The effect of technostress on the teachers’ willingness to use online teaching modes and the moderating role of job insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan

Technostress and time spent online. A cross-cultural comparison for teachers and students

Introduction

Research shows that ICT is beneficial for academics and students, aiding in overcoming distance barriers, streamlining administration, and improving teaching and learning processes. However, the negative impact of technology, particularly technostress, are garnering attention. In the context of the concerns about technostress among higher education institutions (HEI), the aim of the study is to analyze the technostress creators and inhibitors for university teachers and students in different European countries. The topical concept of digital well-being is seen as "a subjective individual experience of optimal balance between the benefits and drawbacks obtained from mobile connectivity, focusing on the personal perception of what amount of time spent using technology is optimal so that well-being is preserved".

Method

To explore specific aspects related to use of technology, two - parallel online surveys for academics (N = 446) and students (N = 660) from four European countries (Romania, Germany, Norway, and Finland) were conducted between November 2022 - January 2023. The surveys included the Technostress scale and the Technostress Inhibitors Scale, the Technology self-efficacy Scale, and a questionnaire focusing on socio-demographic aspects, work experience, academic field, dimensions related to the actual use of technology and participants perception on the optimal use of technology for work, learning or personal tasks, in terms of the period of day/week and amount of time spent. We also inquired about the social support given and received when using technology and the formal and informal rules, expectations, policies, punishments, and rewards regarding the use of technology.

Results

The findings suggest that the perceived optimal use of technology is significantly lower than the actual use for all the contexts. Overuse of technology was associated with technostress. Our results also showed that technology self-efficacy and social support from colleagues and teachers are negatively associated with technostress. Country differences regarding technostress and time spent online were also observed.

Discussions

Despite the needed caution in interpreting the results because of the unbalanced sample size across countries, the results could be used to develop research and support interventions within European countries to promote digital well-being, a better work-life balance with further positive effects on academic satisfaction and work/learning productivity.

Determining the role of innovative teaching practices, sustainable learning, and the adoption of e-learning tools in leveraging academic motivation for students' mental well-being

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in the educational landscape, with a significant shift towards e-learning and remote teaching practices. As such, it has become increasingly important to understand the role of innovative teaching practices, sustainable learning, and the adoption of e-learning tools in leveraging academic motivation for students' mental well-being.

PURPOSE

The study aims to determine whether academic motivation can helpful for mental wellbeing of students directly and through the adoption of e-learning tools, and sustainable learning considering the role of innovative teaching.

METHODS

Target population of this research were the students of Chinese universities. Data was collected from 308 students and was analyzed by using Mplus software.

RESULTS

Students expressed higher motivation, quality education and good mental health. Additionally, it was discovered that academic motivation helped the students to develop good academic record and mental health.

CONCLUSION

The research's conclusions can help the policy makers creating successful educational initiatives and programs that promote students' overall growth. These results can also guide the university administration and teachers to adopt effective policies and practices for creating academic motivation in order to construct a healthy environment not just for better academic results but also for the well-being of students. Additionally, this research draws attention of future researchers to explore mechanisms that can drive students' academic and psychological outcomes.

Research on factors influencing the academic entrepreneurial ability of teachers in the digital age: Evidence from China

In the contemporary digital economy, economic development increasingly relies on the innovation and dissemination of knowledge. Academic entrepreneurship, as a direct channel for knowledge dissemination into the marketplace, is significantly influenced by digital technology. Consequently, how to improve academic entrepreneurial ability has become a hot research topic. This study is grounded in the theory of reciprocal determinism within the context of the digital economy. We use the "2019 China Digital Economy Development Index White Paper" and collect data from 1843 survey questionnaires in China to conduct empirical research with a ridge regression model. It primarily focuses on the following individual factors and social environmental factors on academic entrepreneurial ability of teachers (AEAT): digital economy (DE), organizational support (OS), policy environment (PE), and personal learning growth (PLG). First, the findings show that the DE, OS, PE, and PLG have a significant positive impact on improving AEAT. Second, the results also indicate that social environmental factors relative to personal factors will have a greater impact. Finally, this study not only presents the first attempt to establish a connection between DE and AEAT but also holds significant managerial implications for enhancing AEAT within the context of the DE. Despite the increasing body of literature on academic entrepreneurship, the research domain pertaining specifically to AEAT remains fragmented and lacks comprehensive theoretical development. There is a pressing need for more systematic and thorough investigations to unveil the black box of factors influencing AEAT in the context of the DE.

