ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN LATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS’ BURNOUT AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE CLASSROOM CLIMATE

Abstract

The present study explores associations between perceptions of late elementary school students (LESS) about teachers’ burn out and their perceptions of the classroom climate, assessed by an adjusted version of the “Maslach Burnout Inventory” (MBI-ED) and “My Class Inventory” respectively. The sample of the study consists of 501 students. The results indicated a bidirectional relationship between students’ perceptions of teachers' burnout and their perceptions of classroom climate. Specifically, emotional exhaustion predicts and is predicted by the majority of classroom climate dimensions (difficulty, satisfaction and cohesiveness). Depersonalization and personal accomplishment predict and are predicted by satisfaction. Moreover, the study showed that there were positive associations between the three dimensions of burnout and difficulty, friction and comparativeness. Also, burnout dimensions were negatively related to satisfaction and cohesiveness. Students’ perceptions of teachers’ burnout are stronger predictors of classroom climate than the opposite. The results are discussed in the context of the recent literature.