BECE. Newsletter 

Vol.21, No.1, 2025, BECE 2005 

 

 

 

 

How Do Teacher Workloads Affect Student Develop-

ment? 

By Li, J. & Liang, H. 
Correspondence to: Huiqing Liang, Henan University, China. E-mail: 

lhqbnu@163.com 

ASED ON DATA from the China Education Panel Survey 2013-2015, 

the study examines the effects of teacher workloads on student devel-

opment, with the view to providing evidence for the implementation of Chi-

na’s “teacher burden reduction” policy and Double Reduction policy. 

Research Findings: 

• There was an inverted U-shaped relationship between the teach-

er’s weekly working hours and student academic performance, 

with 42.3 hours being the inflection point, below which student 

academic achievements tended to elevate with the increase in the 

teacher’s working hours. 

• Distinct work burdens on the teacher exhibited varying impacts 

on their job burnout and students’ academic performance. Re-

garding objective workloads, teachers working no more than 42 

hours, with 85% or above of which spent on instructional duties, 

teaching no more than 15 periods, and spending no more than 10 

hours on lesson preparation and no more than 11 hours marking 

students’ homework per week reported lower levels of burnout 

and were more supportive to their students, who attained more fa-

vorable academic results. Regarding subjectively perceived bur-

dens, excessive pressures from the school and community could 

significantly reduce the teacher’s supportive behaviors towards 

students and negatively affect their academic performance. 

• Overly heavy burdens on the teacher could indirectly negatively 

impact their students’ academic performance by exacerbating 

their job burnout and reducing their emotional assistance to stu-

dents. 

Suggestions: 

• Optimize the composition of teachers’ responsibilities and duties 

and set legitimate limits to their working hours. 

• Improve teacher evaluation criteria by placing more weight on 

developmental and value-added evaluation to reduce subjective 

B 

mailto:lhqbnu@163.com


 

Vol.21, No.1, 2025, BECE 2006 

pressures perceived by teachers and extend the range of teacher 

performance indicators beyond the exam results and school pro-

gression rates of students. 

• Pool resources to alleviate non-instructional burdens on teachers 

and increase in-service training to combat teacher job burnout and 

enhance the quality of teaching. 

 

Source: Journal of Soochow University (Education Science Edition), 2025; 2025:1-13.