The investigation of social studies teachers' level of job burn-out and their self-efficacy belief

The aim of this study is to examine the job burnout level and self-efficacy beliefs of social studies teachers. This is a survey-based quantitative research. The sample of the study consisted of 154 social studies teachers working in secondary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the central districts of Van province and determined through random sampling method. The "Personal Information Form", "Maslach Burnout Inventory Educator Form" and "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" were used as data collection tools. The data was analyzed with the SPSS 22 program. Parametric tests such as Independent Samples t-Test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used. After data analysis, it was found that social studies teachers' burnout in emotional exhaustion dimension was moderate, burnout in depersonalization dimension was low and burnout in dimension of personal accomplishment was high. The job burnout levels of social studies teachers did not differ significantly based on their gender, age, marital status, and adequacy of the technological materials at the school in which they worked. However, significant differences were found in some dimension of job burnout based on their teaching experiences, how they worked (hourly paid or salaried), parents' level of care for their children and if they attended a training program or activities related to their job last year. It was found that the self-efficacy beliefs of social studies teachers were high in dimensions of academic self-efficacy, professional self-efficacy and social self-efficacy, and in the overall total of self-efficacy belief scale. However, it was found to be medium in the intellectual self-efficacy dimension. Self-efficacy beliefs of social studies teachers did not differ significantly based on their gender, age, teaching experiences, marital status, how they worked (hourly paid or salaried), parents' level of care for their children. However, a significant difference was found in the intellectual self-efficacy dimension based on the adequacy of the technological materials in the schools. Also, teachers' self-efficacy beliefs differed significantly all sub-dimensions and in overall total of the scale based on if they attended a training program or activities related to their job last year. No significant relationship was found between dimensions of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and dimensions of academic self-efficacy, professional self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, intellectual self-efficacy and total self-efficacy. A positive correlation was found between the personal accomplishment dimension of job burnout, and academic self-efficacy, professional self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, intellectual self-efficacy and total self-efficacy of the teachers.