Said to be the largest meta-analysis of its kind that draws on data from over 350,000 teachers, the ACU research found clear links between teacher wellbeing and student outcomes that were modest in size but consistent across the evidence base. 

It also found a slightly smaller but still consistent association between poor teacher wellbeing and lower student achievement. 

“We rightly spend a lot of time thinking about student wellbeing and how we can support young people to succeed at school,” lead author Professor Theresa Dicke, from ACU’s Institute of Positive Psychology and Education, said. 

“But not a lot of time is spent thinking about the wellbeing of the people standing in front of them every day.

“Happier, healthier teachers are linked to students who are more motivated and achieve more.”

The finding was found to be stronger in secondary schools, which may have something to do with how students’ lives change as they get older, Dicke suggested.

“As students move into secondary school, they rely more on teachers for academic guidance and gain more independence over their learning, which may be why their teachers’ wellbeing is more influential.”

The research team defined teacher wellbeing to include factors such as self-efficacy (the belief in one’s capacity to do a job), job satisfaction and commitment, work motivation, and general psychological functioning such as positive mood and the ability to cope with demands.

Teacher ‘illbeing’, on the other hand, was characterised by burnout, stress, depression and anxiety and other signs of psychological strain.

Dicke said the findings come amid rising concerns around the workforce challenges facing the teaching profession, including high attrition rates and widespread shortages of qualified teachers.

“The teaching profession is in a workforce crisis,” she concluded. 

“Higher levels of wellbeing are associated with greater job satisfaction, lower burnout, increased resilience, and higher job retention.”

Teacher wellbeing is important in its own right, Dicke said, but the research indicates it must also be taken seriously because of its impact on students and their progress at school. 

“The overall health and happiness of teachers have long been viewed as an employment issue, but our findings suggest it may also be a student outcomes issue,” she said.

“If we want students to be driven, engaged and achieving at school, we can’t overlook the happiness of the people teaching them.”

Dicke said more long-term research is needed to better understand whether teacher wellbeing definitively affects student outcomes, as the research findings were correlational.

“However, at a time when the profession is under more scrutiny than ever, this gives us yet another reason to believe that teacher wellbeing should be prioritised by policymakers and school leaders,” she said.

The researcher offered an explanation for the findings in a recent article for The Conversation. 

“One theory suggests teachers whose own needs for autonomy, competence and connection are met are more likely to teach in ways that support their students’ autonomy and motivation,” she wrote. 

“A related idea, suggests teachers who are doing well are better placed to manage their classroom, build stronger relationships with students, and teach in ways that support students’ own motivation.”

While both plausible explanations, Dicke cautioned, these were not directly tested in the study.