Being too Busy to Think




The BIG Issue: Exhausted Teachers cannot reform
For so many reasons most teachers I talk to say that they are busy. Busier year after year.  

 Burnout
Burnout often affects people in helping professions: lawyers, doctors, social workers, managers and teachers, among others. For teachers, working with students means constantly trying to respond to their needs while simultaneously meeting the various demands of the organisation. When teachers feel that there is a mismatch between all these demands and the available resources they have for coping with them, stress is induced. The usual culprits mentioned are: lack of time, ideas, materials, expertise and support.
https://goo.gl/k8vzJY

 This is not unusual

  • Almost half of new teachers leave the profession in their first year because of an excessive workload and 'exhausted and stressed colleagues', a union leader has warned.
  • The number has tripled in six years, according to an analysis of figures by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL).
  • The most recent statistics show that in 2011, around 10,800 newly-qualified teachers did not take up a teaching post – up from 3,600 in 2005. 
  • Around 40 per cent of newly-qualified teachers were not in the classroom after a year in 2011 – compared to 20 per cent in 2005.
    http://goo.gl/tAIKj2

Teaching Is The Most Exhausting Job I've Had
http://goo.gl/8PBFR6
Reform Failure
‘... it is more difficult to find evidence that classrooms have improved or even fundamentally changed as a result of the many reform initiatives; and indeed the persistent failure of educational change is a common theme in the literature (Sarason 1990, Fullan 1993, Cuban 1998, Spillane 1999) (Wallace 2011).

 Learning from Failure
Can schools' learn from failures to reform, and embrace a society that requires citizens to have the skills and capacities to adapt and change. 
OR
Have schools resigned to the continuation of failure and are inept to reform due to teacher fatigue?

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