Educator Burnout Workshop

A childcare centre has a high turnover rate of staff. On exit interviews it is found that employees are experiencing burnout.

This is a case study I designed and responded to for an assessment piece. I designed it because of my experience working as an educator, where I became burnt out and saw many colleagues go through the same, sometimes leaving the industry because of it.

Scroll through to learn about the analysis, design decisions, development, implementation and evaluation of this workshop.

Analysis

  • Business Goal & Actions

    Decrease educator turnover from 40% to 20% over 18 months, while the organisation integrates supportive practices and educators take proactive measures to decrease burnout.

  • What is the Gap?

    Workplace burnout indicates a systemic gap that must be addressed on multiple levels. This will require a multi-pronged approach, where the organisation makes changes, management undergoes Educator Wellbeing training simultaneous to the educators partaking in a burnout prevention workshop.

  • Learner Considerations

    Educators encapsulate a wide demographic, although the majority are women. Some may feel cynical about the learning if it is not approached in a sensitive and understanding manner, due to the subject matter and the potential for them to feel unheard or blamed. Management will need to ensure that time for the workshop does not eat into educators’ already limited time for completing their workload.

  • Context

    Learners work in small teams based on what room they are assigned to. They move around the space, indoors and outdoors. Training will be in-person, brief sessions with a facilitator in order to limit the impact on workload.

Design Decisions

Facilitator

I learned that for workshops about stress and burnout, educators preferred small-group workshops facilitated by a Subject Matter Expert.

Experiential Learning

Through experiential learning, learners partake in experiences and then reflect on them. Learners will practice using tools for preventing burnout in their workplace. They will reflect on their experiences in group discussions with the facilitator.

The first unit uses interactive storytelling and a fictional character to allow learners to discuss burnout without disclosing their personal struggles if they do not wish to. The second unit is a formative assessment that will highlight learner gaps. The third unit reviews the attributes of a positive workplace environment, and engages learners in exploring educator wellbeing resources.

Online Units

There are two assessments: a formative online assessment in Online Unit 2 to determine learning gaps, and the summative assessment, which is a group reflection and presentation, again tying in that reflection in experiential learning.

Assessments

Learning Outcome 1: Outline the causes and signs of burnout.
Learning Outcome 2: Utilise reflection, collaboration and communication as a means of preventing burnout.
Learning Outcome 3: Apply tools and strategies that aid the prevention of burnout.

These are measurable outcomes that are supported by the learning experiences and assessments, and will progress the organisation towards the suggested business goal as part of a multi-pronged strategy to reduce educator burnout.

Learning Outcomes

Development

Try the unit for yourself here

Week 1

The facilitator introduces the workshop to the learners. Fillable journals designed by a Subject Matter Expert encourage the learners to participate in prompted individual reflection throughout the week. Online Unit 1 is an interactive storytelling unit created in Articulate Storyline 360. The unit uses AI voice-overs for characters. The graphics are purchased from BodBrother on Creative Market, and I edited them to fit the story and to make it more colourful.

Week 2

The facilitator discusses burnout preventions with learners, and they complete Online Unit 2, a short formative assessment quiz that will give the facilitator more information about the learners, and prompt a group reflection.

The experiential learning activity this week is developing individual toolkits that educators can keep nearby at work to help manage stress. They will have materials provided to put these together, and discuss other elements that may be helpful to add. Over the coming week they will use these toolkits at work and reflect on what is and isn’t helpful.

Try the unit for yourself here

Week 3

The facilitator introduces the learners to what makes a positive workplace. Online Unit 3 builds on this information using interactive learning experiences. The writing for the online unit is concise, and broken into manageable chunks. Learners will do a group reflection on positive workplaces, and then take part in problem-based learning, where they consider one element of their workplace that isn’t working well for them, and how they could collectively work to solve this. This will be implemented by them in the following week.

Week 4

The facilitator will lead a group reflection on how the fillable journals (week 1), individual toolkits (week 2), and workplace change implementation (week 3) are going. As a reflective learning experience they will determine which of these have been useful, what practices they may want to continue, or how they could alter them to be more beneficial. Together they will record these outcomes and present them to the educators in the other rooms, who will also partake in the workshop in their room groups.