School Psychology International

http://spi.sagepub.com/ Teacher Self-Efficacy, Burnout, Experience and Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student
Carla J. Egyed and Rick Jay Short School Psychology International 2006 27: 462 DOI: 10.1177/0143034306070432 The online version of this article can be found at: http://spi.sagepub.com/content/27/4/462

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Teacher Self-Efficacy, Burnout, Experience and Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student

CARLA J. EGYEDa and RICK JAY SHORTb University of Missouri-Columbia, USA andb

Middle Tennessee State University

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher characteristics that may lead to special education referrals, including efficacy, burnout, experience, and preparation. We hypothesized that likelihood to refer for special education is related to these teacher characteristics. This study involved 106 elementary teachers who rated themselves on the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES). They were given a case vignette of a child exhibiting behavioural problems in a classroom and were asked how likely they would be to refer the child for special education assessment. Analyses revealed that teachers who were uncertain whether they would refer a child for special education testing had higher levels of burnout than teachers who were more decided about whether to refer. No relationship was found between teacher sense of efficacy, experience, or preparation and decision to refer. Significant correlations between the subscales on the MBI and the TES suggest an inverse relationship between teacher sense of efficacy and teacher burnout. KEY WORDS: burnout; experience and referral of disruptive students;

teacher efficacy

Teacher referral typically is the initial step in diagnosis and placement for special education services and, in an overwhelming number of cases, teacher referral for special education culminates in special education placement (Algozzine et al., 1982). Despite its importance, the decision to refer a child for special education services often is subjective, and may rely on teachers level of tolerance of disruptive behaviours (Ysseldyke et al., 1983). Given the high probability of special education labelling and placement as a result of teacher referral, teacher referral
Please address correspondence to: Dr Rick Jay Short, College of Education and Behavioral Science, PO Box 93, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA. Email: rshort@mtsu.edu School Psychology International Copyright 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), Vol. 27(4): 462474. DOI: 10.1177/0143034306070432

