Teachers' Perception of Lounges and Student Achievement

This chapter focuses on the relationships between organizational and experiential elements of teachers' communities in the lounge, on the one hand, and student achievement, on the other hand. What specific conditions in the lounge might foster, or conversely hinder, the development of professional communities of teachers? How are these conditions associated with student achievement? Teachers' perceptions of the characteristics, functions, and spheres of influences of their lounges, as well as the relationship between these perceptions and students' academic achievement are at the heart of this chapter. It is important to emphasize that teachers' lounges are part of the social reality of teachers, particularly in Israel. The study of teachers' perceptions of their lounges is based on two assumptions: (a) The teachers' lounge is a regular meeting place for people who share common interests, and who expect to develop professional relationships. (b) Teachers' participation in the various activities of the lounge is determined by their need to cooperate with their colleagues, and is not compulsory. This chapter is based on an empirical study of nineteen Israeli elementary schools. We start with an analysis of teachers' perceptions of their lounges. The second part of the chapter focuses on the relationship between these perceptions and students' performance on achievement tests conducted in these schools. We discuss the possible implications of the relationships found in the study. This discussion leads to an attempt to deal with the questions raised at the beginning of this chapter. Details of the design and structure of this part of our study of lounges were presented in the first chapter.