Stability of the Mitigating Effect of Students’ Perceived Teacher Enthusiasm on Class-related Boredom: Moderating Role of Boredom Proneness and Perceived Task Difficulty

Abstract

The aim of the current study was to explore the stability of the mitigating effect of students’ perceived teacher enthusiasm on class-related boredom and the moderating role of boredom proneness and perceived task difficulty in such effect. A total of 984 students from five universities in China participated in the study. Questionnaires on class-related boredom, perceived teacher enthusiasm, boredom proneness, and perceived task difficulty were used to measure the respective variables. Results showed that boredom proneness and perceived task difficulty significantly moderated the relationship between perceived teacher enthusiasm and class-related boredom. Moreover, when considering perceived task difficulty, boredom proneness became silent in the moderating path between perceived teacher enthusiasm and class-related boredom. Even so, the mitigating effect of students’ perceived teacher enthusiasm on class-related boredom was stable in students with different levels of boredom proneness and perceived task difficulty. The implications for learning and teaching are discussed.

Dampening Effects of Perceived Teacher Enthusiasm on Class-Related Boredom in College Students: Longitudinal Mediation Effects of Perceived Task Value

“…Theoretically, it will be ideal to construct a multilevel model when the differences among different classes are significant. However, previous research based on cross-sectional designs had supported the universal mediating effects of task value between teacher enthusiasm and CB cross different universities and classes (e.g., Wang et al, 2020 ). This means that the analysis on the whole sample would rarely bias the results, whereas future research can improve sampling strategies and utilize multilevel models in analysis.…”

“…All the above measure instruments were originally developed in English and translated into Chinese in the present study. The translated version of the scales/items have been used and tested in previous studies (e.g., Cui et al, 2017a ; Wang et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Overall, CB is an important topic worthy of attention from researchers and educators. Additionally, in research on CB, boredom proneness can be considered as a control variable to exclude the individual difference on personality ( Wang et al, 2020 ).…”

“…It could be concluded that a high level of enthusiasm for a teacher is associated with some aspects of good teaching quality ( Pekrun, 2006 ; Pekrun et al, 2007 , 2010 ). Additionally, teacher enthusiasm is associated with students’ CB ( Cui et al, 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ). Thus, teachers’ enthusiasm may be an important factor in reducing students’ boredom in class.…”

“…Although teacher enthusiasm is recognized as the core index of affecting the quality of teaching, teacher enthusiasm may play a more important role than what we have known, especially on students’ academic emotions ( Keller et al, 2014 , 2016 ). Previous literature has shown that teacher enthusiasm is associated with low levels of students’ class-related boredom (CB; Cui et al, 2017a , 2020 ; Wang et al, 2020 ) and students’ perceived task value (PTV) may play an intermediary role between them ( Cui et al, 2017b ). To date, few longitudinal studies have examined the causal relationships among these variables.…”