The association between teacher enthusiasm and students’ class-related boredom: A multilevel study

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

“…We adapted the 12-item Boredom Proneness Scale-Short Form to measure boredom proneness ( Vodanovich et al, 2005 ). Consistent with previous research ( Cui et al, 2017a , b , 2020 ), we deleted two items to adapt the scale to Chinese culture (i.e., “I find it easy to entertain myself” and “It seems that the same old things are on television or the movies all the time; it’s getting old”). Ten items were maintained, such as “Many things I have to do are repetitive and monotonous.” Responses were indicated on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree, which is consistent with the original scale.…”

“…The CB scale from the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire was utilized in the present study ( Pekrun et al, 2005 ; Cui et al, 2017a , b , 2020 ). The tool contains 11 items, such as “I get bored” and “I find this class fairly dull.” We asked the students to evaluate their experience in the current classroom using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree.…”

“…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.…”

“…As such, PTE may reduce CB through the mediating effect of students’ PTV. In addition to task value, according to the control-value theory and related empirical research, task difficulty may also affect the relationship between teacher enthusiasm and class boredom ( Pekrun, 2006 ; Cui et al, 2020 ). Considering the research focus of the present study (i.e., to examine the mediating effect of task value), the influence of task difficulty should be accounted for in the examination.…”

“…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.…”