Study Document
Pages:25 (8932 words)
Sources:25
Subject:Education
Topic:Field Trip
Document Type:Literature Review
Document:#29760340
It is argued that teacher are exposed to role conflict, role ambiguity, lack of autonomy, social isolation and lack of self-fulfillment resulting from the special position in the schools bureaucratic system. Coupled with this is the general tendency for the teaching profession to be the least rewarded in the hierarchy of jobs.
The physical education teacher and burnout intersect at two different but related points. Firstly the notion that the teacher's reward is in heaven as some writers argue positions the teaching job as sacrificial for which adequate compensation is not given. The situation among physical education teacher has been exhausted in a lot of research because of specific peculiarities. Parsons (1968) has already discovered that the physical education teacher and the teaching profession's professionalism are highly questionable under the functional theory. Parsons who is the originator of this theory has been one of the forthright analysts of teachers and how society perceives that profession. He asserts that the major factors that determines the status of a profession in the social hierarchy of profession is a result of the degree to which its members offer a service perceived as critical to the clients life and the possession of monopoly over an esoteric body of knowledge necessary to perform this service and the degree of autonomy granted to members of the profession to control the quality of the service. He agrees with earlier claims by (Slavin, 1996) in several instances, teaching is not perceived as critical to students' lives, as much as other professions such as medicine. He further asserts that the re is an inherent perception that the knowledge most teachers hold is not significantly remote from lay knowledge while the degree of autonomy in teaching is very limited within the school organization. (Benveniste, 1986)
Secondly, Bragverman (1974) and Hargreaves (1977) contend that for the Physical Education teacher, the case is even more problematic because of the manual mental dichotomy and work-play dichotomy makes him or her more open to burnout. He agrees with other researchers who argue that the superiority of mental and work-like activities in schools places Physical Education towards the bottom of the school subjects' hierarchy. The marginality of the Physical Education Profession (Benveniste, 1986) as perceived by other teachers (Wood M, 2000), by student and parents and by Physical education teachers themselves may result in a social isolation of the Physical Education teacher in school because principals, teachers, and counselors may think it unnecessary to involve the Physical Education teacher in decisions concerning individual students or the school organisation.
Davis (1981) reported that detachment of Physical Education teachers from the general teaching staff is one of four factors explaining 70% of their dissatisfaction from work. Other researches suggested that colleagues' support may prevent Physical Education teachers' burnout (Kohlmaier, 1981) The Physical Education teacher's role is not as clearly defined as that of the academic teacher. Schools and principals differ in their expectations of the Physical Education teachers. Some are expected to only teach, whereas others are expected to teach and coach. Others are expected to take a more active role in Organising school events and field trips, because they have less paperwork and because of their supposed experience in organizing sporting events.
In most researches regarding burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the dominant instrument used as a questionnaire to assess self reported teacher burnout. But the characteristics of every situation demand that it be adapted in terms of its general features and principles while incorporating the specific issues under review to enable it measure an accurate account of the problem. Tatar and Yahav who were the first to use this in the education domain adopted a short version of this. In this way; they had students fill out the items on this instrument to report perceived symptoms of burnout among their teachers. The researchers used an adapted version of the MBI (14 items), divided into three sections. In their study, they asked secondary school pupils (N=297), but not their teachers, to score the items describing potential characteristics of burned out teachers. Their findings show that pupils' perceptions of the occurrence of burnout among their teachers can supply researchers with reliable data. The study stresses the importance of the pupils' views in analyzing burnout among teachers, which will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the role pupils' behaviour in the origin of teacher burnout.
Nevertheless beyond the general description of burnout as narrated in the discussions above lies the systematic and conscious attempt to ascribe academic or scientific studies to the field outside the psychology enclave which is besieged with a number of limitations. Farber (1982) objection to many burnout studies concerns how valid data are collected about the phenomenon. He argues that although self-report questionnaires and self-information to medical doctors and/or psychologists may provide the proof that someone suffers from burnout to a certain degree, the debilitating effects of burnout requires an improvement to its assessment incidence. It is also their argument that an examination of current research into the subject falls short of a firm theoretical basis hence the proof of causal relationship between environment stressors and individual health consequences is almost entirely lacking. This assertion proceeds from the evidence that the other behavioral theories which are usually the theoretical framework for these studies lack specificity and ability to explain burnout relationships by interpolation. This lack of sound theoretical framework which unifies and guides empirical research in this area also hinders any attempt to make comparisons among research in this area as each is carried out with its own peculiarities and underlining yardsticks. But in the absence of any specific burnout theory, the Social Cognitive Theory of Bandura (1977) has provided a near perfect (without prejudice to its limitations) substitute for an analysis with the teaching profession in general and Physical Education teachers in particular.
