Learned Resourcefulness and Burnout Levels of English Teachers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between some individual characteristics, learned resourcefulness and burn out on the one hand and the relationships between burn out and learned resourcefulness on the other. The participants in this research included 163 English teachers teaching in the schools located in Malatya. The participants were asked to anonymously fill out a questionnaire involving three parts which respectively investigated their background, burnout level and learned resourcefulness Rosenbaum’s Learned Resourcefulness Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory . The findings indicated that more than half of the teachers possess moderately high level of learned resourcefulness and they are experiencing burnout at moderate level in three aspects of MBI. In addition, the analysis suggested an inverse relationship between learned resourcefulness and the three burnout subscales: as learned resourcefulness increases, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and lack of personal accomplishment decrease. Furthermore; the independent variables age, gender, and marital status were not found to be significant in learned resourcefulness and any of the burnout dimensions. “The school type” is the only variable which was found to be significant in the three burnout sub-dimensions. Results are discussed in the light of current literature and suggestions were provided.

Keywords

• Teachers’ burn out,learned resourcefulness,English language teachers

References

1. Akbaba, S. (2004). Psikolojik sağlığı koruyucu rehberlik ve psikolojik danışma. Pegem A Yayıncılık. Ankara.
2. Akgün, S., & Ciarrochi, J. (2003). Learned resourcefulness moderates the relationship between academic stress and academic performance. Educational Psychology, 23(3), 287-294.
3. Aydoğan, İ., Doğan, A.A., Bayram, N. (2009). Burnout Among Turkish High School Teachers Working in Turkey and Abroad: A Comparative Study. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology. 7(3), 1249-1268.
4. Botwinik, R. (2007). Dealing with teacher stress. The Clearing House, 271-272. Budak, G., & Sürvegil, O. (2005) Tükenmişlik ve Tükenmişliği Etkileyen Faktörlerin Analizine İlişkin Akademik Personel Üzerinde Bir Uygulama. D.E.Ü.İ.İ.B.F. Dergisi, 20, (2):95-108.
5. Canter, L. (1994). The high-performing teacher: Avoiding burnout and increasing your motivation. Santa Monica: Lee Canter & Associates.
6. Cephe, P. T. (2010). A study of the factors leading English teachers to burnout.HacettepeUniversity Journal of Education, 38, 25-34.
7. Cheek, J. R., Bradley, L. J., Parr, G., & Lan, W. (2003). Using music therapy techniques to treat teacher burnout. Journal of Mental Health Counseling 25(3), 204-217.
8. Cilliers, F. (2003). Burnout and Salutogenic Functioning of Nurses. Curations, 26 (1), 62-74. Cochran-Smith, M. (2006) Teacher Education and the Need for Public Intellectuals, The New Educator, 2(3), 181-206, doi:10.1080/15476880600820136

