Abstract:

In numerous studies conducted during the pandemic period, it was found that a relatively high percentage of teachers reported problems adjusting to the new circumstances. They reported higher levels of stress and anxiety compared to the emotions accompanying their professional and personal roles before the pandemic. Similar findings were found among Croatian teachers (Jokić & Ristić Dedić, 2020). It was also found that teachers rated their perceived success in remote teaching as relatively high (Rončević Zubković et al., 2022). These findings could be considered within the conceptual model of emotions proposed by Stupinsky et al. (2019). The model is based on the control-value theory of emotions (Pekrun, 2006) and posits that the social environment serves a role in predicting control and value appraisals and in turn emotions and performance. The present study aimed to apply the proposed model in the context of remote teaching. Specifically, the aim of this study was to examine the direct effects of balance, clear expectations, and collegiality on perceived success in teaching, as well as the indirect effects of these social-environmental factors on success through control-value appraisals and anxiety.

The data were collected on a sample of 2754 teachers from 312 Croatian schools using an online survey. The professional and personal balance, clear expectations, and collegiality scales were applied to assess the social-environmental determinants of the remote teaching experience. Also, the teachers’ control and value appraisals were assessed, as well as anxiety and perceived success in remote teaching.

Path analysis revealed that all the social-environmental factors were significant direct predictors of perceived success. Professional balance, clear expectations, and collegiality had positive, while personal balance had negative direct predictions of success. Professional balance, clear expectations, and collegiality positively predicted control and value appraisals. Personal balance predicted these appraisals negatively. Perceived control negatively related to anxiety and positively to success. It was the strongest predictor of perceived success within the model. Value related positively with both, anxiety, and success. Finally, anxiety positively predicted perceived success. For professional balance and collegiality, all the analyzed indirect effects on success were significant. Indirect effects of personal balance on success were also significant, except for the nonsignificant mediational path predicting success indirectly through control and anxiety. Clear expectations indirectly predicted perceived success through control and anxiety but mediational paths predicting perceived success indirectly by clear expectations through value and anxiety were not significant.

The obtained results confirmed that balance, clear expectations, and collegiality are important factors contributing both, directly and indirectly to the success of remote teaching through control-value appraisals and anxiety. The findings suggest that fostering appraisals, especially the perceived control, may be a mechanism for improving teachers' emotional well-being and success in teaching in uncertain times.

Keywords:

Teachers, anxiety, perceived success, remote teaching, control-value appraisals.