| Abstract (english) | Teacher self-efficacy is a construct derived from social-cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986). It is generally defined as a dynamic phenomenon that changes based on mastery experience, vicarious learning, social and verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states (Marschall, 2021). It can be viewed as teachers’ evaluation of their own ability to achieve the desired outcome in terms of student engagement and knowledge acquisition (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2001). Although teacher ... More self-efficacy is a dynamic construct, it has mostly been measured as a temporally stable construct or a trait (Schmitt & Blum, 2020), using cross-sectional and longitudinal designs with small number of time points (Murayama et al., 2017). Teacher selfefficacy measured in this way is related to important outcomes such as teaching effectiveness (positive relationship; Klassen & Tze, 2014), teaching quality (positive relationship; Burić & Kim, 2020), job satisfaction (positive relationship; Kasalak & Dağyar, 2020), and burnout (negative relationship; Aloe et al., 2014). Research on teacher self-efficacy as a dynamic construct or a state is less well represented. One of the few studies of this kind was conducted by Malmberg et al. (2014) using experience sampling method. The results of their study show that 25% of the variance in teachers' situationspecific self-efficacy can be explained by between-teacher variability, 25% by between-class variability, and 50% by between-lesson variability. These results show the importance of considering both stable (enduring characteristics of the teacher) and dynamic aspects (such as those arising from the characteristics of a particular class or lesson) of teacher self-efficacy. When it comes to stable characteristics of teachers, personality traits must be considered. They are defined as a set of psychological mechanisms within a person that are relatively consistent across time and situations and influence person’s interactions and adaptations to the environment (Larsen & Buss, 2008). Fundamental property of personality traits is their temporal and situational stability (Church et al., 2008), which enables prediction of behavior at different times and in different situations. Nowadays, the five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1987) is the most widely accepted model of personality traits. It consists of five basic dimensions: Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. The results of meta-analytical studies indicate a positive correlation between teacher self-efficacy and traits of conscientiousness, openness, extraversion (Đigić et al, 2014; Ramdani et al, 2021; Sari et al, 2021), and agreeableness (Đigić et al, 2014; Sari et al, 2021) as well as a negative correlation between teacher self-efficacy and neuroticism (Đigić et al, 2014; Sari et al, 2021). Although personality is relatively stable over time, there is still some variability that can be described by the state model of personality. This model assumes that personality is characterized by both stability and variability (Judge et al., 2014), and it allows for the study of inter- and intraindividual differences in personality. One of the better-known models of dynamic personality was proposed by Fleeson and Jayawickreme (2015) as part of the whole trait theory. According to this theory, when people find themselves in a certain situation, they activate social-cognitive mechanisms with the aim of adapting to the demands of the situation, which invokes personality states (Jayawickreme et al., 2021). Personality traits represent a distribution of personality states, and individuals differ in the central point of the distribution, which explains the existence of interindividual differences in personality traits. However, given the states variability, it is possible that in certain situations people show personality states that are not typical for them (e.g. a very extraverted person shows introverted behavior). Although there is yet no research examining the relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their personality states, certain conclusions about the nature of the associations can be drawn from research that has examined related or similar constructs. For example, findings of Abrahams et al. (2023) suggest that variability in states of conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness are positively related to teachers' self-rated job performance. This may be relevant in the context of examining the relationship between teachers' personality states and selfefficacy, as it is known that self-efficacy and job performance are related (Judge et al., 2007). To better understand the characteristics of situations, authors have developed standardized models that describe the variety of situations people encounter. By doing so, they focused on the meaning and interpretation of the situation, known as psychological characteristics of the situation (Rauthman & Sherman, 2020). About 7 such taxonomies have been developed in the last 10 years, using three different approaches: empirical, lexical, and theoretical (Rauthman & Sherman, 2020). The focus of the dissertation is on the CAPTION model (Parrigon et al., 2017) due to its conceptual relevance to educational context. This model is based on a lexical approach, according to which language contains words that can describe common psychological characteristics of situations (Rauthmann & Sherman, 2018). It consists of seven dimensions: complexity, adversity, positive valence, typicality, importance, humor, and negative valence. Although the model itself has not been used in educational research, several studies found a positive correlation between teachers’ ratings of their own humor (the corresponding CAPTION dimension is humor) and self-efficacy (Evans-Palmer, 2020; EvansPalmer, 2010; Daumiller et al., 2020). Lee, W.C. et al. (2020) found that teachers reported higher levels of self-efficacy when performing routine tasks (the corresponding CAPTION dimension is typicality) than when performing novel tasks and lower levels of self-efficacy when performing complex tasks (the corresponding CAPTION dimension is