Can a professional learning community facilitate teacher well-being in China? The mediating role of teaching self-efficacy

ABSTRACT

Previous studies have indicated that teacher well-being (TWB) should have substantial benefits for both individuals and organisations. This study explored the relationship between the professional learning community (PLC) and TWB from the perspective of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. Informed by self-efficacy theory, the present study further investigated whether the PLC-TWB relationship was mediated by teaching self-efficacy (TSE). Survey data were gathered from 844 teachers from 28 schools in one province of southeastern China. The results showed that each of the six PLC components was positively related to teachers’ hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. The association between the PLC and TWB was confirmed to be mediated by TSE. Our study not only highlighted the importance of the PLC on TWB in China, but also provided insights into the mechanism of the PLC-TWB relationship through the lens of TSE. Implications for research and practice were discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional learning community
• teacher well-being
• hedonic well-being
• eudaimonic well-being
• teaching self-efficacy

Disclosure astatement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The Lake Wobegon effect is the human tendency to overestimate one’s own achievements and capabilities in relation to others. As applied to teaching groups, the Lake Wobegon effect describes how teachers usually think that their performance is at a higher level than it actually is and continually require better salaries.

2. The criteria for invalid questionnaires were as follows: (1) five or more questions are not answered, and (2) the questions and answers are exactly the same. Data for 30 teachers were removed from the origin sample.

3. All items for each scale in current paper are reported in Appendix; the same below.

4. The eigenvalues for the first common factors are greater than 1. Bartlett’s test results are significant at the 0.01 level, and the factor loadings are greater than 0.5. The first common factor can explain 62.84% of the total variation.

5. Bartlett’s test results are significant at the 0.01 level, and the factor loadings are greater than 0.5. The first common factors can explain 78.82%, 70.64%, 75.48%, 72.04%, 66.89% and 60.34% of the variation of each dimension, respectively.

6. Bartlett’s test results are significant at the 0.01 level, and the factor loadings are greater than 0.5. The first common factors can explain 66.15%, 80.41% and 67.53% of the variation of each dimension, respectively.

7. The detailed sample distribution description based on control variables is shown in Appendix Table 1.

8. The detailed reliability and construction validity information for each scale is shown in the Appendix tables.

9. By controlling school-level fixed effects${\alpha }_j$, school-level control variables are not needed in Equation (1)(1) $Y_{ij}^t={\beta }_{1k}{X}_{ij}^k+\sum _{l=1}^m{\tau }_l{Z}_{lij}+{\alpha }_j+{\epsilon }_{ij}$(1) .

10. According to Hayes (2009), the mediating effect is significant only if the 95% confidence interval of mediating effect does not include zero.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Chinese National Social Science Foundation [CFA170252]; 2019 Comprehensive Discipline Construction Fund of Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University [2019QNJS007]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [71974016]; The International Joint Research Project of Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University [CER201905].

Notes on contributors

Wenyan Liang

Wenyan Liang is an associate professor at Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China. Her current areas include teacher quality, teachers’ professional development, and teachers’ well-being.

Huan Song

Huan Song is a professor at Center for Teacher Education Research of Beijing Normal University and at Institute of Plateau Science and Sustainable Development of Qinghai Normal University. His main research interests are teachers’ professional development, school improvement, curriculum reform and action research.

Ran Sun

Ran Sun is a PhD student at Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, China. Her research focuses on teachers’ professional development, teachers’ well-being and teachers’ time allocation.