Explaining Teachers’ Approach to Teaching Based on Their Achievement Emotions and Emotional Creativity with the Mediating Role of Teacher Academic Optimism and Self- Efficacy

The main purpose of this study was to explain teachers’ approach to teaching based on their achievement emotions and emotional creativity with the mediating role of teacher academic optimism and self-efficacy. The present fundamental research adopted a correlational design and a structural equation modeling to explore the relationship between the variables. The statistical population of this study consisted of teachers working in schools in Kushk-e Nar district (Parsian county, Hormozgan province), Shibkaveh district (Hormozgan province), and Chah-e Mobarak district (Asaluyeh county, Bushehr province). The participants included 501 teachers (298 men and 203 women), who were selected by stratified random sampling and aged between 24 and 56. The participants were asked to respond to the following questionnaires: teachers’ achievement emotions questionnaire, teachers’ emotional creativity questionnaire, teachers’ academic optimism questionnaire, teachers’ self-efficacy questionnaire, and teachers’ approach to teaching questionnaire. The results showed that the proposed theoretical model of research had a good fit with the experimental data. Both enjoyment and preparedness factors had positive and significant direct effects on teacher-centered and learner-centered approaches to teaching. While anxiety had a negative and significant direct effect on the learner-centered approach to teaching, effectiveness/authenticity had a positive and significant direct effect on the learner-centered approach to teaching. Enjoyment, pride, preparedness, and effectiveness/authenticity factors had positive and significant indirect effects on teacher-centered and learner-centered approaches to teaching with the mediating roles of teacher academic optimism and teacher self-efficacy. Whereas anxiety had a positive indirect effect, innovation had a negative indirect effect on teacher-centered and student-centered approaches to teaching with the mediating role of teacher academic optimism. To sum up, the results showed that both teacher academic optimism and teacher self-efficacy played an important mediating role in explaining the relationship between teachers’ achievement emotions and their emotional creativity with regard to teacher- and learner-centered approaches to teaching