Enhancing Well-being: Exploring the Influence of Teacher Growth Mindset and Grit among EFL Instructors in Iran

نوع مقاله : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

نویسندگان
1 Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
2 Assistant Professor in TEFL, Department of English and Linguistics, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
چکیده
The primary objective of this research was to explore how the mindsets and perseverance of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Iran impact their well-being. Using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), data from 375 EFL teachers, selected through convenience sampling, were analyzed. The results revealed a direct and positive correlation between a teacher's growth mindset and their well-being. Additionally, the study found that the relationship between a teacher's growth mindset and well-being was influenced by their level of grit. These findings suggest that educators can significantly contribute to fostering growth mindsets and perseverance among EFL teachers, thus improving their well-being. Ultimately, this research underscores the importance of these teacher characteristics in enhancing the well-being of EFL instructors and offers practical guidance for educators aiming to support them.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات


Azari Noughabi, M., Ghonsooly, B., & Jahedizadeh, S. (2022). Modeling the associations between EFL teachers’ immunity, L2 grit, and work engagement. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2088766
Acheson, K., Taylor, J., & Luna, K. (2016). The burnout spiral: The emotion labor of five rural US foreign language teachers. The Modern Language Journal, 100(2), 522-537. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12333
Babic, S., Mercer, S., Mairitsch, A., Gruber, J., & Hempkin, K. (2022). Language Teacher Wellbeing in the Workplace. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 8(1), 11-34. https://doi.org/10.31261/TAPSLA.11514
Bardach, L., Klassen, R. M., & Perry, N. E. (2022). Teachers’ psychological characteristics: Do they matter for teacher effectiveness, teachers’ well-being, retention, and interpersonal relations? An integrative review. Educational Psychology Review, 34(1), 259-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09614-9
Benevene, P., Wong, Y. H. P., Fiorilli, C., & De Stasio, S. (2018). A cross-national comparison on subjective well-being of kindergarten teachers: Hong Kong and Italy. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2626. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02626
Bing, H., Sadjadi, B., Afzali, M., & Fathi, J. (2022). Self-efficacy and emotion regulation as predictors of teacher burnout among English as a foreign language teachers: A structural equation modeling approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.900417
Boyd, D., Grossman, P., Lankford, H., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2006). How changes in entry requirements alter the teacher workforce and affect student achievement. Education Finance and Policy, 1(2), 176-216. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp.2006.1.2.176
Brady, J., & Wilson, E. (2021). Teacher wellbeing in England: Teacher responses to school-level initiatives. Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(1), 45-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2020.1775789
Butler, J., & Kern, M. L. (2016). The PERMA-Profiler: A brief multidimensional measure of flourishing. International Journal of Wellbeing, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v6i3.526
Çankır, B. İ. L. A. L., & Şahin, S. A. F. İ. Y. E. (2018). Psychological well-being and job performance: The mediating role of work engagement. Hitit Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 11(3).
Claro, S., Paunesku, D., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Growth mindset tempers the effects of poverty on academic achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(31), 8664-8668. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1608207113
Clark, K. N., & Malecki, C. K. (2019). Academic Grit Scale: Psychometric properties and associations with achievement and life satisfaction. Journal of School Psychology, 72, 49-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2018.12.001
Coleman, J. (2009). Well‐being in schools: empirical measure, or politician’s dream?. Oxford Review of Education, 35(3), 281-292. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054980902934548
Collie, R. J., Shapka, J. D., Perry, N. E., & Martin, A. J. (2016). Teachers’ psychological functioning in the workplace: exploring the roles of contextual beliefs, need satisfaction, and personal characteristics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(6), 788. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000088
Cormier, D. L., Dunn, J. G., & Dunn, J. C. (2019). Examining the domain specificity of grit. Personality and Individual Differences, 139, 349-354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.11.026
Credé, M. (2018). What shall we do about grit? A critical review of what we know and what we don’t know. Educational Researcher, 47(9), 606-611. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X18801322
Credé, M., Tynan, M. C., & Harms, P. D. (2017). Much ado about grit: A meta-analytic synthesis of the grit literature. Journal of Personality and social Psychology, 113(3), 492. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000102
Dagenais-Desmarais, V., & Savoie, A. (2012). What is psychological well-being, really? A grassroots approach from the organizational sciences. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13, 659-684. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9285-3
Derakhshan, A. (2022a). The 5Cs positive teacher interpersonal behaviors: Implications for learner empowerment and learning in an L2 context. Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16528-3
Derakhshan, A. (2022b). Revisiting research on positive psychology in second and foreign language education: Trends and directions. Language Related Research, 13(5), 1-43. https://doi.org/10.52547/LRR.13.5.2
Derakhshan, A., Dewaele, J. M., & Noughabi, M. A. (2022). Modeling the contribution of resilience, well-being, and L2 grit to foreign language teaching enjoyment among Iranian English language teachers. System, 109, 102890. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102890
Derakhshan, A., & Fathi, J. (2023). Grit and foreign language enjoyment as predictors of EFL learners’ online engagement: The mediating role of online learning self-efficacy. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-023-00745-x
Dewaele, J. M., Chen, X., Padilla, A. M., & Lake, J. (2019). The flowering of positive psychology in foreign language teaching and acquisition research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2128. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02128
Dewaele, J. M., & Li, C. (2020). Emotions in second language acquisition: A critical review and research agenda. Foreign Language World, 196(1), 34-49.
