A Study On The Professional Burnout Of Senior High School EFL Teachers From The Prospective Of Teachers’ Professional Development

In recent years,due to the increasing demands of society on education and the advancement of curriculum reform,teaching has become one of the most stressful professions.Therefore,more and more scholars have put their vision into the field of teachers’ job burnout research.The term teachers’ job burnout refers to the state of teachers who face pressure in the teaching work.On the one hand,teachers’ job burnout not only affects teachers’ physical and mental health,but also undermines their work efficiency,hindering teachers’ professional development.On the other hand,teachers’ job burnout will also subtly affect students’ academic performance,as well as the quality of teaching and the effective implementation of national education policies.There are a huge number of EFL teachers in our country’s education system.Compared with teachers of other subjects,they not only need to teach and develop students’ basic English skills,but also grasp the cross-cultural factors in English learning and reflect them in teaching.All these give them extra workload.Many domestic scholars have conducted researches on EFL teachers’ job burnout,and the quantity and quality of research have been improved.Throughout these studies,EFL teachers at all levels and regions are included;but there is still a lack of research on the job burnout of senior high school EFL teachers from the perspective of TPD(Teachers’ Professional Development).Based on the above reasons,this thesis starts from the perspective of Teachers’ Professional Development.This thesis adopts qualitative and quantitative methods with 82 senior high school EFL teachers as the research objects.Questionnaire surveys have been adopted from demographic variables of senior high school EFL teachers in different regions.In addition,semi-structured interviews are conducted to further understand teachers’ truly heart.The research focuses on the following three issues:(1)What is the current status of teachers’ job burnout among senior high school EFL teachers?(2)What are the main influencing factors of senior high school EFL teachers’ job burnout?(3)What is the relationship between senior high school EFL teachers’ job burnout and their professional development?The research results show that EFL teachers in senior high schools have moderate job burnout;teachers’ emotional exhaustion is relatively severe and their sense of accomplishment is low.In addition,teachers’ job burnout has a greater relationship with teachers’ age,teaching age and professional titles.However,there is no significant difference in teachers’ job burnout among teachers’ gender,different marriage status,educational background,teachers’ duty,monthly income and school type.In addition to demographic variables,social,organizational and personal factors also play a role in teachers’ job burnout.EFL teachers’ job burnout,which is interconnected with the society,school and individual,is closely related to their professional development.Teachers’ job burnout is not conducive to the professional development of themselves,especially for teachers who have moderate or severe job burnout.On the other hand,lagging or even slow teachers’ professional development can also cause teachers’ job burnout.Teachers’ job burnout is the result of the interaction of many factors such as society,school and individual.Therefore,in order to alleviate EFL teachers’ burnout and promote Teachers’ Professional Development,the author proposes strategies from three aspects including the related governments,schools and teacher themselves.In the first place,educational departments should pay attention to the professional burnout of teachers.Measures include increasing teachers’ salaries,paying attention to teachers’ spiritual demands and implementing the policy of teacher lifelong development.The organizational aspect also makes a difference.Schools should optimize the teaching environment and improve the assessment and evaluation mechanism.It is important to optimize the administrative and teaching management and pay more attention to teaching work and promptly reflect teachers’ concerns to the education departments.Last but not least,teachers themselves should actively participate in teacher professional training to improve teaching and management capabilities.On the other hand,teachers can also strengthen reflective evaluation and implement the concept of lifelong learning to continuously improve their professional knowledge and overall qualities.