Table of Contents
Seidman, S. A., and Zager, J. (1986–87). The Teacher Burnout Scale. Educational Research Quarterly 11:26–33.
Comments:
The 21-item Teacher Burnout Scale (TBS) was designed specifically to measure teacher burnout.
Scale Construction:
A 65-item scale was administered to 217 elementary and secondary school teachers from southern Indiana. The results were factor analyzed using a varimax rotation. Five factors emerged. The revised 23-item scale was administered to a sample of 365 teachers from northern Texas. The results were factor analyzed using a varimax rotation. Four factors emerged. The final version of the TBS contains 21 items.
Sample:
The TBS was administered to 490 public school teachers from Fort Worth, Texas.
Reliability:
Coefficients of internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) were 0.89 for career satisfaction, 0.84 for perceived administrative support, 0.80 for coping with job-related stress, and 0.72 for attitudes toward students. Test-retest reliability coefficients over a six- to eight-week interval (89 public school teachers) were 0.82 for career satisfaction, 0.78 for perceived administrative support, 0.56 for coping with job-related stress, and 0.76 for attitudes toward students. All reliability coefficients were significant at the 0.001 level.
Validity:
The factor analysis on the 490 teachers from Fort Worth established the existence of four orthogonal factors that are consistent with the literature. In addition, teachers who scored high on the four scales reported that they were more burned out than teachers who scored lower. The scores on the TBS were also correlated with the Maslach Burn- out Inventory (frequency dimension). The correlations were low to moderately high (construct validity). The predictive validity of the TBS was determined by using an ANOVA to test whether or not the burnout scores of teachers in low-stress/burnout schools would be lower than the teachers in high-stress/burnout schools. Significant main effects were found on all four scales. A Tukey HSD was then performed indicating that all four comparisons were statistically significant at the 0.05 level.
Factor Analysis:
A four-factor orthogonal varimax solution was accepted using criterion of eigenvalues greater than 1.0 and factor loading above 0.40. The four factors are: five items on career satisfaction (1, 5, 10, 12, and 19); six items on perceived administrative support (3, 8, 11, 15, 18, and 20); six items on coping with job-related stress (2, 4, 7, 9, 13, and 14); and four items on attitudes toward students (6, 16, 17, and 21).
Definition of Factors:
Career satisfaction refers to the selection of teaching as a career. Perceived administrative sup- port refers to whether or not teachers believe they receive adequate encouragement and assistance from their supervisors. Coping with job-related stress refers to feelings of lethargy, depression, and other negative manifestations of stress. Attitudes toward students refer to positive and negative teacher attitudes.
References
Skuller, J. B. (2011). Teacher efficacy, teacher burnout, and attitudes towards students with autism. PhD dissertation, University of Louisville.
Zager, J. (1982). The relationship of personality, situational stress and anxiety factors to teacher burnout. PhD dissertation, Indiana University.
Teacher Burnout Scale
1. I look forward to teaching in the future.
2. I feel depressed because of my teaching experiences.
3. I get adequate praise from my supervisors for a job well done.
4. The teaching day seems to drag on and on.
5. I am glad that I selected teaching as a career.
6. The students act like a bunch of animals.
7. My physical illnesses may be related to my stress in this job.
8. I feel that the administrators are willing to help me with classroom problems, should they arise.
9. I find it difficult to calm down after a day of teaching.
10. Teaching is more fulfilling than I had expected.
11. I believe that my efforts in the classroom are unappreciated by the administrators.
12. If I had to do it all over again, I would not become a schoolteacher.
13. I feel that I could do a much better job of teaching if only the problems confronting me were not so great.
14. The stresses in this job are more than I can bear.
15. My supervisors give me more criticism than praise.
16. Most of my students are decent people.
17. Most students come to school ready to learn.
18. I feel that the administrators will not help me with classroom difficulties.
19. I look forward to each teaching day.
20. The administration blames me for classroom problems.
21. Students come to school with bad attitudes.
Scoring:
Strongly Agree, Moderately Agree, Slightly Agree, Slightly Disagree, Moderately Disagree, and Strongly Disagree.