BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1973 

 

 

 

 

The Effects of Work Hours and Composition on Nov-

ice Teachers’ Career Adaptation: An Empirical Study 

from the Perspective of Work Burdens 

By Zhang, L. 
Correspondence to: Luo Zhang, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 

China. E-mail: zl13348683651@163.com   

AREER adaptation is a vital component of professional development 

for novice teachers and is critical to their quality of teaching. Based on a 

questionnaire survey of 2590 Chinese teachers at the basic education level, 

this study investigates the effects of work hours and composition on career 

adaptation in novice teachers, using latent profile analysis and the multiple 

linear regression model. 

Research Findings: 

 The novice teachers polled worked 9.335 hours every day 

on average, which significantly exceeds the statutory 8-hour 

limit, representing a heavy work burden. 

 There are primarily three types of work composition in nov-

ice teachers: teaching-focused, classroom duty-focused, and 

administration duty-involved. The majority of them were 

carrying out teaching-focused work. Working time varies 

for the different types of work composition. Teaching-

focused novice teachers worked the shortest hours, and the 

classroom duty-focused ones worked the longest hours, with 

a gap of 1.6 hours. 

 Novice teachers’ work hours were negatively related to their 

career adaptation. Heavy work burdens contributed to the 

difficulty of career adaptation in this group. 

 The type of work composition served as a moderator for the 

negative effect of work hours on career adaptation in the 

novice teachers. Teaching-focused work could weaken the 

negative effect, whereas administration duty-involved work 

could magnify the negative effect. Classroom duty-focused 

work had no significant moderating effect. 

Suggestions: 

 Reduce novice teachers’ work hours to keep them within the 

8-hour limit. 

C 

mailto:zl13348683651@163.com


 

Vol.20, No.1, 2025, BECE 1974 

 Optimize the work composition for novice teachers by in-

creasing teaching engagement while reducing non-teaching 

involvement. 

 Make the appointment of classroom teachers flexible by di-

versifying the appointment approaches to include “volun-

tary application,” “regular rotation,” and more. Reduce mi-

nor duties on novice teachers during their service as class-

room teachers. 

 

 

Source: Journal of Educational Studies, 2025; 21(01), 103-116.