Teacher educators’ approaches to teaching and the nexus with self-efficacy and burnout: examples from two teachers’ universities in China

AbstractTeacher educators’ approaches to teaching, and their experience of burnout and self-efficacy beliefs, are related to how they are able to facilitate student teachers’ learning. In this study, 115 Chinese teacher educators responded to a questionnaire in 2015. Based on the previous study investigating the teacher educators’ approaches to teaching, the present study explored how these approaches were related to their self-efficacy beliefs in teaching and burnout. Burnout was measured through inadequacy in teacher-student interaction and exhaustion subscales. The analyses revealed that a student-focused approach to teaching among teacher educators was positively related to their self-efficacy beliefs in teaching. Both student- and teacher-focused approaches to teaching were positively related to the educators’ experience of inadequacy in teacher-student interaction. However, the study revealed no relationship between teacher educators’ approaches to teaching and the experience of exhaustion. To preve...