The Research On Professional Pressure And Alleviating Strategy Of University Teachers

Under the current fierce competition of higher education system, university teachers' professional pressure becomes a more and more obvious problem.The job of university teachers and its characteristics determined that teachers are a group of people who are always under great pressure.The research into pressure of university teachers could not only extend the study of employee's pressure, enrich the special researches on psychology and psychological mangement, but also provide theory fundation and instructions for practice to concern, and alleviate the pressure of teachers.In this paper, the university teachers' professional pressure refers to the physical and psychological responses when faced with intimidating situations or matters which they are unable or feel unable to deal with.Generally speaking, university teachers in China have higer professional pressure. The degree of pressure doesn't differ in gender, but in age and status. Young and middle- aged teachers are faced with higher pressure compared with teachers who are above 50; assitant professors and professors have lower pressure than lecturers and associate professors. The university teachers' pressure could be divided into four types, they are pressure from teaching task, researching requirements, the role as a social service provider and being supervised etc.; these pressures are commonly existing, varied, periodic, and dynamic.Appropriate professional pressure will have positive effects on the teachers' physiology, psychology and work, and vice versa.The main causes for the pressure of university teachers may from the society, the school and the teacher him/herself.The former includes frequent education reforms, high expectations from the society, social status and low payments; the middle includes heavy work load, unreasonable management, conflicts in the profession, unharmonious interpersonal relationship; and the last too high professional goals, low professionalism, recognitive mistakes, low endurance ability for pressure, slow response and self-esteem.To alleviate the pressure of the university teachers, the society should have appropriate expectations and requirements on them and improve the social status and payments to create a better environment for teachers. The university should assign proper work load to teachers, establish reasonable mangangement system and create a hamonious working environment.Last but not least, as for the teacher him/herself, he/she should correctly assess the pressure and the his/her processing ability to the pressure, enhance professionalism and the ability to cope with pressure.