Research On Job Burnout Among Senior High School English Teachers Under Professional Development Perspective

Teacher professional development has become an inevitable trend.However,teachers in high schools have been under enormous long-term work stress.Teachers' job burnout has become a prevalent phenomenon in current society.Teachers suffering from job burnout have little enthusiasm for work and have negative emotions,treat students coldly,and become alienated from students.This is detrimental to the smooth carrying out of teaching,as well as harmful to the their professional development.Currently,various researches have been carried out on teachers' job burnout,yet only a few are specifically on senior high school English teachers.This study investigated 78 English teachers in the senior high schools of Feicheng City in Shandong Province by using Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI).The specific research questions are as follows: What is the overall burnout situation of the senior high school teachers?Does senior high school English teachers' burnout situation show significant differences in demographic variables(gender,age,educational level,teaching experience,position,professional titles and school types)?What is the overall situation of the senior high school teachers' professional development ?What are the impacts of job burnout on the teachers' professional development?What are the causes of senior high school English teachers' job burnout and how to relieve this situation to promote teachers' professional development?The findings were as follows:The senior high school English teachers in Feicheng City underwent a low-level of burnout and a high-level emotional exhaustion.The burnout experience significantly varied according to teachers' different genders,professional titles and school types.It also revealed that male teachers,middle title teachers as well as public school teachers experienced higherlevel of burnout.However,no significant difference was revealed in the levels of burnout between teachers of different ages,educational levels,teaching experiences,as well as positions.In addition,the level of English teachers' professional development needed to be improved.The teachers' job burnout would have a negative impact on teachers' professional development and even hinder teachers' professional development.Teachers' job burnout was the result of the interaction among schools,society and as well as the teachers themselves.In order to alleviate English teachers' job burnout and promote teachers' professional development,this study proposed strategies from three aspects: the society,their organizations(their schools)and the teachers themselves.In the social sphere,teachers' social status should be enhanced and reasonable expectations should be held on the teachers' roles.As for their organizations(their schools),more flexible and diverse evaluation should be established and more reasonable school management systems should be improved,and more effective platforms should be established for the teachers' professional development.Finally,the teachers were advised to make self-adjustment and self-reflection accordingly so as to improve their self-professional development awareness.