THE PREVENTION AND MENDING OF BURNOUT AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS 1

A substantial percentage of people who work with and for others will fall victim to burnout during their professional career. They will often not be able to continue work any longer in their profession. This is also the case in the teaching profession. Research revealed that pupils' disruptive behavior, especially disorder in the classroom, could be looked upon as a possible cause of teacher burnout (Brouwers & Tomic, 1998; Barquist, Hogelucht & Geist, 1997). It goes without saying that teachers should possess the specific skills to successfully manage their class. An important prerequisite for the attainment of this purpose is a high level of perceived self-efficacy. According to Bandura (1997) self-efficacy could be described as: "the beliefs in one's capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments" (p. 3). If however, the self-efficacy beliefs to manage clans are not stable and will fluctuate during a teacher's professional career. The following process may develop and become perceptible. In the first phase the teacher will become uncertain when confronted with new or challenging tanks which, as a result of that will be shunned. Dissatisfaction about the work performances and the achieved results wilt reinforce feelings of doubt about the quality of his or her work. Gradually, pupils will notice the teacher's self-doubts, and they consequently take over the initiative in the every day negotiations about classroom management: they instead of the teacher decide what is going to happen in the classroom. This process should not be given the change to develop, and if it does though, be stopped as soon as possible, in the interest of all parties involved in the educational process. In many cases the teachers will have to be helped to get back the trust in their skills in order to be able to manage class on a qualitatively high level. The question if and in which way intervention helps teachers from not becoming burnout because of disruptive pupil behavior is the main problem to be answered in this study. In this study the self-efficacy theory is the framework to be used in at possible intervention program. Designing a program that helps teachers to improve classroom management and thus prevent classroom disorder may contribute to the prevention of burnout. Before participating in an intervention program it must be clear whether the teacher lacks the self-efficacy to manage class or the skills necessary for good classroom management. The diagnosis is meant to provide the teacher with a program suited for his or her specific situation. In case one, self-efficacy reinforcement intervention exercises are necessary, whereas in the second case skills as such should be trained. As teachers differ in respect to self-efficacy or skills, they had better be offered individually focused training, First, burnout in a general sense wilt be discussed, then the self-efficacy theory and after that teacher burnout. The study continues with the application of the results found in literature into a suggested burnout intervention program.