EXAMINING EXPLANATORY STYLE's RELATIONSHIP to EFFICACY and BURNOUT in TEACHERS by AMY CHEEK FINEBURG a DISSERTATION Submitte
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EXAMINING EXPLANATORY STYLE’S RELATIONSHIP TO EFFICACY AND BURNOUT IN TEACHERS by AMY CHEEK FINEBURG A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research, Methodology, and Counseling in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2010 Copyright Amy Cheek Fineburg 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Explanatory style, the ways in which people explain both good and bad events (Seligman, 1998), shares theoretical components with teachers’ sense of efficacy (Tshannon-Moran & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2001), which is how capable teachers feel about teaching. According to Bandura (1994), efficacy informs explanatory style, but this assertion does not explain how hard-fought classroom mastery experiences are overcome with little or no efficacy. The three studies presented here suggest that explanatory style mediates teachers’ sense of efficacy in predicting burnout in teachers, providing a way to develop efficacy using positive and negative events. Study one provides a conceptual overview of teacher self-efficacy, explanatory style and teacher burnout research and examines the theoretical relationships among these constructs. This study provides the theoretical foundation for studies two and three. In study two, the Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire (EdASQ), based on the more general Attributrional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), was developed to measure teachers’ explanatory style. Study two surveyed 350 teachers from three school districts, two of which were used as a cross-validation group for comparison with the other district. The items of EdASQ have high internal reliability and convergent validity, for it correlates with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in a similar fashion as the ASQ. Confirmatory factor analysis supports two distinct measurement models for the EdASQ, one for positive event items and one for negative event items. Study three tests the relationships among explanatory style, teachers’ sense of efficacy and teacher burnout. The responses from all the teachers from study two were used for this study. ii Structural models where explanatory style is a mediator for teachers’ sense of efficacy in predicting burnout, as measured by the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and the number of upcoming professional development hours teachers expect to participate in, were superior to the alternative models. The models suggest that pessimists’ explanations of good events mediate their efficacy in predicting burnout while optimists’ explanations of bad events mediate their efficacy in predicting burnout. Future research is discussed, including the development of teacher training that capitalizes on explanatory style’s role in building efficacy to avoid burnout in teachers. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my family, who loved and supported me throughout this process. I am a better person for their being in my life. Thanks to them for letting me in theirs. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS a Cronbach’s index of internal consistency χ2 Chi-square: a goodness-of-fit statistic that shows the difference between the observed covariance matrix and the model covariance matrix. CFI Comparative Fit Index: also known as the Bentler Comparative Fit Index, which compares the existing model with an independent model. CI Confidence interval: the range of numbers which is likely to contain the true parameter value. df Degrees of freedom: number of values free to vary after certain restrictions have been placed on the data e.g. exempli gratia (meaning “for example”) et al et alia (meaning “and others”) F Fisher’s F ratio: A ratio of two variances i.e. id est (meaning “that is”) M Mean: the sum of a set of measurements divided by the number of measurements in the set p Probability associated with the occurrence under the null hypothesis of a value as extreme as or more extreme than the observed value r Pearson product-moment correlation v RMSEA Root Mean Square Error of Approximation: discrepancy per degree of freedom t Computed value of t test > Less than = Equal to % percent vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I actively thank my family for their support of me throughout this entire dissertation process. My husband Ben and son Micah have graciously allowed me to pursue this work, and without my husband’s tireless support, I would not have accomplished this feat. My appreciation extends also to Cecil Robinson, PhD, my advisor at the University of Alabama, who indulged me in this line of research. I also am thankful for the other members of my committee – Steven Thoma, PhD, Randall Schumacker, PhD, Douglas McKnight, PhD, and Christopher Peterson, PhD – for graciously agreeing to work with me on this effort. I especially thank the superintendents of Hoover City Schools (AL), Elmore County Schools (AL), and Lincoln Public Schools (NE) for supporting this research. I appreciate the faculty of these districts for taking the time to participate and promote research in education. I was inspired to pursue this research after reading Learned Optimism by Martin E.P. Seligman. Reading how an optimistic explanatory style helped people facing challenges in multiple venues made me wonder whether this type of style influences the lives of teachers and students. I appreciate the extensive research literature in explanatory style that continues to reinforce my belief that a teacher with an optimistic explanatory style is a good thing indeed. vii CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................ ii-iii DEDICATION ........................................................................................... iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS ................................... v-vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................ vii LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................. ix-xi LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................ xii-xiii 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................1 2. How Explanatory Style and Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Work Together to Reduce Burnout in Teachers ..............................................11 3. Development and Validation of an Educator-Specific Attributional Style Questionnaire (EdASQ) ................................................................35 4. Clarifying the Relationship Between Explanatory Style and Efficacy: A Model of Teacher Burnout .................................................70 5. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ...............................................116 REFERENCES ........................................................................................129 APPENDIX A: Measures of Explanatory Style, Self- Esteem, Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy, and Burnout .......................................... 133 APPENDIX B: Means, Standard Deviations, T-values, P-values, Variances, Regression Weights and Factor Score Weights for Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire Items ............................... 142 viii LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Explanatory Style ........................................4 2.1 Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Explanatory Style ......................................24 3.1 Demographics for Study 1 and Study 2 ...............................................44 3.2 Descriptive Statistics for Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire, Attributional Style Questionnaire, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for Study 1 ............................................................48 3.3a Correlation matrix (Pearson’s r) of Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for Study 1 ...........50 3.3b Correlation matrix (Pearson’s r) of Attributional Style Questionnaire and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for Study 1 ...........51 3.4 Confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling for Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire for Study 1 ...............56 3.5 Descriptives for Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for Study 2 ..........................................61 3.6 Correlation matrix (Pearson’s r) of Attributional Style Questionnaire and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for Study 2 ............63 3.7 Confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling for Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire for Study 2 ...............64 ix 4.1 Optimistic vs. Pessimistic Explanatory Style ......................................77 4.2 Demographics for Teachers (N = 350) ................................................81 4.3 Summative descriptive analysis of Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire, Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Form, and Burnout .........................................................................................89 4.4 Correlation matrix (Pearson’s r) of Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire, Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Form, and Burnout .........................................................................................90 4.5 Fit Statistics for Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Form preceding Burnout ...............................................................................92 4.6 Fit Statistics for Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale-Long Form Preceding Educator Attributional Style Questionnaire Predicting Burnout ...............................................................................................94