Love it or leave it: Are reflective teachers more likely to survive?

Students have always been the focus of attention in education in general and language teaching in particular. It has sometimes been at the cost of ignoring the seminal role teachers’ play in each and every aspect of teaching and learning. Postmethod discourse in ELT has, however, brought with it a heavy emphasis on the importance of teachers’ role. Reflection has since been loudly promoted as playing an axiomatically positive role in teachers’ professional life. There are, however, little empirical evidence supporting this positive role. In this study, we therefore set out to fill part of this gap by investigating the possible relationship between teacher reflection and burnout. In so doing, 223 Iranian English teachers filled English language teacher reflection inventory (Akbari et al. 2010) and Maslach burnout inventory (Maslach et al., 2001). The results indicated that all five dimensions of reflection were negatively correlated with burnout and its three dimensions. Metacognitive element of reflection was however found to be the most significant predictor of burnout and all its components. The findings proved the positive effects of reflection as a tool to minimize burnout. The implications of this study for the practice and research in teacher education are fully elaborated upon.