The Role of Institutional Context in Perceived Mental Workload in Educational Institutions

The effects of work stress are associated with work hours and mental activities, such as thinking and decision making, necessary for the preparation and qualification of tasks. The objective of the study was to analyze the perceived mental load in two educational institutions with socioeconomic and geographic similarities and similar educational plans in the city of Ibagu & eacute; in the department of Tolima, Colombia. A descriptive crosssectional non-experimental quantitative methodology was chosen, using the NASA TLX to measure mental load, subjecting the data to a non-parametric statistical analysis of variances ANOVA by Kruskal-Wallis and the DSCF test for post hoc comparisons. The results revealed that differences in perceived workload are more related to the institutional context than to individual factors such as age, gender, or the academic assignment taught by teachers. This suggests that the internal characteristics of educational institutions and the coping skills used by teachers are crucial to adequately understand and manage perceived mental load. These findings frame the importance of adapting mental load management strategies to the particularities of each educational institution to improve the quality of work life of professionals and, ultimately, the quality of the education they offer.