complexity). In addition, previous research involving undergraduate students has found a positive relationship between self-efficacy and task importance (the corresponding CAPTION dimension is importance; Azar et al, 2010; Lee, D. et al, 2020; Liem et al, 2008). Finally, in line with the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986), teachers' positive emotions (the corresponding CAPTION dimension is positive valence) were found to be positively related to self-efficacy, while negative emotions (the corresponding CAPTION dimensions are adversity and negative valence) were found to be negatively related to self-efficacy (Burić et al., 2020). Although people find themselves in a variety of situations, their interpretation still may be predictable and can be related to personality traits (Allport, 1961, as cited in Rauthman et al., 2015). This was also confirmed for the dimensions of the CAPTION model. Parrigon et al. (2017) reported a positive association of extraversion with the dimensions of complexity, importance, and humor and a negative association of extraversion with the dimension of typicality. In addition, they found a positive association of agreeableness with importance and a negative association with the dimensions of adversity, humor and negative valence. Conscientiousness also has a positive association with importance and a negative association with humor and negative valence. Neuroticism is positively related to adversity and negative valence and negatively related to importance. Finally, openness is positively related to complexity, typicality and importance and negatively related to negative valence. Given that perception of the situation invokes personality states (Jayawickreme et al., 2021), psychological characteristics of situation should be related to personality states as well. This was confirmed in the study by Abrahams et al. (2021), in which the CAPTION dimension of humor was a positive predictor of the state of extraversion and the state of openness, while the CAPTION dimension of adversity was a negative predictor of the state of agreeableness. Based on the established relationships between personality traits, psychological characteristics of the situation, personality states and teacher self-efficacy, it can be concluded that there is a complex relation between these constructs and that teacher self-efficacy is a dynamic construct shaped by the interplay of personal and environmental factors (Bandura, 1986). However, effects of intraindividual processes have been largely neglected in the field of educational psychology (Murayama et al., 2017). Instead, research has predominantly focused on stable inter-individual differences (Đigić et al., 2014; Ramdani et al., 2021; Sari et al., 2021). In a few studies in which teacher self-efficacy was operationalized as a dynamic construct (Malmberg et al., 2014; Rupp & Becker, 2021), the authors only considered the role of contextual factors (e.g. the classroom) and disregarded personal factors. On the other hand, research that has examined the dynamic relationships between teachers’ personal factors and environmental factors (Abrahams et al., 2021, 2023) has not specifically focused on teacher self-efficacy. Therefore, research that simultaneously examines the dynamic interplay of personal factors, contextual factors, and teacher self-efficacy is missing. The aim of the present study is therefore to examine a serial mediation model (and its parts), which includes both personal and environmental factors as relevant predictors of teacher selfefficacy (Bandura, 1986). The most important personal factor of the proposed model is personality, based on the findings on the relationship between personality traits and teacher self-efficacy (Đigić et al., 2014; Ramdani et al., 2021; Sari et al., 2021). In line with the assumptions of the whole-trait theory (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015) according to which personality can also be expressed as a state in response to individual's perception of the situation (Allport, 1961, as cited in Rauthman et al., 2015), the serial mediation model assumes that personality traits also indirectly predict teacher self-efficacy. Specifically, personality traits shape perceptions of the situation (i.e., psychological characteristics of the situation; Parrigon et al., 2017), which in turn triggers a response that manifests in personality states (Jayawickreme et al., 2021) that further has an effect on teacher self-efficacy (Abrahams et al., 2023). METHOD The study was conducted as part of the research project "Teacher personality, emotions and job performance: A dynamic perspective", which was funded by the Croatian Science Foundation (Grant No. IP-04-2019-5472) In total, 113 female and 15 male teachers working at 17 secondary schools in Croatia participated in the study. Teachers taught a wide range of subjects (i.e., biology, chemistry, ecology, Croatian language, English language, German language, Italian language, Portuguese language, French language, Russian language, Latin language, philosophy, ethics, logic, theatre pedagogy, physics, geography, history, sociology, politics and economics, psychology, music arts, visual arts, computer science, mathematics, religious education). On average, teachers had M = 14.81, SD = 8.64 years of teaching experience. In February 2023, teachers completed a 15-minute online survey in which data on teacher demographics and personality traits were collected. Teacher personality traits were measured using the Big Five Inventory-2 (Soto & John, 2017). In late March 2023, teachers participated in an experience sampling study which lasted for 10 working days or two weeks. Upon arrival at the first lesson of each working day, by using a specially designed application for experience sampling (m-Path) installed on their cellphones, teachers indicated that they started the class. This triggered a sequence of 3 short surveys that were sent to teachers at random intervals over a period of 4 hours. The sequence of 3 surveys represents a compromise between the number of data points required to capture the dynamics of the process on one hand, and the statistical power of the study, teacher workload, and interference of