Page 10 - ELG2001 Jan Issue 468

El•Gazette 468.qxp_El•Gazette 468 08/01/2020 15:57 Page 10

RESEARCH NEWS .

Traditional teaching tires teachers out

By Gillian Ragsdale PXFUEL

Traditional, teacher-centred
teaching is more likely to lead to
exhaustion than more modern,
constructivist methods where
students are actively responsible
for their own learning, according
to a study by Reza Zabihi and
Mina Khodabakhsh.
Teacher burnout across all
subjects is well-documented.
Stress can arise from workload,
lack of authority and poor
classroom environments. The
individual traits of teachers, such
as personality type and emotional
intelligence, can also contribute. Iran’s educational system remains traditional
Zabihi and Khodabakhsh
wanted to know whether if the teachers exercise as much modern, student-centred ap- A more traditional approach
teachers’ ideas about methodol- authority as possible in’; or more proach were less exhausted. may seem more straightforward
ogy could also be a factor. To find learner-centred, with questions A constructivist approach and less work, but among this
out, 79 English language teachers like, ‘Good teachers always specifically predicted lower levels group of teachers it also predicted
were recruited from institutions encourage students to think of of depersonalisation, meaning higher levels of exhaustion and
across Mashad, Iran to answer answers themselves’. teachers were “less likely to form a reduced feelings of personal
two questionnaires. Although the Iranian educa- detached and insensitive attitude accomplishment.
First the Maslach Burnout tion system favours traditional about teaching and students”.
Inventory assessed their degree of methods, overall these teachers The results support a move to- REFERENCE
burnout by asking how much they tended towards a constructionist wards student-centred education, n Zabihi, R. and
agreed with statements like: approach. Their average level of but there were a couple of ques- Khodabakhsh, M. (2019) ‘L2
‘Working directly with people puts burnout was moderate. tions. The majority of teachers in Teachers’ Traditional versus
too much stress on me’. Analysis revealed that tradi- this study were women (45 Constructivist
The Teaching and Learning tional teaching was significantly women vs 29 men), and they were Teaching/Learning
Conceptions Questionnaire then positively correlated with burnout, not randomly selected – they all Conceptions and Teacher
assessed whether their ideas about while a constructionist approach volunteered. Perhaps exhausted Burnout.’ Current Psychology
teaching were more traditional was significantly negatively cor- teachers might not be so eager to 38: 347-353 DOI
with questions such as, ‘It is best related. Teachers who used a more help? 10.1007/s12144-017-9610-z

The higher my level, the more I blame my teacher

By Gillian Ragsdale including ability, teacher influence success. But they were more likely authors show that cultural
and task difficulty. to look outside themselves to the factors can play a major role.
Personal responsibility for failure All students felt more teacher’s influence, luck and task Japanese and Thai students, for
decreases as adult Spanish successful at reading. The A1 difficulty to explain failure. example, were much more likely
students progress from beginner beginners felt least successful at Research suggests students are to blame themselves for failure,
to intermediate level, report speaking, but this became the generally more likely to persist in perhaps reflecting a greater
Manuel Soriano-Ferrer and Elena most successful skill for B1 level their efforts if they feel success is respect for teachers.
Alonso-Blanco in a study from students. Listening and writing under their control. Similarly, Teachers could use
Valencia, Spain. were felt to be the least- attributing success to their own collaborative tasks to enable
Language-learners’ beliefs successful activities. personal effort is more likely to students to see the real factors
about which factors influence When explaining why they boost their self-esteem and, leading to success or failure– as
success or failure strongly impact succeeded or failed, A1 level hence, motivation. students tend to assess their peers
their motivation. The authors students cited personal effort What happens though, when more realistically than themselves.
aimed to characterise these beliefs and strategy, while also success and failure are not
and see how they change as acknowledging the influence of attributed to the same causes? REFERENCE
learners move up the levels. the teacher, task difficulty and In this group of learners, the n Soriano-Ferrer, M. and
After taking an English class atmosphere. Lack of ability, A1 beginners appear to be less Alonso-Blanco, E. (2019) ‘Why
Proficiency Test, 407 adult learners effort, interest and enjoyment confident and overly dependent have I failed/Why have I passed?
completed both the Attribution were seen as leading to failure. on the teacher for success, while A comparison of students’ causal
Success Questionnaire and also the Higher-level B2 students were the intermediate students are attributions in second language
Attribution Failure Questionnaire. more likely to see their own more confident in their own acquisition (A1-B2 levels)’.
These asked students to rate their personal attributes, such as abilities – but more likely to British Journal of Educational
success or failure across the four ability, interest and especially blame the teacher for failure. Psychology.
skills, in terms of 12 attributes. enjoyment as contributing to Similar studies cited by the DOI:10.1111/bjep.12323
10 January 2020