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Background: Although research on mathematics learning programs has taken off in recent years, little is known about how different person characteristics are related to practice behaviour with such programs. When implementing a mathematics learning program in the classroom, it might be important to know whether students with specific characteristics need more encouragement to make use of this learning opportunity. Objectives: Using a supply-use model, we analysed the predictive power of students' cognitive characteristics (prior mathematics knowledge), personality traits (conscientiousness), motivational-affective characteristics (mathematics self-concept and mathematics anxiety), and family background characteristics (socioeconomic status and migration background) for practising with an adaptive arithmetic learning program. Methods: We used longitudinal data from 203 fifth graders from seven non-academic-track schools in Germany. Practice behaviour, measured by completed tasks in the learning program, was recorded weekly for every student over a period of 22 weeks. Results and Conclusions: The results of our multilevel analyses showed that mathematics anxious students practised less with the program. We did not find any relationship with the other characteristics. Takeaways: Our results suggest that mathematics anxious students need more encouragement when practising with a mathematics learning program; otherwise, they do not get the chance to benefit from the use.

Job satisfaction has long been discussed as an important factor determining individual behavior at work. To what extent this relationship is also evident in the teaching profession is especially relevant given the manifold job tasks and tremendous responsibility teachers bear for the development of their students. From a theoretical perspective, teachers' job satisfaction should be negatively related to turnover intentions and absenteeism, and positively to high-quality teacher-student interactions (i.e., emotional support, classroom management, and instructional support), enhanced student motivation, and achievement. This research synthesis provides a comprehensive overview of the relationship between teachers' job satisfaction and these variables. A systematic literature search yielded 105 records. Random-effects meta-analyses supported the theoretically postulated relationships between teachers' job satisfaction and their turnover intentions, absenteeism, teacher-student interactions, and students' outcomes. Effects were significant not only for teachers' self-reports of their professional performance, but also for external reports. On the basis of the research synthesis, we discuss theoretical, conceptual, and methodological considerations that inform future research and prospective intervention approaches.

A negative association between symptoms of teacher burnout (e.g., emotional exhaustion) and students' academic outcomes has been demonstrated in previous research. Although, in theoretical models, it has been suggested that this association can be explained through changes in teachers' instructional behavior, these mediating processes have not yet been empirically tested. Therefore, in the present study, we examined (a) whether teachers' emotional exhaustion is related to students' self-concept, interest, and achievement and (b) whether aspects of instructional quality, indicated by teachers' emotional support and classroom organization, serve as mediators. The study is based on secondary data from the German and English classes of ninth-grade students (N = 17,280 in German; N = 17,225 in English) and their teachers (N = 987 in German; N = 1,060 in English) from 840 secondary schools. Using multilevel analyses, we found a negative association between teachers' emotional exhaustion and students' self-concept, interest, and achievement in German. Emotional exhaustion was associated with less emotional support and classroom organization in both subjects and the lower levels of instructional quality partially mediated the association between teachers' exhaustion and student outcomes. These results suggest that supporting teachers' well-being is not only important for the teachers themselves, but also it is important for students' academic development.

Mathematics anxiety is a problem for many secondary school students, and the accompanying worries and unpleasant affective reactions threaten their well-being. An extensive body of studies has found a negative correlation between anxiety and concurrent mathematics achievement. However, prior research on their longitudinal interplay has yielded inconsistent results. Furthermore, the question of how teachers' instructional behavior could reduce anxiety and its negative associations remains open. In this regard, especially teacher sensitivity, that is, teachers' awareness of students' academic difficulties and emotional needs, could be a resource. Therefore, the present study drew on longitudinal data from N = 1,559 secondary school students who completed standardized mathematics achievement tests, reported on their mathematics anxiety in terms of worry and emotionality, and on their mathematics teachers' sensitivity in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades. To obtain a comprehensive picture, parents also rated their children's anxiety, and report card grades were included as an additional indicator of achievement. The results of latent cross-lagged panel analyses showed reciprocal links between students' mathematics anxiety, in particular their worry, and achievement. Notably, the results were consistent regardless of whether students or parents reported on anxiety. Regarding the question of how to intervene in this process, we found some evidence that teacher sensitivity was associated with decreases in students' mathematics anxiety. This study emphasizes that mathematics anxiety is an important factor for secondary school students' educational pathways and that teacher sensitivity has the possibility to intervene in this process. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Students' mathematics anxiety, in particular the presence of worry cognitions rather than physiological arousal, impeded students' learning progress as reflected in poor report card grades and low scores on standardized mathematics tests. Conversely, low achievement predicted an increase in students' mathematics anxiety. We suggested that teachers' responsiveness to students' academic and emotional needs is a potential resource for intervening in this process and we found partial support for this.

