Just like in every other industry, faculty in higher education institutions had to adjust to remote teaching almost overnight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the added pressure of delivering engaging lectures and revamping assessments that could be worked on remotely, teachers had to ensure that students were having a fulfilling learning experience, as they would in a classroom. Thus, more than 50% of faculty members considered leaving teaching due to the burnout caused by the pandemic. 

In this article, we will cover the following topics:

• What is Teacher Burnout?
• What are the 4 Stages of Teacher Burnout?
• 5 Ways to Prevent Teacher Burnout

While one may experience burnout at some point in their life, there are ways to recover from it and come back equipped with the right tools that help with efficiency and productivity.

What is teacher burnout?

Teacher burnout is a condition where, regardless of their level of experience or commitment to their profession, the person is no longer able to work or derive pleasure from their job. Downplaying emotional exhaustion and decreased motivation in teachers leads to burnout.

While burnout could look very different in everyone, it typically affects mental, physical, and emotional health which has serious implications for their personal environment. The crushing workload of delivering lectures, grading effectively, and their domestic responsibilities like no childcare and school have caused educators to go through burnout and also witness lower performances.

While students were coping with the stress of remote education during the pandemic, educators also assumed the role of counsellors and ed-tech experts suppressing their own mental health challenges as they took on these additional responsibilities. Teachers need support not only to avoid burnout but to maintain their enthusiasm for teaching. 

Teacher burnout is on the rise, and it's costing schools dearly.

What are the 4 Stages of Teacher burnout?

Experiencing teacher burnout is not just restricted to the individual, as it also impacts students, their peers, and family members. Identifying and uncovering the level of burnout before it's too late is crucial before finding ways to mitigate the effects of teacher burnout. 

Stage 1: Irritation and self-withdrawal

Increasing workload and stress can cause teachers to back out even from their regular working schedule. They may find themselves not enjoying the work and closing off to their peers. This is where educators start feeling irritated or low. Lack of time, energy, or interest to invest in self-care can seriously impact the mental and physical well-being of the individual that starts to show the first signs of burnout.

Stage 2: No interest in socializing

Socializing with peers and students on a daily basis can be exhausting. Turning down invitations to social activities and meetups is the beginning of Stage 2. By recognizing this stage, taking a step back from their daily responsibilities, or asking for additional help can nip the situation in the bud.

Stage 3: Constant fatigue and complaints

Completing the course, preparing assessments, and grading students can be exhausting. The feeling of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion can leave you feeling drained out and disinterested in even going to work. By this stage, irritation and anxiety can lead to finding faults and issues in even the smallest things that could adversely affect relationships with peers and students.

Stage 4: Unhealthy lifestyle 

Stress and anxiety can lead to a lack of sleep and unhealthy eating habits. By deprioritizing physical health and nutrition, educators can find themselves at risk of many serious health conditions like heart attack, diabetes, and hypertension.

5 ways to Prevent Teacher burnout

Dealing with burnout necessitates diverse strategies. Educators and non-teaching staff must all work together to address this crucial issue. Leveraging peer grading technology to share the workload can help with preventing teacher burnout.

1. Empower your students with peer assessment

Recognizing burnout in time is critical to avoiding such situations since it jeopardizes student learning. Getting students to evaluate their peers helps enhance their knowledge of the subject and develop metacognitive abilities. Students are able to gain different perspectives and learn how to accept and give helpful and critical feedback that prepares them for life after their university education.

Kritik’s peer-grading platform uses the collective intelligence of the students to give fair and accurate ratings while streamlining workflows and shortening feedback response times. As an educator, it helps channel energies toward teaching students and becoming their mentors rather than simply grading their work.

2. Reduce your workload with customizable rubrics

Rubrics provide unbiased rating criteria during feedback. It allows professors and students to get quick feedback on their assignments through impartial peer review and also reduces their grade load.

With Kritik's customizable rubrics, you can either directly plug them into your assessments or make the required changes to suit your needs. This saves you time and gives your students direction when evaluating their peers which enhances the quality of feedback given. You can choose the section that best suits your essentials. 

3. Enable students to drive discussions

As students exchange ideas amongst themselves, the teacher’s role evolves into a mentor rather than a course facilitator, removing the burden of having to teach concepts to them. With Kritik’s dashboard, professors can facilitate online discussions that help them debate in a peaceful manner through engaging conversations. These discussions enable students with increased learning, knowledge, and understanding that might otherwise be missing.

4. Encourage team-based learning

Team-based activities help increase engagement levels in students as the onus of sharing and receiving information from peers heavily contributes toward their learning. It also sets a healthy learning atmosphere and utilizing Kritik’s team-based learning feature enables students to broaden their knowledge by applying what they've learned to build new concepts and develop a deeper understanding of their course. Team-based learning is effective when setting students up for success while also allowing you to evolve as a coach and mentor to students within their learning. 

5. Power up your LMS

While your LMS is able to help you manage your course and assessments, integrating a peer assessment tool can help you reduce your workload. Advanced technology and ed-tech platforms are seen supporting educators in their teaching process and augmenting students' learning. As such, Kritik’s LMS can be the perfect aid that helps you track students’ records, grades, submissions, and programs. You can maintain them all under one umbrella and collect critical data and documents that students can exchange on the network.

See how Kritik compares with your LMS!

Grade effectively with Kritik!

Seeking support and additional help in time can help alleviate teacher burnout before it's too late. Kritik’s peer assessment tool helps with reducing time grading time while ensuring student engagement. 

‍Schedule a demo with our team to understand how Kritik can help you implement peer assessment in your classroom.