How much do we care about teacher job insecurity during the pandemic? A bibliometric review

In this study, a descriptive bibliometric analysis of the scientific production in the Web of Science on job insecurity perceived by teachers in pandemic situations was carried out. The result shows the growing interest in the topic with an upward trend with an annual growth of 41.52%. Forty-seven papers from 41 journals with 2,182 cited references were considered, with 149 researchers from 30 countries publishing at least one article. The country with the most publications was the United States, followed by Germany and Spain. The United States was the country with the most collaborations. A total of 95 institutions published papers, and the universities with the most registrations were Miami University and the University of the Basque Country, although York University and the University of the Basque Country had a higher overall citation coefficient (102 and 40, respectively). Of the 41 journals that have published on the topic, Frontiers in Education and the British Journal of Educational Psychology stood out in terms of their article numbers. However, this last one was superior in terms of the overall number of citations per year, followed by Frontiers of Psychology.

Impact of academic cheating and perceived online learning effectiveness on academic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic among Pakistani students

Objective

The study was conducted to examine academic cheating behaviors and perceived online effectiveness on academic performance during the period of COVID-19 among schools, colleges, and university students in Pakistan.

Methodology

A cross-sectional research design was used in the current study. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data. The study included a total sample of N = 8,590 students, with males (n = 3,270, 38%) and females (n = 5,320, 61%) participating. The data was divided into three categories: high schools (n = 1,098, 12.7%), colleges (n = 4,742, 55.2%), and universities (n = 2,570, 32.1%). School students had an average age of (M = 15, SD = 4.65), college students had an average age of (M = 20, SD = 5.64), and university students had an average age of (M = 24, SD = 5.01).

Result

The results indicated that 60% of students admitted to cheating during online exams most of the time; 30% of students admitted to cheating at least once during an online exam. The study found that students (from high school, college, and university) obtained higher grades in online exams as compared to physical exams. Furthermore, significant gender differences were found on the scales of online learning effectiveness in school, college, and university students (t = 2.3*, p = 0.05 vs. t = 4.32**, p = 0.000 vs. t = -3.3*, p = 0.04). Similarly, on the scale of academic performance, students have significant gender differences. Multivariate regression analysis confirms that students' 26% academic performance was increased due to cheating (F (2, 8,588) = 16.24, p = 0.000). Students believe online learning is effective because academic grades are easily obtained.

Conclusion

Cheating is more common and easier in online courses, according to more than half of respondents, and they take advantage of this. Academicians are heavily encouraged to develop morality and ethics in their students so that their institutions can produce ethical professionals for the educational community.

Antecedents of continuance intention in online learning systems among vocational college students: The moderating effect of gender

Background

The primary objective of this study is to ascertain whether the Expectation Confirmation Model can be expanded by external variables including computer anxiety, social interaction, and self-efficacy to better understand the intention to continue using online learning systems in the post-pandemic era among vocational college students. Moreover, this research argues that the intention to continue using online learning systems among students may be gender-sensitive.

Methods

The researchers surveyed 482 students from eight vocational colleges in Jiangxi Province using a structured questionnaire. Partial Least Squares Structural equation modeling is used to verify the research model.

Results

The outcomes demonstrate that the proposed model adequately explains the continuous use intention for online learning systems at a 76.6% confidence level. All of the newly introduced variables in the ECM are shown to be significant and relevant to explicate continuous use intention. Our survey results show that gender differences in intention to continue using online learning systems exist objectively, but this difference is not a natural difference.

Conclusion

This research fills a void in the current literature on online learning and probes into how learning may be made more long-lasting in intricate environments.

Examine the parenting style effect on the academic achievement orientation of secondary school students: The moderating role of digital literacy

The purpose of the study was to determine the association between parenting styles (authoritative and permissive) and students' self-efficacy (LSE), self-regulatory learning (SRL), and academic accomplishment orientation of secondary school students in Punjab, Pakistan. The study also investigated the effect of digital learning as a moderating variable in the relationship between SRL and academic achievement oriented, as well as between learner self-efficacy (LSE) and academic achievement among secondary school students. The study was conducted with (N = 720) secondary school students of Punjab Pakistan. In the current research cross sectional design was used, and multistage sampling was used to draw a sample from the population. The results from the study, it is found that the authoritative parenting style has a weak association with LSE and a strong association with SRL. Permissive parenting styles have low associations with SRL and have a high association with LSE as compared to authoritarian parenting. Furthermore, when compared to students from permissive parenting, secondary students from authoritarian parenting have higher SRL and a higher academic achievement orientation. Results revealed that that digital literacy significantly moderate with LSE to influence the academic achievement orientation, while digital literacy significantly interacts with SRL to highly influence the academic achievement orientation of secondary school students.

