Students' Perceptions of the Incidence of Burn-out among Their Teachers

The aim was to explore students' perceptions of teacher burn-out in relation to the incidence of disruptive student classroom behaviour and teachers' competence to cope with it. A random sample of students from a Regional Training Centre participated. First, it was shown that the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Coping with Disruptive Behaviour Scale and the Perceived Disruptive Behaviour Scale could be adapted for students to report symptoms of burn-out perceived among their teachers, the occurrence of perceived disruptive student behaviour and the students' perception of their teachers' ability to cope with such behaviour. Second, students' perceptions do not differ according to their age. Third, a significant difference was found between the perceptions of male and female students in respect of emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, but not in respect of personal achievement. Finally, a considerable percentage of variance on each of the three burn-out dimensions is explained by teachers' ability to cope with student disruptive behaviour and perceived disruptive student behaviour. Students' perceptions of their teachers appear to contribute valid information on the mental health of the latter. It is advisable for future research into teacher burn-out to be based both on the teachers' self-reports and on the students' reports.