Investigating the effects of emotion regulation and creativity on
Chinese EFL teachers’ burnout in online classes
Haoting
Li
Ningbo
University, China
Received:
14/4/2023 / Accepted: 27/10/2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi2023c.29635
ISSN
paper edition: 1697-7467, ISSN digital edition: 2695-8244
Abstract: The spread of the Coronavirus and
the emergence of new technology have led to an abrupt shift in education and
changed the mode of instruction. The new mode of instruction has faced teachers
with new challenges, which may enhance the rate of job burnout. To avoid this
phenomenon, the causes of teacher burnout in online classes should be widely
identified. With this in mind, this inquiry
investigated the effects of emotion regulation and creativity on EFL teachers’ burnout in online classes. We hypothesized that
teachers’ creativity and ability to regulate their emotions can minimize the
rate of burnout. To test this hypothesis, 329 Chinese EFL
teachers were invited to respond to three validated questionnaires. The
collected data were analysed through Structural
Equation Modelling (SEM). The study outcomes revealed a significant correlation
between Chinese EFL teachers’ creativity, emotion
regulation, and burnout. The results also showed that creativity and emotion
regulation can make a significant change in the rate of teacher burnout. The
present results are hoped to be illuminating for all online English teachers.
Keywords: Burnout, Emotion regulation,
Creativity, EFL teachers, Online classrooms, Chinese EFL context
Investigar los efectos de la regulación emocional y la creatividad en el agotamiento de los profesores chinos de EFL en clases en línea
Resumen: La extensión del Coronavirus y la aparición de la nueva tecnología han conducido a un cambio abrupto en la educación y han cambiado el modo de la instrucción. El nuevo modo de instrucción ha enfrentado a los maestros con nuevos desafíos, lo que puede aumentar la tasa de agotamiento laboral. Para evitar este fenómeno, las causas del agotamiento del profesorado en las clases online deberían ser ampliamente identificadas. Con esto en mente, esta investigación investigó los efectos de la regulación emocional y la creatividad en el agotamiento de los profesores de EFL en clases en línea. Se planteó la hipótesis de que la creatividad y la capacidad de los maestros para regular sus emociones pueden minimizar la tasa de agotamiento. Para probar esta hipótesis, 329 profesores chinos de EFL fueron invitados a responder a tres cuestionarios validados. Los datos recogidos se analizaron mediante modelado de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM). Los resultados del estudio revelaron una correlación significativa entre la creatividad de los maestros chinos de EFL, la regulación de las emociones y el agotamiento. Los resultados también mostraron que la creatividad y la regulación emocional pueden hacer un cambio significativo en la tasa de agotamiento del profesor. Se espera que estos resultados sean iluminadores para todos los profesores de inglés online.
Palabras clave: Agotamiento por agotamiento, Regulación de las emociones, creatividad, Profesores de EFL, Aulas en línea, China
1. INTRODUCTION
Because of its emotional
nature, teaching is typically noted as a stressful and demanding career
(Derakhshan & Nazari, 2022; MacIntyre, et al.,
2020; Wang et al., 2022). Since the spread of the Coronavirus, the mode of
instruction has shifted from face-to-face to online instruction, which made
teaching a more demanding and challenging vocation (Derakhshan, Kruk, et al.,
2021b; Pawlak et al., 2021). Online instruction needs familiarity with virtual
education platforms and new teaching techniques (Lumapenet
& Usop, 2022). Yet, most of the instructors are trained for face-to-face or
traditional teaching and do not have sufficient knowledge of innovative
teaching methods (Tao & Gao, 2022; Yüce, 2022). Inadequate information
regarding online instruction alongside the typical demands of the teaching
profession will drastically enhance the rate of teacher burnout (Fathi & Saeedian, 2020). Burnout can be related to an emptiness
feeling originating from job-related stressors, work overload, and work
pressure (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). According to Maslach et al. (2001),
burnout is a syndrome attributed to feelings such as disinterest, weariness,
and a low level of performance. Maslach (1983, p. 3) believes that burnout can
be seen among people “who do people work” and conceptualizes it in three
concepts: ‘emotional and physical exhaustion’, ‘reduced personal
accomplishment, and ‘depersonalization’. Hence, as teachers have a higher
amount of interaction with learners, it is likely to experience burnout
(Frenzel & Stephens, 2013). In the case of continuance of this emotion,
teachers’ enthusiasm for coping with daily professional hardships will melt
away leading to low self-efficacy (Chang, 2009). With the negative consequences
of teacher burnout in mind, many researchers (e.g., Bing et al., 2022; Fathi et
al., 2021; Greenier et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2022)
have studied different sources of this phenomenon in face-to-face or
traditional education environments. However, limited attention has been
directed toward the causes of teacher burnout in online instructional contexts
(Daniel & Van Bergen, 2023; Pressley & Ha, 2022; Shang, 2022). To
address this gap, the current study intends to investigate the effects of
creativity and emotion regulation on Chinese EFL
teachers’ burnout in online classes.
