An Analysis of the Relationship between Academic Burnout and Classroom Assessment Environment

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to examine the relationship between academic burnout and the classroom assessment environment. A causal–comparative model was employed in this study, which was carried out with 496 high school students in the provinces of Batman and Diyarbakir in Turkey in the spring of 2013–2014. The Maslach Burnout Inventory–Student Form (MBI-SF), which was developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002) and adapted into Turkish by Capri, Gunduz and Gokcakan (2011), was employed in the study to measure the students’ levels of academic burnout. Then, in order to determine the students’ perceptions of the classroom assessment environment, the Classroom Assessment Environment Scale (CAES), which was developed by the researchers of this study, was used. Cluster analysis was performed with the purpose of grouping students who have similar perceptions of the classroom assessment environment. This analysis produced three separate clusters. Then, analysis of variance was performed in order to determine whether the students’ levels of academic burnout differed by the groups that had emerged out of the cluster analysis. The findings demonstrated that the students’ levels of academic burnout differed significantly in accordance with their perceptions of the classroom assessment environment. Therefore, it could be suggested that the students’ perceptions of the classroom assessment environment constitute a significant variable for the prediction of their levels of academic burnout.