
connoted by feelings of discomfort and a sense of estrangement.
Over the course of the training, a greater sense of belonging
was observed, evidenced by the increased number of references
to a whole work group, references to whole multi-age groups
of children, and the use of plural form, such as “we.” Moreover,
the teachers in the last reective meetings reported several
positive emotions in regards to staying in the multi-age classroom.
Self-Efcacy
With regard to the dimension of the self-ecacy, in T1 time,
during the rst meetings, from the descriptive reports, no
references emerged to teachers’ competence-ability-skills, as
well as no references to goals achieved with children.
Specically, as shown in Ta b l e 1 , the multi-age classroom
was viewed with concern and negativity (no. 5 references).
Many phrases and terms used by teachers indicated uncertainty
(no. 9 references), and failure (no. 6 references) regarding the
multi-age group of children. Many uncertainties were related
to the risk of losing something positive that had already been
built with and for children within the classes.
We do not want to lose the work that wehave done in class
with our children.
I do not know if we will be able to work in the interclass,
the children are very dierent.
I seem unable to pay enough attention to each child.
Moreover, from the descriptive reports in the T1, references
to negative emotional states of the children (no. 5
references) emerged.
Even the children seem a little confused, disoriented.
Children do not feel comfortable.
Regarding the children, they are described solely within
their class, and only one reference to the children’s competence
was reported. Moreover, the children were not perceived by
the teachers as part of a unique interclass group.
In T2 time, during the nal meetings, the descriptive reports
revealed several references to teacher competence (no. 10
references), autonomy (no. 6 references), and certainty (no. 7
references) concerning the multi-age classroom. Contrariwise,
the references to failure, or negative emotional states were
absent. In these descriptive reports, the positive emotional
states were prevalent (no. 18 references). Finally, in T2 more
references to children’s positive emotions and children’s
motivations to learning (no. 6 references) and achieved goals
(no. 9 references) were highlighted.
It was important to recognize that children have dierent
needs, but also to understand that we can respond to these
dierent needs not as single adults, but as a system of adults.
Children perceive the harmony among the adults.
Children now feel more comfortable in the interclass space,
and Ialso feel more open and available toward my colleagues
of the other class.
Children are very motivated to learn new things from
older partners.
Older children are learning to take care of the younger ones.
I believe weare oering children new learning opportunities.
e analysis of frequencies of the indicators revealed an
important change in the teachers’ perception of themselves in
the interclass system. In particular, the teachers, at the end
of the training course, expressed a greater sense of competence
and certainty in the management of the multi-age class. In
the course of the training, the teachers’ concerns and reticence
decreased and gradually a greater sense of work satisfaction
emerged. In parallel, the data also showed a change in the
teachers’ representation of children, who were perceived more
positively, as motivated, competent, and oriented toward achieving
their specic learning goals.
Agency
As regards the dimension of agency, at the T1, from the
descriptive reports, no references emerged to the design or
co-design of activities (Tab l e 1 ). Furthermore, during the
meetings at the initial period of the training, only ve teachers
out of nine took part in the discussion to express their opinion;
in addition, the teachers oen said that they agreed with what

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 9 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
had already been reported by colleagues in their class, to
indicate a strong belonging to one’s class group.
Finally, teachers reported that they did not recognize
themselves as having a clear role in the management of the
mixed group and not knowing how it could be possible to
change the usual methods (no. 4 references); just as they believe
that they do not think it is their task to introduce changes,
they do not think they can suggest changes. (no. 4 references).
But what can we do? We are only teachers, those who have
to decide do not are us.
In my opinion, it is dicult to introduce changes in this situation.
At T2 time, all the teachers took part in the discussions
spontaneously (nine out of nine). In the descriptive reports,
it was possible to note several expressions that refer to co-design
(no. 10 references), and to the re-design (no. 15 references)
of space practices and some references to teachers’ organizational
decision-making (no. 12 references). Moreover, the teachers
oen referred to the individual and colleagues’ role in the
work group (no. 16 references) and to potential changes that
could improve the management of the multi-age classroom
(no. 18 references).
is is the rst time that we have designed something
all together.
e training structured into repeating phases helped us a lot,
making us feel more involved.
Even the children played an active role in the activities, they
felt they were protagonists!
I felt Ihad do “my bit” for the co-construction of the project.
e relaxation room has really changed, now it is more
beautiful and functional.
I believe that all of us teachers could really be protagonists
of this project.
is method of working as a group could also serve to design
on other aspects in the future.
e frequencies of the indicators revealed a modication,
from the T1 time to the T2, in the teachers’ perception of
their agentic capacity.