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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student ideally should be an objective appraisal of student characteristics. If teachers characteristics influence their decision to refer for special education placement, the integrity of special education diagnosis and placement based on student characteristics and needs is diminished (Schwartz et al., 1997). Accordingly, understanding of teacher characteristics that may influence referrals of students is important in understanding the special education decision-making process. Several types of teacher characteristics may influence the decision to refer students for special education services, including self-concept (Friedman and Farber, 1992), behavioural standards (McIntyre, 1990), ethnicity (Tobias et al., 1982; Tobias et al., 1983). Primary teacher characteristics that influence decision to refer may also include level of teacher experience, and teachers ability to deal with classroom problems. More highly trained and experienced teachers should be equipped with more extensive skills than less prepared teachers, and should have greater familiarity with classroom problems and how to manage them. These better-prepared teachers should be less likely to refer problematic children for special education services. Also, teachers that perceive themselves to be in greater control of classroom instruction and behaviour should see themselves as better able to deal with academic and behaviour problems, rather than needing to refer them for services outside of their classroom. Teachers who perceive that they have less control and personal resources for addressing classroom problems should be more likely to refer problems for services outside of their classrooms. Teachers who believe that student problems are manageable, and that they are able to manage them, may be less likely to refer problematic children for services outside the classroom. Conversely, teachers that have exhausted all personal resources in dealing with classroom problems may be more likely to decide to refer children for services outside the classroom. Teacher self-efficacy Teachers perceived efficacy has been shown in some studies to have a differential effect on the likelihood of referral of students for special education testing (Meijer and Foster, 1988; Soodak and Podell, 1993). Soodak and Podell (1993) found a high negative correlation between sense of efficacy of teachers and willingness to refer a child who was exhibiting behaviour problems. They also found that teachers with low self-efficacy were more likely to refer low-SES students for special education than teachers with high self-efficacy, for which the childs SES did not affect referral probabilities. Meijer and Foster (1988), in a study of teachers sense of efficacy, type of problem, and referral chance, found that teachers with higher self-efficacy were less likely to refer a hypothetical child for special education placement and less likely to see 463
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School Psychology International (2006), Vol. 27(4) the child as being problematic. They also found that the higher the number of pupils a teacher had in a class, the more likely he or she was to choose to refer the hypothetical child. In contrast, Hughes and her colleagues (Hughes et al., 1993) reported that, although more experienced teachers in their study were more likely to refer than less experienced teachers, self-efficacy did not predict decisions to refer. Teacher sense of efficacy also has been related to student behaviour and academic performance. Gibson and Dembo (1984) found differences in the classroom behaviour of low- and high-self-efficacy teachers (e.g. time spent in small group versus whole group instruction, use of criticism in feedback given to students, and lack of persistence in failure situations). Ashton and Webb (1986) found that student scores on a standardized language achievement test correlated significantly with teachers sense of personal teaching efficacy. Teacher burnout Stress and burnout may also relate to teachers decisions to refer a student. Professionals who experience burnout are characterized by emotional exhaustion, negative self-evaluation, combined with cynicism and negativism concerning those with whom they work (Abidin and Robinson, 2002; Maslach, 1978; Maslach and Jackson, 1981). Teachers who are burned out may have fewer resources to be concerned about their students needs and may lack the energy needed to handle pupils behaviour problems themselves (Evers et al., 2004). Teachers who feel overwhelmed and overstressed may be more apathetic toward their students. Such teachers may be more likely to desire removal of problem students because they have fewer personal resources available to deal with classroom problems. Burnout may lead to not wanting to help a problem student, opting to have someone else deal with that student. Weiskopf (1980) theorized that burnout among teachers may be due to unmet unrealistic expectations of students that lead to a feeling of failure, which may result in lowered self-esteem and a lack of confidence. Theoretically, burnout should relate to both teacher efficacy and decision to refer for special education services. A negative or cynical attitude may reduce a teachers estimation of a childs chances for success in the classroom and may make teachers unwilling to work with a difficult child. A teacher who is emotionally exhausted may not feel that he or she has the emotional reserve to interact with a difficult student. Also, a teacher who evaluates his or her work negatively or has a low sense of personal accomplishment might feel that his or her work does not have a positive impact on student achievement, which will culminate in a lack of persistence in working with a child with difficulties and thereby increase the desire to refer the student. 464
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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student Working with children, especially children with disruptive behaviours, can be exhausting work. Emotional energy can be drained, leaving the teacher feeling tired and possibly unwilling or unable to adequately perform the behaviours required to manage students behaviour. Emotional exhaustion may lead to or result in a lack of persistence at trying to overcome student behaviour problems and thus may be directly linked to decreased personal teacher efficacy. Emotional exhaustion may also lead to decreased efficacy because it may result in the deterioration in the effort or care that a teacher exhibits towards her or his students. When this happens, teachers may recognize that they are not as effective as they should be. Teachers sense of efficacy has been shown to increase with years of experience (Soodak and Podell, 1997) and therefore may be inversely related to the number of referrals for special education. However, years of experience also may relate to increased levels of burnout and thus may relate to increased likelihood of deciding to refer for special education. Accordingly, teaching experience may affect how teachers perceive their abilities and limitations, how they perceive their students, and their decisions on handling problems in their classrooms. Experience may also give teachers a better repertoire of effective classroom techniques to employ to manage disruptive student behaviour, as well as providing a clearer idea of the kinds of behaviour problems that result in special education placement. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship of teacher efficacy, burnout, and experience to teacher decision to refer for special education placement. We hypothesized that higher levels of teacher training and experience would be related to lower likelihood of special education referral. Further, we hypothesized that a higher level of teachers perceived ability to deal with classroom problems would be related to lower likelihood of special education referral. More specifically, teachers with high levels of efficacy should be less likely than teachers with low levels of efficacy to refer students with behaviour problems to special education, and teachers with high levels of burnout should be more likely than less burned out teachers to refer behaviour problems to special education.

