Comparing teacher stress in Chinese and US elementary schools: Classroom appraisal of resources and demands

A systematic review of primary school teachers' wellbeing: room for a holistic approach

Although the investigation of mental health and wellbeing in education has shown an exponential increase on an international scale, attention has primarily been paid to students, leaving the concept of teacher wellbeing comparatively overlooked. Extant literature offers numerous divergent descriptions, with some academics even avoiding an explicit definition of the term. Thus, there are limitations and inconsistencies in understanding teacher wellbeing as a unique construct. The aim of the current study was three-fold; (1) to assess the extent to which existing research reflects the multidimensional nature of the term teacher wellbeing, (2) to determine whether a holistic construct of teacher wellbeing could be justified, and (3) to evaluate the methodological quality of studies identified. A systematic review following the PRISMA statement was applied to peer-reviewed papers published between 2016 and 2021. Following the screening of 1,676 studies, this paper reports on findings drawn from a final sample of 61 articles conceptualizing teacher wellbeing. Studies were organized by their dominant discourses, namely negativity/ deficiency, positivity/ flourishing, and/or professionalism. Findings illustrate that teacher wellbeing was primarily conceptualized with a professionalism approach (with 18 of the identified studies taking solely this perspective). This is not completely consistent with the prior work that focused on stress and burnout (negativity/ deficiency approach) while exploring teachers' mental health and wellbeing. More importantly, there were only 6 studies that considered all three discourses together. This paper argues that important information is lost through neglecting alternative lenses, requiring further attention in order to address teacher wellbeing comprehensively. Such an endeavor is essential for shaping interventions and strategies aimed not only at enhancing teacher wellbeing but also at improving student outcomes and, ultimately, the overall quality of education. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021278549PROSPERO, CRD42021278549.

Exploring the factors affecting elementary mathematics teachers' innovative behavior: an integration of social cognitive theory

Teacher innovative behavior is one of the vital factors, affecting student engagement, addresses diverse needs, promotes critical thinking, fosters lifelong learning, and contributes to educational research and development. By encouraging and supporting teacher innovation, we may can ensure that education remains relevant, effective, and impactful in preparing students for the future. Teacher innovative behavior is also needed to improve the mathematics skills of elementary school students, and it is important to determine the predictors that significantly affecting Teacher innovative behavior. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a model that predicted possible factors affecting mathematics teachers' innovative behavior based on Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Data were collected from 132 elementary school teachers in China to verify the model, and the analysis was conducted using a structural equation modelling approach. Theoretically, 10 of the 15 hypotheses were found to be significant. The results showed that facilitating conditions and self-efficacy significantly affect mathematics teachers' innovative behavior. Meanwhile, Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) knowledge, Social Influences, Rewards, Work engagement and anxiety did not show any effect. The contribution developed a model and provided new knowledge about the factors affecting elementary school teachers' innovative behavior. Practically, this could be used to improve teachers' innovative behavior.

Validation of Academic Resilience Scales Adapted in a Collective Culture

The study aimed to adapt and validate two popular instruments on academic resilience in a collectivistic culture. One is a brief unidimensional scale (ARS_SCV), and another is a context-specific multidimensional scale (ARS_MCV). The participants were 569 high school students in China. Based on Messick's validity framework, we provided evidence to support the construct validity of the newly developed scales. Results first indicated that both scales were reliable with high internal consistency and construct reliability. Then, the results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFAs) showed that ARS_SCV had a unidimensional factor structure and ARS_MCV had a four-factor structure. Multi-group CFAs then showed that both models were invariant across gender and socio-economic status (SES) levels. Results of correlations demonstrated that both scales significantly correlated with each other and with other external constructs (grit, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement). The findings of this study contribute to the literature by proposing two instruments, which provide practitioners with options for specific assessments to measure academic resilience in a collectivist culture.

Analysis of Factors Affecting Academic Performance of Mathematics Education Doctoral Students: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Student academic performance is an important indicator of doctoral education quality, but limited research has focused on how multiple influential factors of doctoral students' academic performance work together. This study aims to explore the factors significantly affecting the academic performance of mathematics education doctoral students in Indonesia. Several factors were recognized from prior studies, such as the fear of delay, student engagement, parental support, teacher support, facilitating conditions, stress level, and well-being. An online questionnaire was designed and answered by a total of 147 mathematics education doctoral students. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach was adopted to analyze the questionnaire data. The results suggested that teacher support had the strongest positive effects on mathematics education doctoral students' academic performance in Indonesia. Student engagement was the most significant positive factor in improving doctoral students' well-being, while parental support could most significantly reduce their stress levels. Practically, these results are expected to provide implications to universities and supervisors regarding the improvement of doctoral students' well-being to promote their academic success and further the quality of doctoral programs in education. Theoretically, these results can also contribute to building an empirical model that can be used to explore and explain how multiple factors could affect doctoral students' academic performance in other contexts.

Key Factors Affecting Mathematics Teachers' Well-Being and Stress Levels: An Extended Engagement Theory

The mathematics teachers' profession often has many challenges. It also occupies important positions at the K-12 education level, in which mathematics knowledge is the basis of all scientific fields. This tends to cause high-stress levels and a negative effect on well-being. Mathematics teachers' well-being has been less examined, and therefore this study aims to determine the factors affecting mathematics teachers' well-being and stress levels. The 210 data points collected from Chinese mathematics teachers using a web-based questionnaire were analyzed for reliability and validity, then model fit and SEM were applied for model validation after removing 3 invalid data points and incomplete responses. The results showed that behavioral and cognitive engagements significantly affect teachers' well-being, while the affective engagement was insignificant. The TPMK was the strongest significant predictor that had a positive impact on improving well-being and reducing stress levels. In addition, the stress level of mathematics teachers was influenced by gender and age. Finally, it was proven that teachers' well-being significantly reduced stress levels. This study's implication was to provide information on how to reduce stress levels.