As shown in Tab l e 1 , in T2 time a larger number of teachers
got involved in the training activities, actively contributing to
reection. Moreover, during the training a greater teacher
awareness of their own role and the role of colleagues in the
management of the interclass emerged. An orientation to the
future also emerged: the teachers referred to possibilities of
positive changes in the management of the interclass moment,
implemented through the co-design and re-design of the practices
and of the spaces.
DISCUSSION
Several scholars have pointed out that that teachers’ well-being
has been mostly conceptualized in negative terms (i.e., as stress,
psychological and physical health problems, and burnout) and
have suggested a reconceptualization of this construct that
includes positive indicators of teacher functioning, namely
teaching self-ecacy, a sense of belonging to a community,
and agency (Roey, 2012; Renshaw et al., 2015).
Starting from these premises, some interesting studies that
share a processual and systemic idea of teachers’ well-being
have recently been carried out. Some of these aimed to study
how, and by means of which processes, directors and teachers
can co-construct workplaces in which the individuals can
experience professional well-being (Dollard and Bakker, 2010;
Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016). Other studies have instead proposed,
not so much simply to reduce stress and burnout, but rather
to promote positive dimensions of teachers’ well-being in
some specic school contexts (Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;
Roey, 2012; Cook et al., 2016).
Within this framework, our study aimed to verify the
ecacy of longitudinal training with the method of reective
practice for the purpose of advancing the perceived well-being
of the early childhood teachers of multi-age groupings
(18–54 months).
e results of the study make it possible to highlight which
important changes in teachers’ perception occurred during the
training with respect to some relevant dimensions of their
working well-being. In particular, from the analysis of
observational and descriptive reports, it emerges how teachers
during training increased their perception of self-ecacy in
the multi-age classroom. In fact, they reported a greater sense
of eectiveness in their educational actions, both in terms of
their own practices and the functional and adaptive behaviors
of children. In support of this, from the beginning to the end
of the training, wenoticed a decrease in the uncertainties and
concerns of teachers in respect to the multi-age classroom and
an increase in positive emotions of satisfaction in the management
of this moment (Karademas, 2006; Critchley and Gibbs, 2012;
Huang et al., 2019).
During the training, moreover, there is also a development
of the sense of belonging in terms of the perception of being
part of a community/group; in fact, at the end of training,
teachers referred more frequently to teachers’ whole group
and to multi-age groups of children as compared with the
start. Furthermore, in the nal part of the training, the teachers
tended to use plural forms more in their interventions in the
reective groups, and they reported positive emotional states
relating to stay in the multi-age classroom (Rowe et al., 2007;
Dollard and Bakker, 2010; Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2010).
Finally, the perception of the teachers’ agentic ability was
fostered by the training, in the sense that the teachers in
the second part of training oen described themselves as
capable of proactive and autonomous actions in the management
of the multi-age classroom. Also, they felt capable of
participating in the organizational decision-making and to
co-design the educational practices to manage the new interclass
context (Wilson and Deaney, 2010; Buchanan and Bardi, 2015;
Hadar and Benish-Weisman, 2019).
We believe these modications can be attributed to some
specic aspects of the proposed training. On the one hand,

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 10 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
the method of reective practice employed in the training
allows all the teachers to experiment with an active and
proactive role enabling each of them to take part in the
decision-making processes in the dierent phases of the path.
Furthermore, the training method allows the teachers to perceive
themselves in their educational function, not so much as
individuals, but rather as belonging to a group of colleagues,
with whom it is necessary to share and negotiate strategies
and educational projects.
Another important aspect of the method adopted in the
course of training was the observation of the daily practices
implemented in the school (Pollard, 2014). We assume that
this methodological aspect has promoted in the group a
sharing of new meanings and thoughts not so much on generic
themes, as oen happens in teachers’ training, but rather on
everyday situations, behaviors, and practices. In this sense,
the reective meetings represent for the workgroup a “place”
in which to understand and re-signify the usual and daily
practices. (Schon and DeSanctis, 2011).
e training has given the teachers the opportunity to
experience having time together, it has created a clear and
step-based working context, which has been repeated over time,
in which the teachers could trust each other, and in which
they felt that their experience and professionalism were
recognized. In this sense, we consider that even the aspect of
the step-by-step approach in a suciently dilated time was a
relevant factor for the promotion of a real change in the
perception of teachers’ well-being.
Finally, in the training, it was possible for teachers to take
into account the trainers’ point of view, which, as being external
to the school system, allows them to broaden the perspective
and to recognize new aspects and new meanings concerning
the work practices.
