For example, a teacher may want to focus on their planning, but find their time taken up by technological problems, administrative requirements or a specific student whose needs fall outside their role. These priorities can be reinforced by the way principals and school leaders communicate: an email with a clear, limited purpose feels more manageable and is more likely to evoke action than a series of action points.Įven if priorities are clear, minor tasks can prevent teachers from acting on them. Any new task should be presented as part of this hierarchy and should replace an existing task: for example, ‘we’re encouraging whole-class feedback – you don’t need to close-mark students’ writing as well’. For example, ‘our priority this term is ensuring students can recall key ideas – please give retrieval practice all the time it needs, even if that means shortening your starter activity’. This is stressful and exhausting. Principals and leaders can mitigate this by ensuring that teachers have clear priorities (whether these are set by teachers themselves, or by leaders). One way to achieve this is to create a hierarchy of tasks (rather than a list), which clarifies what is essential and what is an optional extra. Teachers often feel that they must do everything they possibly can so, when a new initiative begins, they add it to their to do list. What principals can do to get the demands right Schools can reduce the risk of burnout by ensuring that teachers can focus on a few carefully chosen priorities and avoid less important ones. This means deciding and communicating which activities matter most for students, and which have a lower priority. It also means limiting and removing the unimportant tasks that can clutter teachers’ time and attention, such as duplicative paperwork, unclear requests, and technological barriers. Demands must also be fairly distributed and tailored to teachers’ capacities: for example, newer teachers should be given less demanding classes. H elp teachers focus on the most important tasks Since burnout occurs when teachers lack the resources needed to cope with the demands they face, schools can help to prevent teacher burnout by ensuring that the demands on teachers are manageable and that they have the resources to meet them. Preventing burnout: G etting the demands right It also draws on pilot research currently being undertaken into preventing burnout among teachers in English schools i. However, there has been very little experimental research into preventing burnout among teachers, so this guide draws on both evidence from schools and experimental evidence from other professions, particularly studies in medicine, since clinicians face analogous pressures to teachers, such as balancing multiple tasks with limited time. These resources can help teachers to avoid burnout.Įxtensive research has been conducted into the causes and correlates of burnout among teachers, which enables schools to be relatively confident about the need to balance demands and resources. Why does burnout happen?īurnout happens when the demands teachers face exceed their resources. Inspiring, supporting and educating a class full of unique individuals is inherently demanding. Usually, teachers can cope with everyday demands and with occasional periods of additional pressure, like the last week before exams or the holidays. But when teachers face excessive and sustained demands, burnout can occur. High demands do not cause burnout on their own, however – a tricky class can be particularly satisfying for a teacher who is able to support them to make progress. Burnout develops when teachers lack the resources they need to meet those demands. These resources include support from leaders and colleagues, personal characteristics (like skill, confidence and self-belief), and anything else which helps (like humour). Burned out teachers struggle to teach well and to keep going. This guide explains what causes burnout, and what schools can do to help prevent it. But a teacher who experiences a series of stressful days and struggles to cope may begin to feel emotionally and physically exhausted: burned out. Burnout is associated with feeling unsuccessful and increasingly detached from work. Teaching is demanding – that is one reason why it is worthwhile – and all teachers have stressful days.
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