surveys with teaching on the other hand. The first survey arrived at intervals of 10 to 70 minutes after teachers indicated the start of their first lesson (to allow sufficient time for lesson development), the next at intervals of 100 to 160 minutes after the start of the lesson, and the last at intervals of 190 to 250 minutes after the start of the lesson. A break of 30 minutes was set between the intervals to control the pause between lessons and to allow sufficient time to develop the dynamics of the next lesson. At the beginning of each questionnaire, teachers were asked to indicate whether they were in class. If the answer was yes, a questionnaire measuring teacher personality states (Big Five Inventory-10-R; Stone et al., 2022, item reference changed to “at this moment“), psychological characteristics of the situation (CAPTIONs-SF; Parrigon et al., 2017; adapted by Reindl et al., 2021), and self-efficacy (item reference changed to “at this situation”, one item per dimension taken from the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was administered. Each time, teachers had 20 minutes to open the questionnaire, after which it was no longer active. If teachers indicated that they were not in the class, the questionnaire was automatically stopped, and the next notification was delivered at scheduled time. Considering duration of the study and the number of daily notifications, a maximum of 30 experiences per teacher could be recorded. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Given the hierarchical structure of the data (time points nested within teachers), all analyses were based on the Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling (ML-SEM) approach. The MLSEM allows decomposition of variance into two components – within-person and between- person – thus enabling the investigation of the proposed associations at within-person (L1) and between-person (L2) levels of analysis. ML-SEM analyses were performed in Mplus 8.10 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2017) using the Bayesian algorithm for parameter estimation. Bayesian estimation was applied because it is less sensitive to sample size and number of time points compared to the maximum likelihood estimation algorithm (Kim et al., 2020). When it comes to the relationships between personality dimensions and self-efficacy, at the between-person level, teacher self-efficacy was best explained by agreeableness (positive relation). This is partly in line with the hypothesis, as we expected that conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, and negative emotionality will also explain teacher self-efficacy (Đigić et al, 2014; Sari et al, 2021). In line with the hypothesis, at the within-person level, all personality states were related to teacher self-efficacy in the expected direction. Conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness were positively related to selfefficacy, while negative emotionality was negatively related to self-efficacy. However, the hypothesis was partially confirmed at the between-person level since only conscientiousness and openness were positively related to teacher self-efficacy. Regarding the relationship between psychological characteristics of the situation and teacher self-efficacy, at the within-person level, the hypothesis was partially confirmed. As expected, importance, typicality, and positive valence were positively related to teacher self-efficacy, while adversity was negatively related to teacher self-efficacy. However, humor and negative valence were unrelated to self-efficacy, while complexity showed positive associations with teacher self-efficacy (rather than expected negative). At the between-person level, only the importance of the situation was positively related to the teacher self-efficacy, partially confirming the hypothesis. Considering the relationships between personality traits and personality states, the hypothesis was partially confirmed. In accordance with the assumptions of the whole trait theory (Fleeson & Jayawickreme, 2015), at the between-person level, traits of extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were related to the corresponding personality states. However, traits of negative emotionality and openness were not related to the corresponding personality states. Moreover, since people select and perceive situations to a certain extent based on personality traits (Allport, 1961, as cited in Rauthman et al., 2015), significant relationship between personality states and psychological characteristics of situations was hypothesized. This assumption was only confirmed (partially) for the dimension of agreeableness. At the between- person level, agreeableness trait was related to importance, typicality (positive relation), negative valence, and adversity (negative relation). Given that perception of the situation is related to personality states (Jayawickreme et al., 2021), specific hypothesis about its relationship with the personality states for each dimension of psychological characteristics of situation was set. The complexity was assumed to be positively related to extraversion and openness. At the within-person level, the hypothesis was partially confirmed, as complexity (positive correlation) explained the variance in conscientiousness and openness. At the between-person level, complexity did not explain the variance of any of the personality dimensions, so the hypothesis was rejected. For the dimension of adversity, it was assumed that it is positively related to negative emotionality and negatively related to agreeableness. At the within-person level, hypothesis was partially confirmed, since adversity of the situation explained the variance in negative emotionality (positive correlation), extraversion, agreeableness, and openness (negative correlation). At the between-person level, adversity only explained the variance in negative emotionality (positive association), so the hypothesis was partially confirmed. Positive valence was hypothesized to be positively associated with extraversion. This hypothesis was partially confirmed at the within-person level. Positive valence explained the variance of extraversion, conscientiousness, openness (positive correlation), and