Our research found that it helped to think about there being three main types of workload for teachers. One is the practical work – for example how much marking there is, and this is often the part of workload people talk about.
But there is also emotional work. Teaching is all about relationships – with students, with parents, with other teachers and with leaders. And for many teachers this was an overlooked part of their workload.
As well as this there is also cognitive work, the thinking work needed to understand topics, plan lessons and react quickly in a classroom.
Thinking of workload in this way helps us to understand which part(s) of workload are causing the biggest problem, so we can ask for more specific help. It also helps us to understand when more than one type of workload is causing a problem at the same time, and when more support might be needed to tackle this.
It also helps us to understand that if we make a change (for example changing the way we mark), we might need to explain this more fully to our students to avoid swapping a reduction in our practical work (the marking) for an increase in emotional work (e.g. if students or parents react badly to the change because they don’t understand it).