The Effectiveness of Wisdom-Therapy on EFL Teachers’ Occupational Burnout

Wisdom is a concept which has been extensively studied in many researches during recent years. On the other hand, occupational burnout is an issue that has affected teachers’ activities for many years. Occupational burnout is caused by increasing responsibility of teachers over the years. To study the effect of wisdom-therapy on teachers’ occupational burnout, 34 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers who worked in Hamedan high schools were selected using convenience sampling method and assigned randomly into two groups of experimental and control, each including 17 teachers. Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator’s Survey developed by Maslach, Jackson, and Leiter (1996) was used for examining teachers’ occupational burnout and using one of wisdom-therapy techniques, teachers of the experimental group received training in ten sessions. Finally, using the mentioned inventory, teachers’ occupational burnout was examined again. The results of ANCOVA revealed that wisdom-therapy had a significant effect in reducing the level of occupational burnout, depersonalization and emotional exhaustion among Iranian EFL teachers. In addition, the results also showed that wisdom-therapy had a significant effect in improving the level of personal accomplishment. Thus, it is suggested that wisdom-therapy techniques be used in education and be part of teachers’ training.