Methods Participants One hundred and six elementary classroom teachers from elementary schools in three school districts (urban, suburban, and rural) in the mid-United States participated in the study. Thirty-eight participants were from an urban district, 40 were from a suburban district, and 28 465
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School Psychology International (2006), Vol. 27(4) were from a rural district. The sample was predominantly female (n = 94, 88.6 percent). Most participants reported having advanced graduate training (n = 84, 79.2 percent) and at least one course in behaviour management (n = 58, 54.7 percent). The mean age in years of participants was 43 (SD = 10.83], and mean years of teaching experience was 13.77 (SD = 9.45). Prior to asking teachers to participate, consent from each participating school was obtained from the school administrator. Each participant who completed a survey was entered in a draw for 150 dollars as an incentive to participate. A total of 207 packets were sent out and 106 usable packets were returned. The response rate for completed packets was 51 percent. Instruments The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a 22-item Likert-type scale, was used to measure teacher burnout (Maslach and Jackson, 1986). The MBI originally was normed on 605 human service professionals, including representatives from law, health, and education. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of the MBI has yielded four factors, which the authors labelled Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalization (D), Personal Accomplishment (PA), and Involvement. However, the original authors determined that Involvement was insufficiently powerful for inclusion and eliminated that factor from the final solution. Convergent validity was established through behaviour ratings by others who knew the subjects, correlating job characteristics thought to contribute to burnout on the job, and correlating outcomes that were thought to be associated with burnout. Discriminant validity was also established by differentiating the MBI from measurements of job dissatisfaction and social desirability response set, constructs that might have been confounded with burnout. Coefficient alpha for the MBI (n = 420) was 0.83 for frequency and 0.84 for intensity. Reliability coefficients for the three subscales ranged from 0.72 to 0.89 and test retest reliability coefficients (for a two- to four-week time period) ranged from 0.60 to 0.82 for the subscales. For purposes of this study, scores from the three scales of the MBI were calculated and summed together to obtain an overall index of teacher burnout. Because the EE scale and the D scale were scored negatively and the PA scale was scored positively, the scores were recoded for PA such that higher scores indicated less personal lower perceptions of personal accomplishment. The Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) was used to measure the teachers perceived self-efficacy. This is a 16-item version of Gibson and Dembos Teacher Efficacy Scale (1984) that was shortened from 30 items because Gibson and Dembo achieved adequate reliability at 0.79 using only 16 items. Gibson and Dembo administered the 30-item scale to 208 466
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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student elementary teachers who had between one and 39 years of teaching experience. A principal components factor analysis yielded a 16-item scale with two factors, Teaching Efficacy (TE) and Personal Teaching Efficacy (PTE). These factors generally concurred with the two-factor (outcome expectations and self-efficacy beliefs) model of self-efficacy proposed by Bandura (1977). Measures of internal consistency showed a Cronbachs alpha of 0.78 for PTE scale and 0.75 for the TE scale. Reliability was moderately high for the total 16-item scale with a coefficient alpha of 0.79 (Gibson and Dembo, 1984). A multi-trait, multi-method analysis was conducted to determine the scales validity. Convergent validity was obtained by giving the TES along with another measure of teacher efficacy, two measures of verbal ability, and two measures of flexibility to 55 teachers in graduate education courses. One measure of each of the three constructs was open-ended, and the other measure of the construct was closed-ended. Discriminant validity was demonstrated in that the correlation between the two methods of efficacy was higher than the correlation between efficacy and verbal ability and efficacy and flexibility. Decision to refer was measured through the use of a case vignette. After reading the vignette, participants were asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 100, how likely they were to refer the child in the vignette for extraclass placement. The vignette, written by Hayes and Havey (1999) consisted of a description of an eight-year-old boy who is exhibiting disruptive behaviour consistent with behaviours described on the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behaviour Checklist (TRF) (Achenbach, 1991) Externalizing Scale. The behaviours described in the vignette would yield an Externalizing T-Score of 70, which is at the cut-off for the Clinically Significant Range on the TRF. The description was of an eight-year-old boy because research has shown that boys and younger children are more likely to be referred (Ysseldyke et al., 1983). As well as the referral question, other questions were included as distracters so that the research hypothesis was masked. Preliminary analysis of the decision to refer variable indicated that teacher responses on the variable were bimodal, with responses clustering around two points (50 percent and 100 percent), suggesting a predictable response set that minimized interpretation of responses as a continuous variable. Therefore, the variable was recoded into three groups. Scores of 033 were recoded as little likelihood of deciding to refer [n = 33], scores of 3466 were recoded as uncertain about deciding to refer (n = 25), and scores of 67100 were coded as high likelihood of deciding to refer (n = 48). The strategy of using three levels of referral likelihood was adopted to account for respondents apparent emphasis on middle- and high-likelihood predictions and to facilitate interpretability of results. 467
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School Psychology International (2006), Vol. 27(4) Procedure After getting approval from each participating school district and school, packets were sent to all teachers at each participating school. The packets included a cover sheet that described the nature and purpose of the study, the demographic questionnaire, the Teacher Efficacy Scale (Gibson and Dembo, 1984: shortened version), the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson, 1986), and the case vignette and referral question (Hayes and Havey, 1999). The teachers returned their responses in a sealed envelope to the investigators. All responses were confidential. Participants names were entered into a draw for $150 as incentive to participate.

