STRESS AND BURNOUT IN PE TEACHERS: EXPLORING THE

Leuven, 21 March 2008 Symposium
Evidence based research in Physical
Education and Sport pedagogy
Prof. Attilio Carraro
University of Padua, Department of
Educational Sciences
and SSIS of Veneto, Italy
STRESS AND
BURNOUT IN PE
TEACHERS:
EXPLORING THE
DETERMINANTS
Attilio Carraro
1. Teachers’ stress and burnout
2. Burnout in PE teachers
3. Aims
4. Materials and methods
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Directions for future research
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 1
Within the general area of
occupational stress, teaching
has acquired the dubious
honor as being “one of the
most stressful occupations”
(Kyriacou, 2000)
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TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 2
More than a third of
teachers surveyed in
different research felt
their profession as
highly stressful
(Borg, 1990; Chan, 2006)
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 3
Factors that influence the
professional condition of teachers
could be grouped into three areas
PERSONALITY FACTORS
OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS
SPECIFIC WORK ENVIRONMENT
CONDITIONS
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TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 4
Pines (1982) presented a model of
four organisational dimensions:
psychological
structural
social
organisational/bureaucratic
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 5
Burnout has been identified
as:
“prolonged response to chronic
emotional and interpersonal
stressors on the job”
(Maslach et al, 2001)
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TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 6
EMOTIONAL
EXHAUSTION
DEPERSONALIZATION
REDUCED PERSONAL
ACCOMPLISHMENT
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 7
Burnout is
a phenomenon of
dramatic importance
in education
(Brouwers & Tomic, 2000)
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TEACHERS’ STRESS AND
BURNOUT 8
Burnout is highly correlated
with
job dissatisfaction
desire to quit the job
physical and emotional
symptoms
perceived performance level
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
BURNOUT IN PE TEACHERS 1
Mancini, Wuest,
Valentine, Clark
The use of instruction and supervision in J Teach
Phys Educ
interaction analysis on burned out
teachers: its effects on teaching
behaviors, levels of burnout and
academic learning time
1984
Wendt & Bain
Physical educators’ perception of
stressful teaching events
J Teach
Phys Educ
1989
Quigley, Slack, Smith
The levels and possible causes of
burnout in secondary school teachercoaches
Phys
Health
Educ J
1989
Fejgin, Ephraty, Ben-Sira Work environment and burnout of
physical education teachers
J Teach
Phys Educ
1995
Macdonald’s
The “professional” work of experienced
physical education teachers
1999
Smith & Wai Leng
Prevalence and source of burnout in
Singapore secondary school physical
education teachers
Res Q
Exercise
Sport
J Teach
Phys Educ
2003
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BURNOUT IN PE TEACHERS 2
No one paper
correlated body
aspects of PE
teachers’ profession
with the risk of
burnout
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
BURNOUT IN PE TEACHERS 3
The body is one of the “centres of
gravity” of a PE teacher’s job
Teachers have often to use their bodies
as an “instrument” to demonstrate skills,
acting as a model to imitate
They often have to apply the meaning
of what they are teaching to themselves,
exposing to pupils’ observation and
evaluation far more than other teachers
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The Study: AIMS
To study the level of burnout in Italian PE
teachers
To explore the association between burnout,
demographic variables and specific
contextual variables
To analyse the relations between burnout
and the attitudes of teachers towards their
own bodies, in the terms of physical selfefficacy and confidence in their own abilities
when demonstrating exercises or physical
skills to their pupils during PE lessons
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
MATERIALS AND METHODS 1
PARTICIPANTS
219 Italian PE teachers
56% women, 44% men
average age 46.5, range 28-62
average length of service 22.3,
range 1-39
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MATERIALS AND METHODS 2
MEASURES
SPECIFIC QUESTIONNAIRE
Demographic and professional
information
Attitude towards profession
Attitude towards one’s own body
MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory)
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
MATERIALS AND METHODS 3
PROCEDURE
Teachers responded individually and anonymously
to the questionnaire
Basic descriptive statistics were used to define the
profile and burnout levels for the respondents
Analysis of variance were performed entering MBI
scores as dependent variables, the independent
variables were demographic, contextual and body
attitude factors
A chi-square test was performed on demographic
data
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RESULTS 1
Note: a) WORKING IN BADLY MANAGED FACILITIES; b) BEING UNDERPAID;
c) HAVING INADEQUATE INSTITUTIONAL SPACE AND TIME FOR
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT; d) HAVING UNSATISFACTORY
RELATIONS WITH COLLEAGUES; e) being overloaded with work; f) other
problems; g) feeling that teaching is not in tune with own interests and/or
capabilities; h) being on unsatisfactory terms with superiors; i) having
difficult family or social relations
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
RESULTS 2
MBI scores:
descriptors and score classes
MBI scales
Mean
SD
Range
High*
Medium
Low
Emotional
14.36
8.67
0-41
≥24
14-23
0-13
2.66
3.32
0-17
≥4
2-3
0-1
7.8
12-48
0-33
34-39
≥40
exhaustion
Depersonalisation
Reduced personal 35.95
accomplishment
Note. *Average values above the norm for Italian teachers as
reported by Sirigatti & Stefanile (1993)
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RESULTS 3
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
RESULTS 4
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RESULTS 5
ANOVA P value for MBI and
background information
Background
EE
Dep
RPA
.003
ns
.010
Age
ns
.042
ns
Length of service
ns
.043
ns
.013
.050
.006
ns
.001
ns
information
Gender
Type of school
Professional position
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
RESULTS 5
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RESULTS 6
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
RESULTS 7
Reduced Personal
Body attitude factors
Accomplishment
Weekly level of physical activity
p < .001
Perception of own fitness condition
p < .001
Present fitness compared with the
p = .006
past
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RESULTS 8
“Do you think that
your fitness level
could influence
positively the quality
of your teaching?”
“When you are
moving, for instance
at school when you
are demonstrating an
exercise, do you feel
coordinated?”
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
CONCLUSION 1
Is it necessary to motivate the
motivators towards the
personal practice of adequate
amounts of PA and a healthy
approach to their bodies during
their teaching career?
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CONCLUSION 2
Should these issues be discussed
at teacher training courses,
providing information on
professional stress and burnout
risks and suggesting strategies for
prevention?
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Prof. Attilio Carraro
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE
RESEARCH
Relationships between teachers’ selfreported burnout and pupils’ perception of
burnt-out teachers
Association between burnout and teaching
effectiveness
Efficacy of different methods for
preventing and coping with teacher
burnout
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Thank
you very
much for
your
attention
attilio.carraro@unipd.it
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