PS100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Classroom Management
Developmental Psychology - Tutorial 10
Wellbeing
What are some of the issues and challenges of burnout and work/life balance in teaching and how do
they influence and impact on wellbeing?
- Teaching has and always been a stressful occupation, but it is commonly accepted that in the last
decade teaching has become more demanding than ever, with the term “burnout” becoming more
applicable to teaching than any other occupational field (Farber 2000).
- Burnout is the psychological manifestation of a nagging perception of professional failure. Some
researchers see burnout chiefly as a psychological, emotional, subjective, experiential phenomenon
(Maslach and Leiter 1999), or even a character trait or personality inclination (Schwarzer and
Greenglass 1999).
- Burnout is a gradual process, we can surmise that it does not begin when the person first begins to teach
professionally; rather, its roots already exist at the training stage. It therefore seems that novice teacher
burnout is the climax of a process, the most severe symptom of an ongoing process of distress and
disappointment, which first arises at the pre-service training stage. Thus, novice teachers feel
discontentment and dissatisfaction with the school situation they encounter, beginning while they are in
college. When novice teachers first start teaching formally, they are already familiar with the school
environment from their pre-service phase. Though not yet fully integrated, they are conscious of the
overall “organisational atmosphere” of the school.
Individual
- novice teachers experienced high levels of burnout as early as the beginning of their first year of
teaching
- (Levski 2003), suggests that novice teacher burnout does not begin only when the novice begins to teach,
but actually starts at the teacher training stage
- Burnout is caused by a long-term experience of emotionally damaging situations. It is the consequence
of physical and mental stress leading to anxiety and frustration, especially for human service
professionals (Pines and Aronson 1988)
- It is described as a dynamic process, developing over a certain period of time (Cherniss 1980), or an
“erosion” of the soul, a disease gradually developing over a long period, which drags people down
into a terrible state, from which it is very difficult to recover (Maslach and Leiter 1997).
- A noteworthy approach has recently explained burnout as the consequence of continuous perceived
gaps between the individual’s expectations, goals, ambitions, and skills on the one hand, and the
working environment on the (Gersten et al. 2001). These perceived gaps undermine the individual’s
mental strength and sense of self-efficacy, intensify his or her feelings of frustration, impotency, and
despair, and exacerbate lower his or her self-esteem, leading to burnout (Gavish and Friedman 2000).
This view describes burnout as “disillusionment” (Ratliff 1988), or the “loss of the dream” (Gold 1996).
Relational
- Three variables contribute to predicting burnout at the beginning and at the end of the first year of
teaching
- Lack of appreciation and professional recognition from students
- lack of appreciation and professional recognition from the public
- lack of collaborative and supportive ambience
- To avoid demands on their emotional reserves, people may limit their involvement with others, building a
psychological buffer between themselves and their job requirements, giving up their ideas and hopes.
They may depersonalise others, adopting a stiff, cynical, distant attitude.
- Having a passionate feeling of vocation, novice teachers begin their careers believing they can effect
small changes in society and important changes in their pupils’ lives. Despite their best intentions and
years of teacher training, however, they feel slapped in the face by reality, as their ideals and dreams
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Document Summary
Burnout is the psychological manifestation of a nagging perception of professional failure. Some researchers see burnout chiefly as a psychological, emotional, subjective, experiential phenomenon (maslach and leiter 1999), or even a character trait or personality inclination (schwarzer and. Burnout is a gradual process, we can surmise that it does not begin when the person first begins to teach professionally; rather, its roots already exist at the training stage. It therefore seems that novice teacher burnout is the climax of a process, the most severe symptom of an ongoing process of distress and disappointment, which first arises at the pre-service training stage. Thus, novice teachers feel discontentment and dissatisfaction with the school situation they encounter, beginning while they are in college. When novice teachers first start teaching formally, they are already familiar with the school environment from their pre-service phase. Though not yet fully integrated, they are conscious of the overall organisational atmosphere of the school.