The first factor that may
negatively predict teacher burnout in online classrooms is creativity. It is a
psychological construct with no agreed definition that is assumed to hinder or
prevent burnout although its impact on and association with EFL
teachers’ burnout has not been closely investigated and remained intact. This
deficiency is probably due to the fuzzy nature of creativity and its
psychological softness (Plucker et al., 2004), which makes it difficult to
describe. Research on the relationship between creativity and burnout level is
few with diverse results. For example, Landeche (2009) found a non-significant
correlation between public school teachers’ emotional burnout and their
creativity. In another research on the relationship between teacher creativity
and job burnout, Derakhshan, Greenier, et al. (2022)
found a strong correlation between these two constructs.
Another negative predictor
of teacher burnout in virtual courses is emotion regulation. The concept of
emotion regulation generally pertains to “various cognitive, physiological, and
behavioral processes that a person employs to regulate his/her emotional
expressions and experiences” (Gross & John, 2003, p. 349). Teachers
typically undergo various feelings in educational settings: joy when a weak
learner fully understands a complicated term, satisfaction when a learner
selects the correct item, happiness when a learner actively participates in
learning tasks, and disappointment when they witness a learner's academic
reluctance (Xie, 2021). Teachers who can successfully regulate these feelings
can establish friendly relationships with their learners and lead them toward
higher academic grades (Derakhshan et al., 2023; Dewaele & Li, 2020). On
the other hand, teachers who fail to manage their emotions cannot help their
learners to attain higher academic outcomes (Wang & Hall, 2021), which
makes them feel stressed and used up (Fathi & Derakhshan, 2019).
Due to the important role
of teacher creativity and emotion regulation in educational environments,
noticeable attention has been paid to the consequences of these two variables.
That is, several scholars (e.g., Fan & Wang, 2022; Solhi
et al., 2023; Valente et al., 2022, among others) worldwide have studied the
potential impacts of teacher creativity and emotion regulation in language
education contexts. Yet, the effects of these constructs on language teachers’
burnout have remained in the shadows. That is, few studies (Bing et al., 2022;
Chang, 2020; Fathi et al., 2021; Xie, 2021) have been performed to evaluate the
impacts of creativity and emotion regulation on language teachers’ burnout.
Furthermore, the extent to which language teachers’ creativity and emotion
regulation can affect their burnout in online courses is unclear. To answer
these gaps, this inquiry plans to assess the effects of Chinese teachers’
creativity and emotion regulation on their burnout in online English classes.
The following research questions will guide the current investigation:
1. Is there any significant
association between Chinese EFL teachers’ emotion
regulation, creativity, and burnout in online classes?
2. To what extent does
Chinese EFL teachers’ creativity predict their
burnout in online classes?
3. To what extent does
Chinese EFL teachers’ ability to regulate their
emotions predict their burnout in online classes?
2. LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1. Emotion
Regulation (ER)
Emerging in the mid-1990s,
emotion regulation is regarded as one of the principal topics in psychology. It
seems that the definition of emotion and emotion regulation is a source of
debate. Different scholars have abstracted and defined emotion and its regulation
in different ways. Gross (2015, p. 3) points to the difficulty of the
conceptualization of emotion and holds that explaining “what motions are not
(e.g., not stress responses, not moods) turns out to be a lot easier than
saying what emotions are.” This hardship is due to the existence of
various ways of conceptualizing emotions (Gross & Barrett, 2011). Gross
(2015) divides emotions into two groups: helpful emotions and harmful emotions.
Those emotions are considered helpful which appropriately channel sensory
processing, offer data concerning the best proceeding method, enrich the
decision-making process, provide us with information about other individuals’
behavioral aims, and motivate publicly suitable behaviors (Fridlund, 1994;
Schwarz & Clore, 1983; Susskind et al., 2008). On the other hand, harmful
emotions are frequent, wrongly intensive, and durable, and sometimes lead to a
maladaptive bias in behavior and cognition (Gross & Jazaieri,
2014). Although emotions are not permanent and come and go, we can often try to
control them to some extent particularly when a special emotion may influence
our defined goal (Derakhshan & Zare, 2023).