Role of agile leadership in managing inter-role conflicts for a satisfying job and life during COVID-19 in a VUCA world

This study investigated how agile leadership played its role in managing inter-role conflicts during the chaotic period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was much more than the survival of the fittest and coming out of it alive. Organizations were under immense pressure to resume their normal operations in not-so-normal situations. This period of turmoil and agony brought a broad array of inter-role conflicts, which posed challenges for leaders to manage them effectively. The satisfaction at job and the satisfaction in life were the two most important endeavors for the employees to fight. This study explores how leadership agility helped employees manage their work–family and family–work conflicts, consequently impacting life satisfaction and job satisfaction simultaneously. Moreover, role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload are important intervening role stress factors that impact inter-role conflict management. So, role stress is a moderating factor in the direct relationship between agile leadership and inter-role conflict. This is a two-phased time lag study with a quantitative design for data collection. The first phase of data collection comprises of analyzing the impact of agile leadership on inter-role conflict management, keeping in view the intervening impact of role stress. The second data collection phase examines how inter-role conflicts impacted life satisfaction and job satisfaction during COVID-19. The data were collected from faculty working in higher education institutions in Pakistan, as the education industry was the second major sector that was affected because of COVID-19 after the health care industry. This research found that agile leadership plays a significant role in determining job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Agile leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to manage work–family (AgileL -> WFC -> JS β = 0.1020, p = 0.0112 and AgileL -> WFC -> LS β = 0.1361, p = 0.0014) and family–work conflicts (AgileL -> FWC -> JS β = 0.1598, p = 0.0017 and AgileL -> FWC -> LS β = 0.1160, p = 0.0093) and reduce role stress. Future researchers might include marital satisfaction, as the inter-role conflicts highly impacted marital satisfaction and resultant imbalances among dual-earning couples. Comparative studies in this regard, explaining how dual-earning couples managed to sustain marital health and the role of leadership in developed and developing countries would be enlightening.

Occupational Risk of Technostress Related to the Use of ICT among Teachers in Spain

Teachers are frequently exposed to several occupational risks. The continuous use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) represents a potential source of technostress among teachers. The aim of the current research is to evaluate the technostress levels of school and high school teachers in Spain. The methodology applied in the manuscript, namely the staticized group technique was based on an expert panel. Results showed high levels of technostress in both dimensions (techno-anxiety and techno-fatigue). Experts highlighted the relationship between administrative tasks and technostress. More rational and efficient distribution of the workload associated with administrative obligations of the teachers, could reduce the level of technostress in the education sector. Results from the current research can help to improve working conditions of teachers considering the findings to design preventive strategies adapted to the profile of teachers and their organization. Some policy interventions such as occupational safety training, institutional technical support, and computer training programs could reduce the levels of technostress and mitigate associated negative impacts concerning the occupational health of teachers.

The Impact of Technology Adaptation on Academic Engagement: A Moderating Role of Perceived Argumentation Strength and School Support

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted routine activities such as attending to school and transferring education online. This study explores students’ perceptions of technology adoption and academic engagement using data from a survey (N = 465), with perceived argumentation and school support serving as moderators. The data were collected using a convenience sampling technique. The authors examined the association between perceived utility, perceived digital competitiveness, and perceived ease of use and academic engagement. While perceived utility and ease of use of online learning technologies do not appear to be connected with academic engagement, digital competence is. It is argued that there is a need to introduce an improvised mechanism for technology in schools. Academic involvement has no effect on perceived reasoning power, but social support has a considerable effect on academic engagement.

Recognition and rewards as moderators in the relationships between antecedents and performance of women teachers: evidence from India

Purpose

As teachers are considered “knowledge workers,” the present study explores teacher performance in schools. A particular emphasis is given to assessing the performance of female teachers in the rural part of South India.

Design/methodology/approach

After collecting data from 563 female teachers from four blocks in Nilgiris District (Ooty, Kotagiri, Coonoor and Gudalur) consisting of 37 government schools in the southern part of India, all the female teachers were surveyed, and the data were analyzed after checking the instrument's psychometric properties by performing confirmatory factor analysis. Hierarchical regression was employed to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings revealed that (1) empowerment, organizational communication and work–life balance (WLB) and recognition and rewards are positively and significantly related to teacher performance; (2) recognition and rewards moderate the relationship between (a) empowerment and performance, (b) organizational communication and performance, (c) WLB and performance, (d) organizational culture and performance and (e) quality of work-life (QWL) and performance.

Research limitations/implications

As with any survey research, common method bias and social desirability bias may be potential limitations. However, proper care is taken to minimize these biases. The findings from this study contribute to the growing literature on education and training. In addition, the study highlights the importance of creating a climate for empowerment, recognition and rewards to foster teacher performance.

Practical implications

The study helps administrators and policymakers to understand the antecedents of teacher performance and take necessary steps to motivate the teachers for superior performance.

Originality/value

The conceptual model the authors developed and tested is, according to the authors' knowledge, the first of the model's kind. A clear understanding of the predictors of teacher performance may guide the administrators and teaches in fostering performance in schools. The exclusive focus on female teachers is considered in this study because of the several problems the female teachers encounter in rural areas. Despite the disadvantages, female teachers perform well and contribute to students and the country as a whole.