How a Student Becomes Burned Out

The Transition 

Throughout my life, I have come across a wide array of phases that have had notable impacts leading to a significant change in my understanding based on my experiences. However, one notable phase that I consider as being somewhat significant with regard to the influence it had on a change in my perception was the transition through the university. My transition played a key role in not only changing my perception regarding some of the key stages associated with the higher education process but also in promoting my understanding of how students become burned out. Burn out in students refers to their exposure to stressful environments, which tend to have a wide array of mental impacts on the students, as they find themselves experiencing the need for them to engage harder in the education process.

Process Stages 

The focus for this section is to evaluate the process stages that contribute towards students becoming burned out based on their exposure to the higher education learning environment. Some of the notable stages are:

Freshman 

In this stage, one of the key aspects to note is that the students tend experience a transition from high school to university or college from where students are exposed to a newer and bigger learning environment. Basically, this stage of the learning process creates a situation where students do not engage a lot in the learning process, as lecturers seek to ensure that the students understand their transition into the new learning environment. In my case, I held the perception that college life would not be as hard as people described it based on my experience as a freshman. During my freshman year, I spent a lot of my time trying to understand college life considering that my time as a freshman did not entail having to engage in a lot of studies, thus, creating a perception that college education was not as hard as I may have expected while in high school.

Sophomore 

Sophomore refers to students that have moved from the freshman years in college or university from where they are able to focus much of their attention on the idea of building some form of career approach for themselves. In this stage, the students begin experiencing stress considering, that the classes become harder, as well as, the workload increases drastically, which increases the stress that students experience. In my case, I experienced a major challenge in my transition from freshman to sophomore due to the fact that I did not understand the nature of stress that I would be exposed to as a student in sophomore. I found myself spending much more time studying, as the amount of work increased significantly. In most cases, I would find myself tired considering that I would spend much of my time trying to catch up with my studies, which I believe caused a significant burnout.

Possible Causes and Effects 

Based on my experience and my change in understanding, it is important to evaluate some of the possible causes, which I believe may have contributed to the occurrence of a burn out as part of my engagement in the higher education learning environment. Some of the possible causes include:

Increased Workload 

The first possible cause of a burnout is increased workload in terms of the amount of work that students handle during different stages of their lives, which increases drastically with an aim of ensuring that students are well prepared for the job market. Young & Rogers (2018) argue that majority of students coming into colleges and universities as freshmen tend to believe that they would not be exposed to a volume of work considering that they only study specific courses. However, the students experience a situation where their understanding of college or university education changes significantly based on amount of work that they are expected to handle in any given day. Ultimately, this acts as a contributing factor to the possibility of a burnout resulting in cases where students tend to feel stressed out due to their engagement in the education process. For me, I found myself handling a lot of work and spending a lot of time studying when I moved to the sophomore stage when compared to the amount of work that I had as a freshman.

Lack of Preparedness 

The second possible cause of a burnout is lack of preparedness on the part of the students considering that most of these students are coming in from high school where the amount of knowledge that they were given was minimal. Nikodijevič, Labrovič, & Dokovič (2012) indicate that majority of students lack that element of understanding on what it means to engage as part of university or college, which creates a high possibility of finding themselves exposed to a burnout. In my case, I would say that I was not prepared for the amount of work and time I would spend studying when I was a freshman. I believe that this may have had a key role in my burnout, as I was not mentally and psychologically prepared for this amount of work.

On the other hand, one of the possible effects associated with the occurrence of a burnout in students is:

Increased Stress and Anxiety 

Stress is one of the most likely outcome when dealing with a burnout considering that most of the students find themselves sleeping for a less amount of time that would be recommended, thus, contributing to fatigue (Shen, McCaughtry, Martin, Garn, Kulik, & Fahlman, 2015). In most cases, students also experienced increased instances of anxiety as a way of ensuring that they position themselves within the learning environment much more effectively. In my case, I found myself sleeping for 5 hours in a day, which in some cases would reduce depending on whether I had a quiz. The long term effect that this has on my life is that it contributed to a significant increase in stress where I would always feel stressed up with no particular reason.

Impacts of the Experience 

The main impact of my experience with regard to the transition through college was that it resulted in a significant need for adjustment in my life as a way of ensuring that I would be able to build my capacity as a student. I adjusted almost every aspect of my life including the time that I would spend socializing with my friends both physically and through social media, which reduced significantly. On the other hand, I had to learn how to deal with the stress arising from my education where I would spend a few minutes every day engaging in one or more forms of physical activity as this would help relieve some of the stress that I experience each day due to my education.

References

Nikodijevič, A., Labrovič, J. A., & Dokovič, A. (2012). Academic burnout among students at Faculty of Organizational Sciences.  Innovative Management and Business Performance ,  11 , 565-571.

Shen, B., McCaughtry, N., Martin, J., Garn, A., Kulik, N., & Fahlman, M. (2015). The relationship between teacher burnout and student motivation.  British Journal of Educational Psychology ,  85 (4), 519-532.

Young, K. S., & Rogers, R. C. (2018). The relationship between depression and Internet addiction.  Cyberpsychology & behavior ,  1 (1), 25-28.