Stress and coping in lecturing, and the stability of responses across practice

The central issues of the present paper are the responses to the stress of lecturing in a standardized situation, and the adaptation to this stressor across a period of real-life lecturing practice. Special attention is given to the stability of rank-order in the physiological and psychological responses to the lecturing stressor across practice. Lecturing in the standardized situation involved lecturing at the training institute to six fellow student teachers and two members of the university staff. The responses to be measured were heart rate, cortisol excretion and subjective anxiety. The results indicate that lecturing is stressful for student teachers. The adaptation in stress responses was very significant. Despite the significant reduction in the stress responses, a considerable stability of rank-order was found, indicating that subjects who were the most reactive before practice were still more reactive after practice. The implications of a high stability in reactivity are discussed.