Teacher motivation and teacher-perceived student performance: The mediating role of teacher self-efficacy and the moderating roles of workload and school climate

Abstract

Grounded in job demands–resources theory, this study examined whether teacher motivation was associated with teacher-perceived student performance directly and statistically indirectly through teacher self-efficacy, and whether workload and school climate conditioned the first-stage association. Cross-sectional survey data were obtained from 402 primary and secondary school teachers in China and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Teacher motivation was positively associated with teacher-perceived student performance and teacher self-efficacy, and teacher self-efficacy was positively associated with teacher-perceived student performance. The statistical indirect association through teacher self-efficacy was positive. The teacher motivation × workload interaction was negatively associated with teacher self-efficacy, whereas the teacher motivation × school climate interaction was positively associated with teacher self-efficacy. Accordingly, the conditional indirect association was weaker at higher workload and stronger in a more favorable school climate. These results distinguish teacher motivation as a distal energizing resource from teacher self-efficacy as a proximal competence belief and show that a job demand and a job resource can condition the same hypothesized first-stage association in opposite directions. Because all focal variables were reported by teachers at one point in time, the coefficients represent theory-consistent associations rather than temporal or causal processes. The outcome captures teachers' class-level judgments and does not represent independently verified student achievement.