Social Cognitive theory (Person, Behaviour and Environment)
The linkages between the study of teacher burnouts the social cognitive theory can be facilitated by a recollection of its historic antecedents. While other social psychologist Friedman (1992). have classified it as belonging to the right of centre theories considering the process of it development dating back to the social learning theory proposed by Mitchell, & Oslin (1999). embodying the principles of observational learning and vicarious reinforcement. Bandura who is directly associated with the term Social Cognitive Theory as a development from the Social Learning Theory provided his concept of self-efficacy in 1977, while he refuted the traditional learning theory for understanding learning. In 1986, Bandura officially launched the SCT with his book Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory.
History rightly acknowledges that the original theory was in responds to the burnout crisis that besieged the nursing profession around the time. Even though there were a lot of other theories which this presentation will attempt to draw comparison with, its limitation and inadequacy to fully unveil the psychological intricacies of this problem necessitated this historic feat but Oslin, J., Collier, C., & Mitchell, S. (2001) however contends that The Social Cognitive Theory has its origins in the discipline of psychology, with its early foundation being laid by behavioral and social psychologists. In his view The Social Learning Theory evolved under the umbrella of behaviorism, which is a cluster of psychological theories intended to explain why people and animals behave the way that they do. Behaviorism, introduced by John Watson in 1913, took an extremely mechanistic approach to understanding human behavior. According to Watson, behavior could be explained in terms of observable acts that could be described by stimulus-response sequences (Crosbie-Brunett and Lewis, 1993; Thomas, 1990). Another theme of behaviorist study was the notion that contiguity between stimulus and response determined the likelihood that learning would occur. Over the years, the adoption of the theory to study other aspects of human endeavor has been overwhelming imposing its relevance and usefulness in field of public and private administration, and other behavioral science professions with particular reference to education to which this research is devoted. (Austin, 1990)
The core assumptions of the social cognitive theory explain how people acquire and maintain certain behavioral patterns while also providing the basis for intervention strategies (Banduar, 1997). The Social Cognitive Theory defines human behavior as an interaction of personal factors, behavior, and the environment. According to this theory, an individual's behavior is uniquely determined by each of these three factors. Personal factors embrace a person's expectations, beliefs, self-perceptions, goals, intentions shape and direct behavior. However, the behavior that is carried out will then affect one's thoughts and emotions. Environmental factors on the other hand suggest that human expectations, beliefs, and cognitive competencies are developed and modified by social influences and physical structures within the environment. These social influences can convey information and activate emotional reactions through such factors as modeling, instruction, and social persuasion. The third factor is behavioral factors. The theory argues that a…
References
Akers RL. (1985) Adolescent marijuana use: A test of three theories of deviant behavior. Deviant Behavior, 6(4):323-346
Akers RL. (1989) Social learning theory and alcohol behavior among the elderly. Sociological Quarterly, 30(4):625-638
Akers RL. (1996) A longitudinal test of social learning theory: Adolescent smoking. Journal of Drug Issues, 26(2):317-343
Akers RL, Krohn MD, Lanza-Kaduce Lonn, and Rodosevich M. (1979) Social learning and deviant behavior: A specific test of a general theory. American Sociological Review, 44:636-655.
Study Document
Market Orientation of Medical Diagnostic Units Dissertation for Master of Health Administration i. Introduction ii. Objectives iii. Description iv Administrative Internship v. Scope and Approach vi. Growth vii. Methodology viii. Hypothesis ix. Survey Questionnaire x. Research Design xi. Observation and Data Presentation xii. Test provided xiii. Analysis of findings Marketability of Patient Satisfaction Importance of Employee Satisfaction xiv. Conclusions and Recommendations xv. Bibliography xvi. Notes xvii. Appendices Market Orientation of Medical Diagnostic Units