As mentioned above, there
is no consensus on the conceptualization of emotion regulation. For instance,
Cole et al. (1994) define emotion regulation as an individual’s ability to
respond and take action to the current experience with
emotional pressures in a flexible and socially tolerable way. Thompson et al.
(2008) see emotion regulation as two types of mechanisms, internal and
external, through which people can evaluate, manage, and modify their emotions
to reach their goals. Different models have been proposed in defining and
characterizing the emotion regulation concept; among which the model of
Metcalfe and Mischel (1999) called the Hot/Cool System Modelis considered here since it is
known as the comprehensive one. In this model, the concept of emotion
regulation includes a cool and hot system. According to Sutton and Harper
(2009, p. 391), the cool system is “cognitive, complex, slow, contemplative,
and emotionally neutral” with intrinsically interconnected cool nodes.
These col nodes are the origin of strategic, reflective, and rational
behaviors. On the other side of the coin, there is the hot system with some hot
buttons or spots paving the way for fast and sometimes unreasonable
emotion processing. Sutton et al. (2009) maintain that teachers with the
ability of effective emotion regulation alter their hot spots to cool nodes by
overlooking the incentive or interpreting the stimulus in a distinctive way.
Gross (1998) believes that the aim of generally used strategies for emotion
regulation by teachers is establishing a constructive relationship with
students and colleagues and representing themselves in the best way. Two
commonly used emotion regulation strategies by instructors are cognitive
reappraisal and expressive suppression. As an antecedent-focused, cognitive
reappraisal strategy which is a type of cognitive modification, individuals try
to down-regulate unpleasant emotions. As a response-focused strategy,
expressive suppression appears later in the process of emotion production to
bring to a halt current emotional behavior (Bielak & Mystkowska-Wiertelak,
2020). As research has shown, people who use cognitive reappraisal strategy are
likely to express and go under fewer negative and unpleasant emotions and
experience more positive emotions; have the ability to
negotiate and interpret stressful conditions effectively by being optimistic
and positive (Fathi et al., 2020). Therefore, these individuals have better
well-being conditions and are successful in their interpersonal performance
besides being more satisfied. As mentioned, the connection between emotion
regulation and EFL teacher burnout, particularly in
online classes has received little attention. Nevertheless, emotion regulation
has attracted more attention in recent studies and only a few studies
investigated the relationship between emotion regulation and burnout
and they all were in-person classes (e.g., Chang, 2020; Fathi et al., 2021;
Xie, 2021) and the role of emotion regulation in online classes in the Chinese EFL context remained obscurity.
2.2. Creativity
Creativity is another
factor to consider in the present study which is difficult to elaborate. One of
the basic questions in creativity research is understanding the ‘creative’ and
‘creativity’ concepts (Simonton, 2014). In spite of
being a psychological construct, the notion of creativity has been referred to
in different ways but without any consensus. In general, it is explained as an
ability, process, or activity to innovate something including an object, idea,
or method (Newton & Beverton, 2012). Banaji et
al. (2010, p.4) define a creative person as an individual who queries, makes
connections, reflects on problems critically, and solves them innovatively.
According to Cremin (2015), a creative process is a new way of imagining,
thinking, and searching for possibilities. Fleming (2012) characterizes
creativity as imagination and play, freedom, and originality and believes that
creative people do not follow tradition, wisdom, and rules.
Creativity is valued in all
domains of life including education, and is not
limited to a specific area like science (Baer & Kaufman, 2012). Piaget
believes that the primary goal of education is promoting creativity and
nurturing creative individuals (Fisher, 2005). Improving learners’ motivation,
self-esteem, social skills, and success are advantages of creative thinking in
the classroom (Derakhshan et al., 2021a). In this fast-changing world, being
creative help students to be adaptable and flexible, cope with new situations
and daily problems, and search for new ways to succeed in their future life
(Newton & Beverton, 2012). Accordingly, most
policy documents urge education stakeholders to promote creativity in education
and several strategies and approaches have been proposed to foster creative
thinking in class (Fisher, 2005). NACCCE (1999) defines two types of creative
teaching: teaching creatively and teaching for creativity. The former refers to
the exploration of innovative teaching methods and procedures to motivate
students and stimulate their interests while the latter is related to types of
teaching methods with the intention of developing learners’ creative behavior
and thinking leading to engagement in learning (Jeffrey & Craft, 2004). Lin
(2011) believes that both notions are interconnected and demanded to have a
creativity-developing context. Although both teachings for creativity and
creative teaching are related to teachers, it seems that there is research
scarcity on the creativity of teachers and its effect on their teaching
practices and students’ success, particularly in the EFL
context.
