Classroom Discipline Approaches and Its Relation with Teacher Burnout

Year 2005, Volume: 44 Issue: 44, 549 - 568, 01.05.2005

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Songül Tümkaya

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a significant difference between teachers perceptions of discipline approaches in the classroom and the grade they teach, their gender, marital status, the number of children they have, the years they have, their preference to teaching, number of students, and socio-economic level of the school they work. Besides, it is also to reveal the relationship between classroom discipline a approaches and their burnout level. This study is carried out with 331 teachers selected from the first level of various primary schools at lower, medium, and upper socio-economic levels. In this study, “The teachers perceptions of discipline approaches in the classroom, questionnaire” prepared by the researcher and “Teacher Burnout Scale” developed by Seidman and Zager (1986-87) has been utilized. Findings illustrated that teachers variables such as number of children, they have educational experience, preference to teaching, number of students and socio- economic level of school are important variables at determining teachers discipline approaches in the classroom. Summary The education system is the only institution in which the majority of children participates and spends most of their time in their growth period. Unfortunately, these institutions, which have prior obligations in providing help and determining bad treatments, they sometimes cause bad psychological treatments emotional crisis. The burnout in teachers bring a lot of negative effects together with them into the education systems, one of the biggest effect is in the behavioral attitudes they use in student discipline. The burnout includes loss of interest to people they serve (Maslach, 1981). It starts slow and insidiously. Even though it happens suddenly, the burnout is a continual progress (Freudenberger and Richelson, 1994). Beside of providing knowledge, the teacher acquires students' desired behaviors. For this reason they have to demonstrate sample behavior and provide good communication (Hargreaves and Woods, 1984). Possessing good ordered and creative discipline intelligence is one of the characteristics a successful educator must have. Educators must obtain some personal characteristics in order to overcome this hard duty. As an effective classroom manager the teacher is expected to, prepare the class for education, determine manner and teach classroom rules, organize and ensure education and acquire students in providing conformable behaviors. The purpose of this study is to determine if there is a significant difference between teachers' perceptions of discipline approaches in the classroom and the grade they teach, their gender, marital status, the number of children they have, the years they have, their preference to teaching, number of students, and socio-economic level of the school they work. Besides, it is also to reveal the relationship between classroom discipline an approaches and their burnout level. This study is carried out with 331 teachers selected from the first level of various primary schools at lower, medium, and upper socio-economic levels. However, statically procedures were done by the data which were collected from 166 teachers. In the research it was determined that there was a reasonable relation between the teachers perceptions of discipline approaches and the number of children, the years they have, their preference to teaching, number of students, and socio-economic level of the school. The results show that the proportion of teachers with strict discipline approaches were higher than those; without children, working between 1-5 years, choosing the job unwillingly, working in crowded classes with 66-80 students and in sub social economic leveled schools. In spite of this, it was realized that the proportion of teachers with democratic discipline approaches were higher than those possessing two children, working more than 21 years, choosing the job willingly, working in classer with 20-35 students and working in upper social economic leveled schools. Perceptions of discipline approaches with perceived administrative support, coping with job-related stress, career satisfaction and attitudes towards students, when the sub scale points are compared it is realized that the arithmetic average of each four sub scales reveal that burnout levels of teachers with strict perceptions of discipline are higher than those with democratic perceptions. The strong relation between the variables put for word the prior necessity to reduce the burnout of teachers and to reduce or elevate strict discipline approaches. Some of the precautions are, to reduce the number of students in classes, improve working conditions and not giving responsibility of classes which are hard to control to inexperienced teachers.

Keywords

primary school , classroom discipline , burnout

Öğretmenlerin Sınıf İçi Disiplin Anlayışları ve Tükenmişlikle İlişkisi

Abstract

Bu araştırmanın amacı; öğretmenlerin sahip oldukları sınıf içi disiplin anlayışları ile cinsiyet, medeni durum, çocuk sayısı, çalışma yılı, işi isteyerek seçip seçmeme durumu, öğrenci sayısı ve görev yaptıkları okulun sosyo-ekonomik düzeyine bağlı bir faklılaşma olup olmadığını belirlemek, ayrıca sınıf içi disiplin anlayışları ile tükenmişlik düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkiyi tespit etmektir. Çalışma, Adana içindeki alt, orta ve üst sosyo-ekonomik düzeydeki çeşitli ilköğretim okullarının I. Kademesinde görev yapan toplam 331 öğretmenle yürütülmüştür. Araştırmada, araştırmacı tarafından hazırlanan “Öğretmenlerin Sınıf İçi Disiplin Anlayışları Anketi” ile Seidman ve Zager tarafından (1986–87) geliştirilen “Öğretmen Tükenmişliği Ölçeği” kullanılmıştır. Araştırma bulguları, öğretmenlerin sahip oldukları sosyo-demografik özelliklerden; çocuk sayısı, çalışma yılı, işi isteyerek seçip seçmeme, öğrenci sayısı ve okulların sosyo-ekonomik düzeyi gibi değişkenlerin sınıf içi disiplin anlayışı ile ilişkisi olduğunu ortaya koymuştur.

Keywords

sınıf disiplini , sınıf yönetimi , tükenmişlik

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