Diener, E. (2009). The science of well-being: The collected works of Ed Diener (Vol. 37, pp. 11-58). New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2350-6
Diener, E., & Lucas, R. E. (2000). Explaining differences in societal levels of happiness: Relative standards, need fulfillment, culture, and evaluation theory. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 41-78. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010076127199
Diener, E., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D. W., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). New well-being measures: Short scales to assess flourishing and positive and negative feelings. Social Indicators Research, 97, 143-156. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9493-y
Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(6), 1087. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1087
Duckworth, A. L., & Quinn, P. D. (2009). Development and validation of the Short Grit Scale (GRIT–S). Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(2), 166-174. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223890802634290
Duckworth, A. L., Quinn, P. D., & Seligman, M. E. (2009). Positive predictors of teacher effectiveness. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(6), 540-547. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760903157232
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
Dweck, C. (2014). Teachers’ Mindsets:“Every Student has Something to Teach Me” Feeling overwhelmed? Where did your natural teaching talent go? Try pairing a growth mindset with reasonable goals, patience, and reflection instead. It’s time to get gritty and be a better teacher. Educational Horizons, 93(2), 10-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013175X14561420
Dweck, C. (2016). What having a “growth mindset” actually means. Harvard Business Review, 13(2), 2-5.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256
Eskreis-Winkler, L., Shulman, E. P., Beal, S. A., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). The grit effect: Predicting retention in the military, the workplace, school and marriage. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 36. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00036
Fabelico, F., & Afalla, B. (2020). Perseverance and passion in the teaching profession: Teachers' grit, self-efficacy, burnout, and performance. Journal of Critical Reviews.
Fathi, J., Greenier, V., & Derakhshan, A. (2021). Self-efficacy, reflection, and burnout among Iranian EFL teachers: the mediating role of emotion regulation. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 9(2), 13-37.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.218
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 1-53). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00001-2
Garg, P., & Rastogi, R. (2009). Effect of psychological wellbeing on organizational commitment of employees. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 8(2), 42-51.
Hascher, T., & Waber, J. (2021). Teacher well-being: A systematic review of the research literature from the year 2000–2019. Educational Research Review, 34, 100411. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2021.100411
Herman, K. C., Hickmon-Rosa, J. E., & Reinke, W. M. (2018). Empirically derived profiles of teacher stress, burnout, self-efficacy, and coping and associated student outcomes. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 20(2), 90-100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300717732066
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
Jin, B., & Kim, J. (2017). Grit, basic needs satisfaction, and subjective well-being. Journal of Individual Differences, 38(1), 29. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000219
Jiang, W., Xiao, Z., Liu, Y., Guo, K., Jiang, J., & Du, X. (2019). Reciprocal relations between grit and academic achievement: A longitudinal study. Learning and Individual Differences, 71, 13-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2019.02.004
Kannangara, C. S., Allen, R. E., Waugh, G., Nahar, N., Khan, S. Z. N., Rogerson, S., & Carson, J. (2018). All that glitters is not grit: Three studies of grit in university students. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1539. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01539
Kern, M. L., Benson, L., Steinberg, E. A., & Steinberg, L. (2016). The EPOCH measure of adolescent well-being. Psychological Assessment, 28(5), 586. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000201
Keyes, C. L. (2002). The exchange of emotional support with age and its relationship with emotional well-being by age. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57(6), P518-P525. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/57.6.P518
King, J., & Ng, K. Y. S. (2018). Teacher emotions and the emotional labour of second language teaching. Language Teacher Psychology, 1. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783099467-013
Kline, R. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. 3nd ed. New York: Guilford Press.
