Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: In times of accelerating changes, teachers who proactively engage in activities towards school improvement and innovation are increasingly needed. Still, studies on factors that affect teachers' proactive behaviour are rare. AIMS: Integrating previous research on proactive behaviour within the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) Model, this paper investigates how job characteristics (time pressure, bureaucratic structures, participative climate, personal initiative of the team) and aspects of teachers' professional competence (self-efficacy, self-regulation skills and knowledge) contribute to and interact with their proactive behaviour. SAMPLE: A total of 130 German secondary school teachers (M(SD)age = 44.05 (11.36), 65% female) participated in this study. METHODS: We employed a full two-wave panel design, with measurement points 5 months apart. The data were analysed with (moderated) single indicator modelling and a cross-lagged panel model. RESULTS: While teachers' self-efficacy in implementing change and self-regulation skills predicted their concurrent proactive behaviour, job characteristics and teachers' knowledge had no such cross-sectional effects. In addition, we found an interaction effect of time pressure and teachers' self-efficacy on proactive behaviour. Including the second measurement point, data indicated no cross-lagged effects of the job and personal factors on proactive behaviour. However, cross-lagged analysis revealed that teachers' proactive behaviour predicted their later self-efficacy in implementing change and the time pressure they perceive. CONCLUSIONS: Examining both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects, this study highlights the importance of measurements over time when analysing factors that influence teachers' proactive behaviour: While aspects of professional competence appear to be trainable concurrent resources, time pressure can limit their effect. Finally, cross-lagged effects of teachers' proactive behaviour on their later self-efficacy and time pressure appear as influential in the long run.

What makes a good teacher? The relative importance of mathematics teachers' cognitive ability, personality, knowledge, beliefs, and motivation for instructional quality.

BACKGROUND: Teachers differ substantially in their instructional performance in the classroom. Thus, researchers and policymakers are interested in how these differences can be explained and how the instruction provided by low-performing teachers can be improved. Previous research has focused either on generic (cognitive ability and personality) or profession-specific (professional knowledge, beliefs, and motivation for teaching) teacher characteristics as predictors of instructional quality but their relative importance has not yet been tested. AIMS: Hardly any studies have combined central generic and profession-specific variables in ascertaining their relative importance for instructional quality. In the present study, we seek to close this research gap. SAMPLES: We investigated 209 German mathematics teachers and their 4,672 students attending grades 7-10 (13- to 16-year-old students). METHODS: Teacher characteristics (cognitive ability, personality, professional knowledge, beliefs about, and enthusiasm for teaching) were assessed using standardized tests and self-report measures. Instructional quality (learning support, classroom disruptions, and cognitive activation) was rated by the students. RESULTS: Using structural equation modelling, we found extraversion, enthusiasm for teaching, and pedagogical/psychological knowledge to be significant predictors of learning support (R2  = .31) and conscientiousness and enthusiasm for teaching to be significant predictors of classroom discipline (R2  = .21). We did not find significant predictors for cognitive activation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate the relative significance of generic and profession-specific teacher variables for instructional quality. Overall, a substantial amount of variance in instructional quality is explained by teacher characteristics.

A longitudinal study of teachers' occupational well-being: Applying the job demands-resources model.

The job demands-resources model (JD-R model; Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) is well established in occupational research, and the proposed processes it posits have been replicated numerous times. Thus, the JD-R model provides an excellent framework for explaining the occupational well-being of beginning teachers-an occupation associated with particularly high levels of strain and consequently, high attrition rates. However, the model's assumptions have to date mostly been tested piecewise, and seldom on the basis of longitudinal models. With a series of longitudinal autoregressive SEM models (N = 1,700) we tested all assumptions of the JD-R model simultaneously in one model with an applied focus on beginning teachers. We assessed self-reports of beginning teachers at three time waves: at the beginning and end (one and a half to two years later) of their preservice period, and again, one year later. Results revealed significant direct effects of resources (self-efficacy) on engagement, of demands (classroom disturbances) on strain (emotional exhaustion), and a significant reverse path of engagement on self-efficacy. Additionally, the results showed two moderation effects: Self-efficacy buffered the demands-strain relationship, while self-efficacy also predicted engagement, especially when disturbances were high. Thus, self-efficacy in classroom management plays an important role in the teachers' stress development process, as it will, in case of high classroom disturbances, not only buffer the strain-enhancing effects, but also boost engagement. Commitment was predicted directly by emotional exhaustion and engagement, but indirectly only by self-efficacy (via engagement). Thus, we provide strong empirical support for the JD-R model. (PsycINFO Database Record