The prediction of the teachers burnoud according to the irrational beliefs and vocational variables

Ill ABSTRACT THE PREDICTION OF THE TEACHERS' BURNOUT ACCORDING TO THE IRRATIONAL BELIEFS AND VOCATIONAL VARIABLES Bülent GÜNDÜZ Ph.D.Thesis, Department of Educational Science Supervisor : Prof. Dr. S. Sonay GÜÇRAY November, 2004, 141 pages The purpose of this study was to find out whether the teacher burnout is related with the personal and vocational variables or not and to investigate the prediction of the teachers' burnout according to the irrational beliefs and vocational and personal variables. The sample of the study consisted of 633 elementary school teachers working in official and private primary schools in Mersin. To find out the burnout in this research "Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)", developed by Maslach and Jackson (1981) and adapted to Turkish culture by Ergin (1992), was used. To reveal the irrational beliefs "Irrational Beliefs Scale-Teacher Questionare (IBS-TQ) developed by the researcher was used, and the data related to teachers' personal and vocational features were collected by "Personal Data Questionaire.", developed by the researcher as well. For data analysis, the SPSS for windows version 11.0 was used. Separate stepwise linear multiple regression analysis, ANOVA and "t" test were administered to the data. Tukey test was used as Post-hoc test, and significance level was 0.05 for all analyses. The results of the study can be summarized as follows : When the personal and vocational variables of the teachers and MBI subscale scores were examined :IV "Emotional exhaustion" subscale scores differs according to "type of school graduated", "type of school worked in", "branch of the teachers", "the number of the students in the classroom", "social support", and "source of social support", "Depersonalization " subscale scores differs according to "work experiences", "type of school graduated", "type of school worked in", and "social support" variables, "Personal accomplishment" subscale scores differs according to "work experiences", "type of school graduated", "type of school worked in", "branch of the teachers", "the number of the students in the classroom", "social support", and "source of social support". On the other hand, "gender" and "marital status" variables have not any significant effect on the subscale of MBI. In this research the most significant variables which predict the burnout were irrational beliefs, "emotional exhaustion " was predicted by "attitude towards students", "attitude towards school and parents", "attitude towards oneself and "social support" variables. "Depersonalization " was predicted by "attitude towards students", and "work experiences"; "personal accomplishment" was predicted by "attitude towards oneself, "attitude towards students", "work experiences", "social support", "attitude towards school and parents", and "type of school worked in". Key Words : Burnout, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, Personal Accomplishment, Irrational Beliefs.