Klusmann, U., Kunter, M., Trautwein, U., Lüdtke, O., & Baumert, J. (2008). Teachers' occupational well-being and quality of instruction: The important role of self-regulatory patterns. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(3), 702. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.3.702
Kunnan, A. J. (1998). An introduction to structural equation modelling for language assessment research. Language Testing, 15(3), 295-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/026553229801500302
Lam, K. K. L., & Zhou, M. (2019). Examining the relationship between grit and academic achievement within K‐12 and higher education: A systematic review. Psychology in the Schools, 56(10), 1654-1686. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22302
Lan, X., & Zhang, L. (2019). Shields for emotional well-being in Chinese adolescents who switch schools: the role of teacher autonomy support and grit. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2384. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02384
Little, T. D., & Rhemtulla, M. (2013). Planned missing data designs for developmental researchers. Child Development Perspectives, 7(4), 199-204. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12043
Liu, L., Fathi, J., Allahveysi, S. P., & Kamran, K. (2023). A model of teachers’ growth mindset, teaching enjoyment, work engagement, and teacher grit among EFL teachers. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1137357
MacIntyre, P. D., & Mercer, S. (2014). Introducing positive psychology to SLA. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 153-172. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.2.2
McCain, B. (2017). Effects of teacher grit on student grit and reading achievement: A mixed-methods study. Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Mercer, S. (2020). The wellbeing of language teachers in the private sector: An ecological perspective. Language Teaching Research, 1362168820973510. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820973510
Mercer, S., & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford University Press.
Mercer, S., & Kostoulas, A. (Eds.). (2018). Language teacher psychology (Vol. 1). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783099467
Mesler, R. M., Corbin, C. M., & Martin, B. H. (2021). Teacher mindset is associated with development of students' growth mindset. Journal of applied developmental psychology, 76, 101299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2021.101299
Meyers, L. S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2016). Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. Sage publications.
Mueller, C. M., & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children's motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.33
Nalipay, M. J. N., King, R. B., Mordeno, I. G., & Wang, H. (2022). Are good teachers born or made? Teachers who hold a growth mindset about their teaching ability have better well-being. Educational Psychology, 42(1), 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2021.2001791
Nazari, M., & Alizadeh Oghyanous, P. (2021). Exploring the role of experience in L2 teachers’ turnover intentions/occupational stress and psychological well-being/grit: A mixed methods study. Cogent Education, 8(1), 1892943. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1892943
Ortiz Alvarado, N. B., Rodriguez Ontiveros, M., & Ayala Gaytán, E. A. (2019). Do mindsets shape students’ well-being and performance?. The Journal of Psychology, 153(8), 843-859. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.2019.1631141
Owen, S. (2016). Professional learning communities: Building skills, reinvigorating the passion, and nurturing teacher wellbeing and “flourishing” within significantly innovative schooling contexts. Educational Review, 68(4), 403-419. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2015.1119101
Patrick, S. K., & Joshi, E. (2019). Set in Stone” or “Willing to Grow”? Teacher sensemaking during a growth mindset initiative. Teaching and Teacher Education, 83, 156-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.04.009
Porter, T., Catalán Molina, D., Cimpian, A., Roberts, S., Fredericks, A., Blackwell, L. S., & Trzesniewski, K. (2022). Growth-mindset intervention delivered by teachers boosts achievement in early adolescence. Psychological Science, 33(7), 1086-1096. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211061109
Rissanen, I., Kuusisto, E., Tuominen, M., & Tirri, K. (2019). In search of a growth mindset pedagogy: A case study of one teacher's classroom practices in a Finnish elementary school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 77, 204-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.10.002
Robertson-Kraft, C., & Duckworth, A. L. (2014). True grit: Trait-level perseverance and passion for long-term goals predicts effectiveness and retention among novice teachers. Teachers College Record, 116(3), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811411600306
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069
Santana-Monagas, E., & Núñez, J. L. (2022). Predicting students' basic psychological need profiles through motivational appeals: Relations with grit and well-being. Learning and Individual Differences, 97, 102162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2022.102162
Schafer, J. L., & Graham, J. W. (2002). Missing data: our view of the state of the art. Psychological Methods, 7(2), 147. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.7.2.147
Schmidt, J. A., Shumow, L., & Kackar-Cam, H. (2015). Exploring teacher effects for mindset intervention outcomes in seventh-grade science classes. Middle Grades Research Journal, 10(2), 17-32.