We retain that by means of the training, the group of
teachers and the work environment in general took on
characteristics of greater psychological security for teachers.
In fact, in a context that is perceived as psychologically secure,
it is possible for teachers to engage in changes in their
consolidated work practices, separate from them, and to start
exploring new methods. Training of this type has been conducted
with dierent work groups in several ECEC centers and has
shown very similar results (Venturelli and Cigala, 2017).
In the light of these results, the present study could contribute
to the advancement of knowledge concerning the well-being
construct, both from the research point of view and applicative
point of view.
With reference to the rst point, weargue that the present
study, in accordance with other previous research studies
(Dollard and Bakker, 2010; Critchley and Gibbs, 2012; Ro ey,
2012; Cook et al., 2016; Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016), could
provide evidence with respect to the fact that the well-being
construct is strongly inuenced by systemic-relational factors.
e variables that intervene in the denition of well-being
cannot beread as rigidly distinguished into “personal variables”
and “contextual variables,” but rather as complex variables
that see the two dimensions (i.e., personal and contextual)
interact together in the dierent daily processes that are
played out in the working context. As claimed by several
authors, well-being is socially and culturally constructed,
rooted in a particular time and place (White, 2010; Atkinson,
2013). erefore, for a deep knowledge of the nature of
well-being, it is not enough to juxtapose descriptive variables
of individuals and descriptive variables of the context, but
instead we need to nd methodologies and tools that allow
us to detect the interdependence between these levels and
how these complex relationships of interdependence vary
over time.
With respect to the applicative relevance of the study,
the results seem to highlight the eectiveness of the training,
and therefore encourage the implementation in the contexts
of the school of training courses that have some specic
characteristics: they are longitudinal and systematic, focused
on some critical aspects highlighted by the group of teachers
and not proposed from the outside, and addressed to a
small group of teachers, in order to really be able to create
a real space of involvement and participation. e reective
practice, for the reasons illustrated above, appears to be a
useful method, especially if it is preceded and followed by
the observations in the work context, focused on the emergent
critical aspects.
Starting from the results of this study and from the other
research studies (Cook etal., 2016; Zinsser and Zinsser, 2016),
we argue that for a true promotion and care of the teachers’
well-being it would benecessary, not so much for the occasional
implementation of pathways, but instead to adopt a reective
working method, like the one proposed in the present study,
as a standard practice. We believe that this is the direction
in which the school should go in order to make teachers
develop an idea of group and teamwork that allows them
to feel more condent and competent, and therefore less
vulnerable and prone to developing demotivation and burnout
(Huang et al., 2019).
Moreover, the present case study has allowed us to develop
a system of indicators of some relevant dimensions of perceived
well-being that can be applied in descriptive and narrative
material. e set of these indicators, rather original within
the panorama of studies on the topic, could represent a tool
for the analysis of well-being to be used in other studies, as
well as a tool to evaluate the eectiveness of interventions
aimed at promoting well-being in the school context.
A limit of this study is that it would have been interesting
to evaluate the perception of well-being on three investigated
dimensions also by means of questionnaire self-reports or
semi-structured interviews both at the beginning and at the
end of the path; such data could have given the obtained
results greater strength. Moreover, it could be interesting to
follow the work group and verify the same dimensions of
well-being a few months aer the end of the training to verify
the maintenance of the change.
Finally, it would beuseful to replicate the study by proposing
training to other groups of teachers, in order to be able to
make more accurate and better grounded considerations regarding

Cigala et al. Reective Practice: Improving Teachers’ Well-Being
Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 11 November 2019 | Volume 10 | Article 2574
the possibility of generalizing the results with respect to the
eectiveness of the intervention (Woolcock, 2013).
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
All datasets generated for this study are included in the article/
supplementary material.
ETHICS STATEMENT
Ethical review and approval was not required for the study
on human participants in accordance with the local legislation
and institutional requirements. e patients/participants provided
their written informed consent to participate in this study.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
AC and EV contributed to the design and implementation of
the research, to the analysis of the results, and to the writing
of the manuscript. MB contributed to the draing of the nal
version of the manuscript, to the conception or re-design of
the work, and to interpretation of data.
FUNDING
Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca [Award
number(s): FFABR 2017, FIL 2018] are funds that the Italian
Ministry of University and Research has awarded to researchers
to fund their research activities.
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Conict of Interest: e authors declare that the research was conducted in
the absence of any commercial or nancial relationships that could beconstrued
as a potential conict of interest.
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