9. Demerouti, E., Bakker, A.B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufelt, W.B. (2001). The job demands resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499-512.
10. Dillman, D. A. (2000). Mail and internet surveys. The tailored design method. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
11. Ergin C., (1992). “Doktor ve Hemşilerde Tükenmişlik ve Maslach Tükenmişlik Ölçeğinin Uyarlanması”, VII: Ulusal Psikoloji Kongresi, 22 - 25 Eylül, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, VII. Ulusal Psikoloji Kongresi Düzenleme Kurulu ve Türk Psikologlar Derneği Yayını, Ankara.
12. Farber, B.A. (1984). Stress and Burnout in Suburban Teachers. Journal of Educational Research, 77(6), 325-331.
13. Farber, B. (1991). Crisis in education: Stress and burnout in the American teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
14. Fatemi, M. A., Ghadi, S.A. and Fayyaz, A. (2015). The Relationship between Iranian EFL teacher's job burnout and their cultural intelligence. Greener Journal of Educational Research, 5, (4), 120-126.
15. Freed, E.H. (1994). The Relationship of Social Suport, Ocupational Stres, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction Among Special Education Teachers. Temple University.
16. Gibson, S., & Dembo, M. H. (1984). Teacher Efficacy: A Construct Validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(4), 569- 582.
17. Gold, Y. & Bachelor, P. (2001). Signs of Burnout are Evident for Practice Teachers during the Teacher Training Period. Education, 108,(4), 546-555.
18. Goutas, L. J. (2008). Burnout. The Journal of the European Medical Writers Association, 17(3), 135-138.
19. Grayson, J. L., & Alvarez, H. K. (2008). School climate factors relating to teacher burnout: A mediator model. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(5), 1349-1363.
20. Haaga, D. A., Davison, G.C. (1986). Cognitive Change Methods. In F.H Kanfer & A. P. Goldstein (Eds..) Helping People Change. New York: Pergamon Press.
21. Haberman, M. (2004). Teacher burnout in black and white. Retrieved February 14, 2009, from:Ednews.org: http://www.ednews.org/articles/584/l/Teacher-Burnout-in-Black-and-White/Page 1 .html
22. Hipps, E.S., Malphin. G, (1991). The relationship of locus of control. Stress related to performance based accreditation and job stress burnout in public school teachers and principals. Paper presented at Annual Meeting of The American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
23. Huang C., Sousa V. D., Tu S., & Hwang M. (2005). Depressive Symptoms and Learned Resourcefulness among Taiwanese Female Adolescents. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 19, 133-140.
24. Izgar, H. (2013). Okul yoneticilerinde tukenmişlik [Burnout at school directors]. Ankara: Nobel Yayin Dagitim.
25. İkiz, E. (2010) Psikolojik danışmanların tükenmişlik düzeylerinin incelenmesi. Kırşehir Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 11(2), 25-43.
26. Johanns, K. (2007). How to avoid burnout. Retrieved June 3, 2009, from Education Matters: A Publication of the Association of American Educators: http://www.aaeteachers.org/newsletters/july07.pdf
27. Karahan, Ş., Balat, G.U. (2011). Özel eğitim okullarında çalışan eğitimcilerin öz-yeterlik algılarının ve tükenmişlik düzeylerinin incelenmesi. Pamukkale Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 29 (I), 1-14.
28. Keinan, G. and Melamed, S. (1987) Personality Characteristics and Proneness to Burnout: A Study among Internists. Stress Medicine, 3(4): 307-315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smi.2460030412
29. Kenneth, D. J. & Keefer, K. (2006). Impact of learned resourcefulness and theories of intelligence on academic achievement of university students: An integrated approach. Educational Psychology, 26(3), 441-457.
30. Kirilmaz, A.Y., Celen, U., Sarp, N. (2003). İkogretimde calışan bir öğretmen grubunda Tükenmişlik Durumu araştırması” [A study on teacher burnout with a group of primary school teachers]. İlköğretim-online 2(1) 2-9.
31. Kokkinos, C. M., Panayiotou, G., & Davazogou, A. M. (2005). Correlates of a teacher appraisals of student behaviors. Psychology in the Schools, 79-89.
32. Koruklu, N., Feyzioğlu, B., Kiremit, H. Ö., Aladağ, E. (2012). Teachers’ Burnout Levels in terms of Some Variables. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice,12(3):1823-1830.
33. Lau, P., Yuen, M., & Chan, R. (2005). Do demographic characteristics make adifference to burnout among Hong Kong secondary school teachers? Social Indicators Research, 77,491-516.
34. Luk, A.L., Chan, B.P.S., Cheong, S.W., & Ko, S. K.K. (2010). An exploration of the burnout situation on teachers in two schools in Macau. Social Indicators Research, 95(3), 489-502.
35. Manassero, M. A., Garcia Buades, E., Torrens, G., Ramis, C, Vazquez, A., & Ferrer, V. A. (2006). Teacher burnout: Attributional aspects. Psychology in Spain 70(1), 66-74.
36. Mclauchlan, K. A. (2010). The Influence of Selected Factors on Teacher Burnout among Middle School Teachers. Unpublished Dissertation, Northcentral University Prescott Valley, Arizona.
37. Maslach, C. (1982). Burnout: The cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
38. Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., (1985), The Role of Sex and Family Variables in Burnout. Sex Roles, 12, 7-8.
39. Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., & Schwab, R.L. (1996). Maslach Burnout Inventory – Educators Survey (mbi-es). In C.