Seaton, F. S. (2018). Empowering teachers to implement a growth mindset. Educational Psychology in Practice, 34(1), 41-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/02667363.2017.1382333
Shafiee Rad, H., & Jafarpour, A. (2022). Effects of well-being, grit, emotion regulation, and resilience interventions on l2 learners’ writing skills. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2022.2096517
Shoshani, A. (2021). Growth mindset in the maths classroom: A key to teachers’ well-being and effectiveness. Teachers and Teaching, 27(8), 730-752. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2021.2007370
Singh, S., & Chukkali, S. (2021). Development and validation of multi-dimensional scale of grit. Cogent Psychology, 8(1), 1923166.
Spitzer, B., & Aronson, J. (2015). Minding and mending the gap: Social psychological interventions to reduce educational disparities. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12067
Strayhorn, T. L. (2014). What role does grit play in the academic success of black male collegians at predominantly white institutions?. Journal of African American Studies, 18, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-012-9243-0
Sudina, E., Vernon, T., Foster, H., Del Villano, H., Hernandez, S., Beck, D., & Plonsky, L. (2021). Development and initial validation of the L2‐Teacher Grit Scale. TESOL Quarterly, 55(1), 156-184. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.581
Tabachnick, B. G., Fidell, L. S., & Ullman, J. B. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (Vol. 6, pp. 497-516). Boston, MA: pearson.
Talbot, K., & Mercer, S. (2018). Exploring university ESL/EFL teachers’ emotional well-being and emotional regulation in the United States, Japan and Austria. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 41(4), 410-432. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0031
Tang, X., Wang, M. T., Guo, J., & Salmela-Aro, K. (2019). Building grit: The longitudinal pathways between mindset, commitment, grit, and academic outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48, 850-863. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-019-00998-0
Teimouri, Y., Plonsky, L., & Tabandeh, F. (2022). L2 grit: Passion and perseverance for second-language learning. Language Teaching Research, 26(5), 893-918. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820921895
Zeng, G., Chen, X., Cheung, H. Y., & Peng, K. (2019). Teachers' growth mindset and work engagement in the Chinese educational context: Well-being and perseverance of effort as mediators. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 839. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00839
Vainio, M. M., & Daukantaitė, D. (2016). Grit and different aspects of well-being: Direct and indirect relationships via sense of coherence and authenticity. Journal of Happiness Studies, 17, 2119-2147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-015-9688-7
Vo, D. T., & Allen, K. A. (2022). A systematic review of school-based positive psychology interventions to foster teacher wellbeing. Teachers and Teaching, 28(8), 964-999. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2022.2137138
Wang, Y., Derakhshan, A., & Zhang, L. J. (2021). Researching and practicing positive psychology in second/foreign language learning and teaching: the past, current status and future directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 731721. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.731721
Williams, M., Mercer, S., & Ryan, S. (2016). Exploring psychology in language learning and teaching. Oxford University Press.
Yang, P. (2021). Exploring the relationship between Chinese EFL students' grit, well-being, and classroom enjoyment. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 762945. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.762945
Yeager, D. S., Carroll, J. M., Buontempo, J., Cimpian, A., Woody, S., Crosnoe, R., ... & Dweck, C. S. (2022). Teacher mindsets help explain where a growth-mindset intervention does and doesn’t work. Psychological Science, 33(1), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976211028984
Yeager, D. S., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Mindsets that promote resilience: When students believe that personal characteristics can be developed. Educational Psychologist, 47(4), 302-314. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2012.722805
Zeng, G., Chen, X., Cheung, H. Y., & Peng, K. (2019). Teachers' growth mindset and work engagement in the Chinese educational context: Well-being and perseverance of effort as mediators. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 839. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00839