Results The overall purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of teacher characteristics to decision to refer for special education services. It was hypothesized that teacher characteristics would be related to decision to refer, which may influence special education decision making and therefore comprise a threat to the validity of the special education placement process. Because previous research has shown that referral for special education services almost always results in special education placement, teacher characteristics that influence the decision to refer for special education services ultimately also may influence special education diagnosis and placement. The dependent variable for the study was decision to refer for special education services. Independent variables included teacher efficacy, burnout, experience, and training. An ANOVA design was used to investigate differences among decision-to-refer groups (Little Likelihood, Uncertain, High Likelihood) on variables of teacher burnout, teacher efficacy, training, and experience. Results of the ANOVAs showed that decision-to-refer groups differed significantly only on teacher burnout [F (2,103) = 5.235, p = 0.007]. Scheffe post-hoc tests revealed that this difference was accounted for by differences between the High Likelihood group and the Uncertain group: the High Likelihood group was significantly lower on burnout than the Uncertain group (mean difference = 14.08, p = 0.008). Differences between the Little Likelihood and Uncertain groups approached but did not reach statistical significance ([p= 0.066), with the Uncertain group reporting higher levels of burnout than the Little Likelihood group. These results suggest that teachers with higher levels of burnout are not necessarily more likely to decide to refer, but rather that teachers with higher levels of burnout are more likely to be uncertain about whether to refer. Results of other ANOVAs produced no significant differences between decision to refer and 468
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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student Table 1 Means and standard deviations of burnout, efficacy, and years taught for referrral groups
Decision to refer Little likelihood Uncertain High likelihood Total N 33 25 48 106 MBI 31.69 (18.92) 42.89 (19.14) 28.81 (16.41) 33.03 (18.58) TES 69.97 (6.25) 69.10 (8.49) 69.70 (7.02) 69.64 (7.11) Years 14.58 15.28 12.44 13.77

Note. MBI is the MBI Total score, TES is the TES Total score, and Years is the number of years of teaching.

Table 2

Correlations among burnout and self-efficacy variables

DP EE PA TES Total PTE TE Years

MBI total DP EE PA TES Total PTE TE

0.751** 0.932** 0.613** 0.048 0.229* 0.183 0.013 0.600** 0.300** 0.039 0.262** 0.230* 0.091 0.359** 0.014 0.118 0.147 0.037 0.159 0.278** 0.085 0.039 0.682** 0.613** 0.278** 0.159 0.249* 0.107

Note. * significant at the 0.05 level ** significant at the 0.01 level

Table 3
Training

Mean burnout scores for different training quantities

MBI total 30.50 37.90 39.71 26.74 DP 5.20 5.77 6.82 2.68 EE 15.20 23.32 24.24 17.41 PA 37.90 39.19 40.94 41.36

None Part of a course or workshop A whole course Two or more courses

Table 4
Training

Mean efficacy scores for different training quantities

MBI total 30.50 37.90 39.71 26.74 DP 5.20 5.77 6.82 2.68 EE 15.20 23.32 24.24 17.41 PA 37.90 39.19 40.94 41.36

None Part of a course or workshop A whole course Two or more courses

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School Psychology International (2006), Vol. 27(4) teacher variables. ANOVA results showed no significant relationship among teacher burnout, teacher efficacy, and teacher education level. Means and standard deviations of dependent variables by decision-torefer groups are summarized in Table 1. A discriminant function analysis was performed using experience, teacher burnout, and teacher efficacy as predictors of decision to refer. Evaluation of assumptions of linearity, normality, multicollinearity or singularity, and homogeneity of variance-covariance matrices revealed no threat to multivariate analysis. Step-wise discriminant function analysis indicated that only teacher burnout significantly predicted decision to refer [Wilks Lambda F = 5.235, p < 0.01]. We also investigated relationships among teacher characteristics that may relate to decision to refer. The TES total score and MBI total score were not significantly related, r = 0.048, ns. Correlational analysis between subscales on the MBI and the TES revealed significant negative correlations between MBI total score and Personal Teaching Efficacy, r = 0.229, and between Depersonalization and Personal Teaching Efficacy, r = 0.0262. Positive correlations were found between Personal Accomplishment and Personal Teaching Efficacy, r = 0.278. These correlations provide some support for the hypothesis that teacher efficacy and burnout are inversely related. The positive correlation between Depersonalization and Teaching Efficacy, r = 0.230, however, seemed to be in contrast to this hypothesis. There was a significant correlation between years of teaching experience and TES total score (r = 0.278) and Personal Teaching Efficacy (r = 0.249). However, results of an ANOVA investigating level of training, efficacy, and burnout showed that teachers with more training in behaviour management reported lower levels of burnout [F (3,98) = 3.540, p = 0.017] and higher levels of personal efficacy [F (3,98) = 3.802 , p= 0.013].