40. Maslach, S.E. Jackson, & M.P. Leiter, MBI Study (3d ed). Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
41. Maslach, C, & Leiter, M.P. (1997). The truth about burnout: How organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
42. Maslach, C, Schaufeli, W.B., & Leiter, M.P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 397-422.
43. Maslach, C. (2003). Burnout: the cost ofcaring. Malor Books. Cambridge, MA.
44. Mischel, W. (1983). Alternatives in the Pursuit of the Predictability and Consistency of Persons: Stable Data that Yield Unstable Interpretations. Journal of Personality, 51, 578-604.
45. Mowers, E. N. (2010) Teacher Burnout in North Dakota. A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University. Fargo. North Dakota.
46. Mukundan, J. &Khandehroo, K. (2010).Burnout among English teachers in Malaysia.Contemporary Issues in Education Research, 3 (1), 71-76.
47. Naisberg-Fennig, S., Fennig, S., Keinan G., Elizur, A., (1991). Personality Characteristics and Proneness to Burnout: A Study among Psychiatrists. Stress Medicine. 7(4): 201-205.
48. Norton, K. (2004) Re-thinking acute psychiatric inpatient care. International Journal of Social Psychiatry; 50( 3), 274–284.
49. Özdemir, Y. (2007). The role of classroom management efficacy in predicting teacher burnout. International Journal of Socal Sciences, 3(4), 357-363.
50. Özer, R. (1998). Rehber öğretmenlerde tükenmişlik düzeyi, nedenleri ve çeşitli değişkenlere göre incelenmesi. Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Trabzon.
51. Özkanal, Ü. &Arıkan, N. (2010).Investigation of burnout among instructors working at ESOGU preparatory school. English Language Teaching, 3 (1), 166-172, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v3n1p166
52. Öztürk, G. (2013). Job Burnout Experienced by Turkish Instructors of English Working at State Universities. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 5 (3), 587-597.
53. Pallant, J., 2005. SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS for windows (Version 12). 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
54. Pasquale, M. (2011). Out of the Heart: Being a Culturally Intelligent Teacher. Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages, 12, 45–66.
55. Patterson, J. H., Collins, L., & Abbott, G. (2004). A study of teacher resilience in urban schools. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 31(1), 2-11.
56. Pines, A. M. (1997). “Gender Differences in Burnout: Israelis’ Responses to the Intifada”, European Psychologist, 2(1),28-34.
57. Reynolds, W.M., Stark, K.D. (1983). Cognitive Behaviour Modification: The Clinical Application of Cognitive Strategies.
58. In M. Presley & J.R. Levin (Eds.), Cognitive Strategy Research: Psychological Foundations. New York: SpringerVerlag.
59. Rosenbaum, M. (1980). A schedule for assessing self-control behaviors: Preliminary findings. Behaviors Therapy, 11, 109- 121.
60. Rosenbaum M., & Jaffe Y. (1983). Learned helplessness: The role individual differences in learned resourcefulness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 215-225.
61. Rosenbaum, M. (1988). Learned resourcefulness, stres, and self-regulation. In S.Fisher ; J. Reason (Eds.). Handbook of life stres, cognition, and health (s.483-496). Chichester, UK:John Wiley ; Son.
62. Rosenbaum, M. (1990). The role of learned resourcefulness in the self-control of heslth behavior. In M. Rosenbaum (Eds.). Learned resourcefulness: On coping skills, self-control, and adaptive behavior (s. 3-30). New York: Springer Publishing Co.
63. Sünbül, A. M. (2003). An analysis of relations among locus of control, burnout and job satisfaction in Turkish high school teachers. Australian Journal of Education 47(1), 58-72.
64. Seferoğlu, S. S., Yıldız, H., Yücel, Ü. A., (2014). Teachers’ Burnout: Indıcators of Burnout and Investigation of the Indicators in terms of different Variables. Education and Science. 39 (174) 348-364.
65. Siva, A. N. (1991). İnfertilitede stresle başetme, öğrenilmiş güçlülük ve depresyonun incelenmesi. Yayımlanmamış doktora tezi, Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara.
66. Skaalvik, E.M., & Skaalvik, S. (2009). Does school context matter?: Relations with teacher burnout and job satisfaction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(3), 518-524.
67. Tortop, H.S (2012). The Relation of Physics Teachers' Leadership with Burnout Levels and Attitudes towards Change: Turkey Case. IJGE: International Journal of Global Education, 1(4), 19-25.
68. Tümkaya, S. (1999). Öğretmenlerin Tükenmişlik Düzeyleri ve Kullandıkları Başa Çıkma Davranışları. Türk PDR (Psikolojik Danışma ve Rehberlik) Dergisi, 11, 26-35.
69. Veninga, R. L., & Spradley, J. P. (1981). The work stress connection: How to cope with job burnout. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
70. Wolpin, J., Burke, R. J., & Greenglass, E. R. (1991). Is job satisfaction an antecedent or a consequence of psychology burnout? Human Relations, 44(2), 193–209.
71. Wood, T., & McCarthy, C. (2002). Understanding and preventing teacher burnout. ERIC Document ED477726.
72. Yürür, Ş. (2011). Öğrenilmiş Güçlülük, Kıdem ve Medeni Durumun Duygusal Tükenmedeki Rolü: Kaynakların Korunması Teorisi Kapsamında Bir Analiz. Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi, 25( 1), 107-126.
73. Zalaquett, C. and Wood, R. (Eds.)(1997). Evaluating Stress: A Book of Resources. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: Scarecrow Press.