Use the SCAN approach to prevent teacher burnout

Perhaps one of the greatest joys for an educator is unexpectedly running into a former student out “in the wild.” Sometimes they hug us, sometimes they laugh in disbelief, sometimes they cry, but always, the imprint we have left on them is clearly visible. These moments are just as powerful for us — the former teacher or principal — even if, as the students work through their emotions, we are scrolling through our mental Rolodex. We don’t always remember the name, but we never forget the kid.

These relationships we form with our students are impossible to explain to non-educators. The power of these relationships what keeps teachers in a profession that has become increasingly fraught. Yet, despite the passion and commitment educators have to their students, teacher burnout is driving many to leave a profession they love.

The development teachers need

Teacher preparation programs center their coursework on specialized skills in content and pedagogy, often referred to as “hard skills.” While these skills are essential for novice teachers, an entirely different set of skills, referred to as “soft skills,” are seldom explicitly taught. These skills, which are anything but soft, are crucial to the success of early career educators and essential for long-term career satisfaction and teacher retention.

Richard Ingersoll and colleagues’ 2018 analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Survey and Teacher Follow-Up Survey found that roughly 44% of new teachers leave the profession within five years. According to one report (Cineas, 2022), common reasons teachers give for leaving the classroom include:

Unreasonable workload and expectations
Increased responsibilities
Student behavioral issues

Absent from the list are deficits in “hard” skills related to pedagogy or content knowledge. In other words, teachers are not leaving the profession because they do not feel prepared to teach their content, yet we continue to focus all our teacher development efforts on content and pedagogy. Clearly, what teachers are asking for is support in developing the “soft skills” — organization, problem-solving, decision-making, and time-management — that can help mitigate the emotional toll of teaching.

Addressing burnout

Teachers are leaving the classroom because they are people who would do anything for their students, and they are being asked to do more than can reasonably be done. So, what can be done? No amount of scented candles, “me time,” or cookie bouquets will address any of the real reasons teachers are leaving the classroom (Stark, Daulat, & King, 2022). By telling teachers to commit to self-care and strive for work-life balance, we are sending the message that they are feeling overwhelmed because they don’t know how to take care of themselves. To be very clear, the reason teachers are feeling overwhelmed is because the demands put upon them are unreasonable and continue to grow. People who teach are fully capable of taking care of their needs outside of the classroom. What they need are strategies aimed at preventing burnout as they encounter challenges in the classroom.

We may not be able to quickly bring about changes that need to occur to make teaching a profession that offers strong pay and reasonable expectations, but we can help novice teachers develop their ability to manage the competing responsibilities they face in their day-to-day lives. When overwhelmed with responsibilities, we recommend a strategy we call SCAN.

Specify the stress: What is the main issue inside of your teaching context?
Center the work: What is actually required for proficiency (not perfection)?
Ask: What do I need in order to do this? Who can support me?
Navigate inside of your boundaries.

SCAN in action

Let’s look at an example of a novice teacher who is feeling burned out in part due to their grading workload. Timely feedback on assignments is crucial for students’ academic growth but finding the time to provide effective feedback for every student we teach and, on every assignment, can feel Sisyphean, at best. Here is how a teacher might use the SCAN process to mitigate stress:

Specify the stress. I am feeling a lot of pressure to get all 120 papers graded with actionable feedback in a timeframe that would be most impactful for students.

Center the work. Grading these assignments will provide students with guidance for their thinking and support their development and understanding of the content they didn’t demonstrate understanding of on the assessment.

Ask. What are the most important concepts students need to understand from this unit? Are there tools I can use to systematize my feedback (e.g., comment bank)? Is there someone in my building who can help me grade? Can I ask my coach or administration for additional planning time or take a half day of planning time to get caught up?

Navigate your boundaries. If I am unable to get additional planning time, I will prioritize providing feedback only on the two or three most critical skills or concepts.

While we understand the drive for perfectionism in a profession where all of our actions mean so much, the SCAN strategy can help teachers identify the pressure points that are potentially leading to burnout. Working through the remainder of the process allows teachers to break the work down to its most essential components, consider where they might find support, and clearly define the level of time and energy they can invest in the activity.

References

Cineas, F. (2022, August 18). Are teachers leaving the classroom en masse? Vox.

Ingersoll, R., Merrill, L., & Stuckey, D., & Collins, G. (2018). Seven trends: The transformation of the teaching force. Consortium for Policy Research in Education.

Stark. K., Daulet, N., & King, S. (2022). A vision for teachers’ emotional well-being. Phi Delta Kappan, 103 (5), 24-30.