Correlation of Teacher Burnout, Teacher-Student Relationship and Academic Performance Of Junior Secondary School Students I££n Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between teacher burnout, teacher-student relationship (TSR), and students’ academic performance. A Descriptive-Correlational research design was employed for the study. There are total of 315 junior secondary schools widely spread across the state, with a total student populationof 39,436 students and 3,973 teachers.A total of 26 junior secondary schools, 280 students and 103 teacherswere used for the study, using opportunity sampling as in Cresswell, 2014. Since, only schools who are to release students results meet the requirement of the research. Data were collected using a self-structured questionnaire measuring TSR, an adapted questionnaire measuring teacher burnout andstudents’ academic record was used to measure academic performance. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used to analyse data. Findings revealed that TSR was generally perceived to be on the high level (M = 3.15), and low teacher burnout levels were also reported (M = 2.34). Correlation analysis showed a significant negative relationship between teacher burnout and TSR (r = -0.157, p < .01), indicating that higher burnout levels weaken teacher-student relationship. However, neither TSR (r = .002, p > .05) nor teacher burnout (r = .064, p > .05) were significantly correlated with students' academic performance. This study recommends that teachers' well-being should be supported to reduce teacher burnout and improve teacher-student relationship. Future research should explore other factors such as students’ motivation and school resources since neither teacher burnout nor teacher-student relationship was found to significantly relate with academic performance