Teachers' social support and classroom management are related to secondary students' achievement, domain-specific interest, and self-concept. However, little is known about whether social support and classroom management shape secondary students' general school adjustment beyond these domain-specific outcomes. To investigate this question, we drew on data from a large longitudinal research project (N = 5,607 secondary students, N = 227 classes). We applied student and teacher ratings of social support and classroom management to investigate their perspective-specific validities for predicting student outcomes. To measure students' school adjustment, we assessed achievement as a domain-specific indicator and school satisfaction, truancy, and self-esteem as more general aspects. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses showed that both teachers and students distinguished between social support and classroom management. Teacher and student ratings of classroom management largely converged, whereas their perceptions of social support were not statistically significantly associated with one another. In multilevel structural equation modeling, both perspectives uniquely predicted students' school adjustment: Student-rated social support was linked to all outcomes at the student level and to school satisfaction and self-esteem at the class level. Classroom management showed only weak associations with outcomes at the student level, but at the class level, student-rated classroom management was related to truancy and teacher-rated classroom management was linked to school satisfaction and student achievement. These findings highlight the important role of teachers in students' general school adjustment and show the benefit of considering different perspectives and levels of analyses.

Teachers' emotional exhaustion is related to various detrimental outcomes, such as work absenteeism, intention to quit, impaired instructional quality, and lower student motivation. Since emotional exhaustion becomes evident as early as teacher training at university, the question is whether it would be possible to identify an individual disposition to this burnout symptom in student teachers. Accordingly, it is important to gain a deeper understanding of the genesis, stability, and trajectories of change of emotional exhaustion. In the present study, we have disentangled different components of longitudinal stability in emotional exhaustion by applying STable, AutoRegressive Trait, and State models to two longitudinal samples of German student teachers (Sample 1: N = 4,510; Sample 2: N = 2,034). Over the timespan of up to 6 years, we found that completely stable sources (Sample 1: 35%; Sample 2: 37%) and slowly changing factors (Sample 1: 46%; Sample 2: 36%) in student teachers' emotional exhaustion accounted for much of the total variance in interindividual differences; occasion-specific factors and measurement error accounted for the remaining variation (Sample 1: 23%; Sample 2: 30%). This variance composition applied equally to male and female students and indicated that student teachers' emotional exhaustion comprises a stable component but is predominantly characterized by malleable parts due to systematically changing and occasion-specific sources of variance. Our findings about the stability of emotional exhaustion contribute to the trait-state debate of psychological characteristics and point out that intervention measures should be employed at an early stage to mitigate the negative consequences of burnout in subsequent career steps. Educational Impact and Implications Statement: Emotional exhaustion among teachers is a major educational concern because it is negatively associated with individuals' health, absenteeism, turnover, and teaching quality. Therefore, it is crucial to gain more knowledge about the development of teachers' emotional exhaustion, specifically about the extent to which this characteristic is stable or malleable and changing over time among student teachers. Results from two panel studies surveying German student teachers through their university studies for up to 6 years showed that emotional exhaustion is partly stable but also changes over time. These findings offer a broader theoretical understanding of the malleability of emotional exhaustion and can be utilized to design and implement tailored prevention and intervention measures early in teachers' careers during university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical perspectives emphasize the relevance of teachers managing their emotions for positive teacher-student interactions and student outcomes (i.e., teaching effectiveness). Four largely distinct lines of research inspired by (1) Gross' process model of emotion regulation, the concepts of (2) coping, (3) emotional labor, and (4) emotional intelligence have tested this assumption empirically. Yet, the use of different terminology complicates reviewing the current state of knowledge. Thus, we suggest a theoretical integration and synthesize evidence across research traditions. A systematic literature search resulted in 68 relevant records. We identified typically adaptive external and internal strategies as well as expressive regulation and general regulation ability as the most prominent research topics across traditions. Our results revealed mostly negative relations between expressive regulation and teaching effectiveness, but in some instances expressive regulation appeared beneficial. We also found evidence of a positive correlation between teachers' external and internal regulation and their effectiveness, but most of these studies relied on teacher self-report questionnaires, hence, these results require cautious interpretation. In studies that went beyond teacher self-assessment and relied on student reports, classroom observations, or tests, general regulation ability also did not appear related to teaching effectiveness. Implications for theory and avenues for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Math learning programs were expected to revolutionize students' learning, but their effects so far have mostly been disappointing. Following the debate about why to continue research on math learning programs, we aimed to reformulate this question into how to continue this research. Investigations to date have neither considered a sufficiently wide set of outcome variables nor differentiated between performance measures (e.g., measuring addition and subtraction performance separately) and affective-motivational variables. Moreover, as students can only benefit from a program if they use it, researchers need to take practice behavior into account. Thus, we investigated whether the adaptive arithmetic learning program Math Garden fostered students' addition and subtraction performance, their math self-concept, and a reduction of their math anxiety. We also investigated how practice behavior (practiced tasks/weeks) affected these outcomes. We used a randomized pretest-posttest control group design with 376 fifth-grade students in Germany. Students in the experimental condition practiced with Math Garden for 20.7 weeks and had an increase in math self-concept. The more subtraction tasks the students practiced, the more they improved their subtraction performance. We found no effects on math anxiety. The results are discussed in terms of providing a starting point for new directions in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' social-emotional competence has received increasing attention in educational psychology for about a decade and has been suggested