negative emotionality (negative correlation). At the between-person level, positive valence was not related to personality states, so the hypothesis was rejected. For typicality, it was assumed that it is positively related to openness and negatively to extraversion. At both levels of analysis, the hypothesis was rejected because typicality did not explain the variance in openness and extraversion. However, at the between-person level, typicality only explained the variance in negative emotionality (negative association). For importance, it was assumed that it is positively related to extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and negatively to negative emotionality. At the within-person level, the hypothesis was partially confirmed, since the importance explained the variance in conscientiousness (positive correlation). At the between-person level, importance explained the variance in extraversion and openness (positive correlation) therefore partially confirming the hypothesis. Furthermore, it was assumed that humor is positively related to extraversion and negatively to agreeableness and conscientiousness. At the within-person level, the hypothesis was partially confirmed since humor explained the variance in extraversion and openness (positive correlation). At the between-person level, humor was not related to any of personality dimensions. The hypothesis was therefore rejected. For negative valence, it was assumed that it is positively related to negative emotionality and negatively to agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness. At the within-person level, negative valence explained the variance in extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness (negative association). It can therefore be said that hypothesis is partially confirmed. At the betweenperson level, negative valence only predicted the variance of agreeableness (negative association), so the hypothesis is partially confirmed. To explain complex dynamic interplay between personality traits, psychological characteristics of the situation, psychological states, and teacher self-efficacy, a serial mediation model was proposed in which personality traits determine perceptions of the situation, which triggers a response that manifests in personality states that further shape teacher self-efficacy. As part of this larger model, three additional sub-models can be distinguished. The first one assumes that psychological characteristics of situations mediate the relationship between personality traits and teacher self-efficacy. This hypothesis was partially confirmed. Statistically significant indirect effects were found for traits of conscientiousness and agreeableness, with the importance mediating (full mediation) the relationship between the personality traits and teacher self-efficacy. Another sub-model assumes that personality states mediate the relationship between personality traits and teacher self-efficacy. This hypothesis was largely confirmed. The results indicated mediating effects in models with traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and negative emotionality (full mediation). The third submodel assumes that personality states mediate the relationship between psychological characteristics of the situation and teacher self-efficacy. At the within-person level, the hypothesis was dominantly confirmed since personality states mediated (partial mediation) the relationship between all perceived situational characteristics and teacher self-efficacy. All five personality states (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, negative emotionality, openness) mediated the relationship between negative valence, complexity, adversity, and teacher self-efficacy, while the states of agreeableness, conscientiousness, negative emotionality and openness mediated the relationship between importance and positive valence of the situation and teacher self-efficacy. Finally, states of extraversion, conscientiousness, and openness mediated the relationship between typicality and teacher self-efficacy, while states of extraversion and openness mediated the relationship between humor and teacher self-efficacy. At the between-person level, hypothesis was partially confirmed. Conscientiousness and openness mediated the relationship between negative valence, complexity, typicality, positive valence and teacher self-efficacy, while agreeableness and openness mediated the relationship between importance and teacher self-efficacy (partial mediation). Finally, the serial mediation model assumes that psychological characteristics of the situation and personality states mediate the relationship between personality traits and teacher’s self-efficacy. This assumption is largely rejected, except for the traits of agreeableness and conscientiousness. According to the results, importance mediated the relationship between both agreeableness and conscientiousness and teacher self-efficacy through states of openness and conscientiousness. The results showed a complex relationship between personality traits, psychological characteristics of the situation, personality states, and teacher self-efficacy. This research is a step forward in raising researchers’ and professionals’ awareness of the importance of considering the dynamic work context in which teachers find themselves. A better understanding of these dynamics can have important implications. For example, it is known that short-term change is associated with long-term change (Kiken et al., 2015) and by examining the dynamics of teacher self-efficacy, one can predict future levels of teacher selfefficacy. In addition, situational variability in personality is related to self-assessment of job performance (Abrahams et al., 2023) and emotional exhaustion (Sosnowska et al., 2019), which in turn can influence teacher self-efficacy and teaching quality (Burić & Kim, 2020; Kim & Burić, 2020). A better understanding of the dynamics of teacher self-efficacy can sensitize teachers to the short- and long-term effects that dynamic changes in their self-efficacy can have on both them and their students. This awareness can enable the development and implementation of strategies to effectively regulate these effects. Less |