Discussion In this study, we hypothesized that teacher characteristics would be directly related to likelihood of child referral to special education. The hypothesized relationship of one such teacher characteristic, teacher burnout, received partial support in the study. Teachers who were uncertain about whether to refer reported significantly higher levels of burnout than teachers who were certain about whether they would or would not refer. These surprising findings may be explained by the idea that teachers reporting lower levels of burnout either have not given up trying to help the child or view special education as the most effective intervention. Teachers who reported low burnout may believe that clear, effective options remain available for addressing difficult students. That is, these teachers believe on the one hand that their 470
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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student classrooms are viable, productive alternatives for dealing with problematic children, or on the other hand that special education is an effective alternative that may provide disruptive students with the necessary support they need to succeed in the academic environment. Therefore, teachers reporting low burnout may not view special education as simply a means of removing a child from their classroom, but as a positive solution to the problem. In contrast, teachers who report higher levels of burnout may be experiencing internal conflict and uncertainty about whether they will be able to deal with problem children in their classrooms, or they may believe that neither option is likely to provide acceptable outcomes for problem children. Burnout has been implicated in the lack of concern for the welfare of those with whom one works and also the deterioration of the services or care provided. This might also have implications for other aspects of teachers interactions with disruptive students. Teachers who exhibit characteristics of burnout may lack the mental energy or concern for students to properly implement pre-referral or post-identification interventions aimed at reducing problematic behaviour. These teachers may not perceive the utility of interventions or see them as to time consuming or not effective and therefore discount them before giving them a chance to work. Freudenberger (1977) suggested that individuals who are burned out are inflexible in their thinking and may be closed minded about innovation. This could impact teachers willingness to try new intervention strategies. Some of the findings of the study were surprising. Results failing to support a relationship between decision to refer and teacher sense of efficacy contradict some previous research, which reported an inverse relationship between them (Meijer and Foster, 1988; Soodak and Podell, 1993). This result may be a reflection of the self-report nature of the study, or it may be that teachers in general are getting better at discerning whether a student needs to be referred for special education evaluation. The finding that the number of years of teaching experience was not related to burnout was unexpected, though conflicting evidence exists in the literature (Schwab and Iwanicki, 1982; Zabel and Zabel, 1983). Previous writers have suggested that preservice teachers have unrealistic expectations of the demands of the job and are overwhelmed upon entering their first year in the field, leaving them feeling burned out (Cedoline, 1982). Some teachers may be better at utilizing coping strategies than others and may be better at fighting off the manifestation of stress and burnout. Another possible explanation for this may be that as teachers progress in their careers, the highly burned out teachers may have already left the profession, leaving the better coping teachers in the field. The failure to find a difference in burnout and sense of efficacy 471
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School Psychology International (2006), Vol. 27(4) between teachers with different education levels was unexpected, although this finding may be congruent with some previous findings (Banks and Necco, 1990; Safran, 1985). A possible explanation for this is that burnout and efficacy are characteristics of the teachers current teaching environment and how much a teacher is trained does not matter given the conditions a teacher is currently working in. Research has shown that efficacy varies within teachers (Ross et al., 1996), supporting the conclusion that teachers current working conditions play a role in how efficacious they feel. Another explanation for not finding differences between teachers with different education levels is that teachers with advanced degrees may not be receiving the kind of training necessary to help manage student behaviour problems. Training in behaviour management was related to teachers reported levels of efficacy and burnout. Additional training in behaviour management may help increase teacher self-efficacy by giving a better and wider repertoire of behaviour management skills and may boost confidence in teaching ability by reinforcing existing skills and competencies. Teachers with more training in behaviour management also may feel less burned out because they experience more success at managing student behaviour problems as a result of increased skills and knowledge. Further research in the area of decision to refer and teacher characteristics is needed. Variables affecting the relationship between teacher burnout and lack of objectivity in referral decisions (e.g. school climate, empowerment, and expertise) should be explored. Research on teacher efficacy needs to address observable efficacy belief behaviours (e.g. persistence at managing difficult student behaviour, using multiple strategies to help students learn material) and actual referral decisions. On that same note, other behaviours that relate to referral decisions need to be addressed. Suggestions of these behaviours include tolerance of behaviours, willingness and effectiveness of utilizing new pre-referral interventions, and persistence at helping students who are experiencing difficulties. References
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Egyed and Short: Decision to Refer a Disruptive Student

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