to be an important prerequisite for the quality of teacher-student interactions and student outcomes. In this review, we will summarize the current state of knowledge about the association between one central component of teachers' social-emotional competence—their empathy—with these indicators of teaching effectiveness. After all, empathy appears to be a particularly promising determinant for explaining high-quality teacher-student interactions, especially emotional support for students and, in turn, positive student development from a theoretical perspective. A systematic literature research yielded 41 records relevant for our article. Results indicated that teachers reporting more empathy with victims of bullying in hypothetical scenarios indicated a greater likelihood to intervene. However, there was neither consistent evidence for a relationship between teachers' empathy and the degree to which they supported students emotionally in general, nor with classroom management, instructional support, or student outcomes. Notably, most studies asked teachers for a self-evaluation of their empathy, whereas assessments based on objective criteria were underrepresented. We discuss how these methodological decisions limit the conclusions we can draw from prior studies and outline perspective for future research in teachers' empathy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emotional exhaustion is considered to be the key symptom of burnout. Although it has been defined that emotional exhaustion rather results from work-related experience than from other life domains, this has rarely been studied empirically. The study aimed to investigate the role of different life domains in predicting emotional exhaustion. More precisely, we examined whether daily uplifts and hassles from different life domains were related to emotional exhaustion beyond work-related uplifts and hassles. A diary study was conducted over the course of 14 consecutive days. 141 beginning teachers provided information about their daily hassles and uplifts as well as their daily emotional exhaustion. Results of multilevel analyses showed that work-related uplifts were negatively and work-related hassles were positively related to emotional exhaustion. Additionally, private uplifts were associated with a statistically significant decrease and private hassles with an increase in emotional exhaustion beyond work-related events. Although the variance in emotional exhaustion that was explained by private events was small, the present study suggests that burnout symptoms might not be completely independent from individuals' daily lives outside work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' social-emotional competence is considered important in order to master the social and emotional challenges inherent in their profession and to build positive teacher-student relationships. In turn, this is key to both teachers' occupational well-being and positive student development. Nonetheless, an instrument assessing the profession-specific knowledge and skills that teachers need to master the social and emotional demands in the classroom is still lacking. Therefore, we developed the Test of Regulation in and Understanding of Social Situations in Teaching (TRUST), which is a theory-based situational judgment test measuring teachers' knowledge about strategies for emotion regulation and relationship management in emotionally and socially challenging situations with students. Results from three studies (N = 166 in-service teachers, N = 73 in-service teachers, N = 107 pre-service teachers) showed satisfactory internal consistency for both the emotion regulation and relationship management subtests. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the two facets of social-emotional competence. Regarding convergent validity, results from Study 3 revealed a positive association between the profession-specific TRUST and pre-service teachers' general emotional intelligence. Furthermore, small to moderate correlations with the Big Five personality traits provided evidence for the discriminant validity of TRUST. In Studies 1 and 2, we found evidence for a correlation with external criteria, that is, teachers with higher test scores reported providing more emotional support for students and having better teacher-student relationships. For teachers' occupational well-being, we found a link with symptoms of depersonalization and job satisfaction, but none for emotional exhaustion. We will discuss the use of TRUST in research, for the evaluation of interventions, in teacher education, and professional development and will illustrate ideas for enhancing the tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to identify the levels of and changes in emotional exhaustion experienced by teachers and principals during the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic-related stressors and resources. In a German sample of 2157 teachers and 374 principals, we found high levels and an increase of emotional exhaustion. Results from multi-group structural equation modeling analyses indicated that health concerns and workload were positively and social support negatively related to emotional exhaustion. Additional analyses of an open response question confirmed that teachers and principals experienced their work during the COVID-19 pandemic as predominantly stressful. These results indicate the importance of supporting both teachers and principals in reducing their exhaustion to help students overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Ninth-grade German students rated two different teachers' instruction. • Cross-classified random effects models used to control for rater effects. • Considerable stability in students' ratings of different teachers. • Positive links between teacher support and student achievement and self-efficacy. • Inconsistent links between monitoring and student achievement and self-efficacy. This study examines associations between student-perceived instructional quality and a student's motivation and achievement using unique data from Germany in which 9th-grade students reported on instructional quality in their English and German classes in the same academic year. Student outcomes, including self-efficacy, course grades, and standardized achievement were measured in both subjects. We utilized a cross-classified random effects model to decompose the variance in student reports of teacher support and monitoring, finding that 17% and 16%, respectively, of the variation in ratings was due to the student reporter with 26% and 27%, respectively, due to the teacher being rated. Students and teachers were further nested within classes of students who stayed together across the two subjects; however, almost no variance was attributable to class groupings. Student-reported teacher support was positively associated with achievement gains and self-efficacy at the within-student, between-student, and between-teacher levels whereas monitoring was inconsistently associated with outcomes. Standardized betas of perceived teacher support on test score gains were small (<0.10), small-to-medium on course grade gains (0.16–0.24), and medium to large on self-efficacy (0.33–0.52). Measuring the same students with different teachers allows us to disentangle dyadic student-teacher variance from student rater variance in student perceptions and outcomes and facilitates the use of powerful within-student analytical techniques to quantify the effects of educational environments on student learning and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]