In English language
classes, the opportunity for creativity is described as freedom in the
selection and application of knowledge, active engagement in learning, and
critical reflection on the learning experience (Cremin, 2015). Read (2015),
considers creativity-cultivating approaches probably similar among subjects
including English as a foreign language, which includes asking engaging
questions, providing more options for learners, and planning skills to
investigate distinctive ideas. Read (2015, p. 89) describes EFL
classrooms as ‘a nest of creativity’ in which students have
the opportunity to experience joyful and rewarding learning through
using the new language and involvement in creative activities motivating them
to take risks. For teachers, it is essential to identify creativity and its
features to be able to search for opportunities to enhance creative thinking
without considering discipline (Newton & Waugh, 2012, Yüce et al., 2023).
Wang and Kokotsaki (2018) studied Chinese EFL teachers’ perceptions of creativity. They found that
most teachers besides appraising creativity, considered creativity fostering
thoughts crucial for personal development and efficient language learning.
According to this study, from a Chinese EFL teacher’s
perspective, creativity included four aspects: creative products, freedom of
choice and expression, cognitive development, and creative teaching approaches.
They regarded taking advantage of playful activities and art forms and
providing a simulative atmosphere in class for innovative ideas as preferred
approaches.
2.3. Burnout
Burnout, as a serious
disorder or syndrome, is usual in those professions including interactions,
person-to-person, and teaching is among those careers. The currently proposed
definitions for burnout are varied and diverse. However, the most widely accepted
and cited definition is Maslach’s elaboration. Maslach et al. (2001) define
burnout as a multifaceted syndrome including negative emotions such as apathy,
fatigue, and reduced performance. Burnout is identified with three dimensions:
dissatisfaction with their work which happens gradually, depersonalization
(losing a normal sense of reality and personal identity and adopting an
increasingly negative perspective toward others), and emotional exhaustion
(Maslach et al. 1996). Maslach and Leiter (2016) considering it a job-related
threat hold that burnout is associated with a psychological condition developed
as a lasting reaction to work-related stressors. A study by McCormick and
Barnett (2011) showed that teachers who suffered from depersonalization burnout
started getting skeptical and pessimistic perspectives toward their work,
themselves, and their students.
It is worth noting that
burnout and stress are two distinctive concepts in many aspects. Anxiety
disorders caused by stress create urgency and over-reactive emotions (Wang et
al., 2015). An individual who suffers from anxiety disorders is usually
over-engaged in their work; however, burnout is characterized by depression and
disinterest producing hopelessness along with emotional damage. Individuals
suffering from burnout had lost their motivation, hopes, ideals, and interests,
and are emotionally bunted and as a result, disengaged in their jobs (Wang et
al., 2015). Like burnout in other professions, teacher burnout has been
investigated in recent years. These studies provided evidence that burnout is
influenced by several factors, organizational or individual, such as
pedagogical barriers, workload, student misbehavior (Domenech & Gomez,
2010), unpleasant feelings formed by emotional intelligence, and personality
type, self-esteem, classroom environment, and work pressure (Dorman, 2003),
students’ perceived misbehavior (Change, 2009), disrespect (Hastings &
Bham, 2003), and self-efficacy (Skaalvic & Skaalvic, 2010).
In the same vein, EFL teachers’ burnout has been under debate in recent
years. EFL teaching is complicated by great
challenges and hardships increasing the probability of teacher burnout and
attrition (Acheson et al., 2016, Derakhshan, Eslami, et al., 2022). Since EFL teachers need to deal with potential hardships
concerning emotional and cultural challenges in language education, L2 scholars
assert that language teachers are highly susceptible to burnout compared to
other educators. According to Acheson et al. (2016), the proportion of
attrition among foreign language teachers is higher than among instructors in
other fields which justifies additional empirical research on burnout and the
effective factors in the foreign language teaching context (Zhu et al., 2018).
To cite a few studies in the EFL context, Loh and
Liew (2016) found that factors such as tensions, emotional burdens, and
hardships concerning teaching English are largely due to the value-laden
content of the subject, the need for being culturally responsive, grading
stress of essays, pressures from testing in high-stake levels. In another
study, Ghanizadeh and Royaei
(2015) indicated a dynamic association between burnout, emotion regulation, and
emotional labor strategies. As it is seen, different factors play a role in the
teachers’ experience of burnout. Two potential factors are creativity
(Derakhshan, Greenier, et al., 2022) and emotion
regulation (Chang, 2020). The present study is an attempt to further study
these factors in the EFL context but this time in
online classes.
3. METHOD
The present study was
carried out by adopting a quantitative survey design employing a questionnaire
with four sections including participants’ demographic information, and three
variables of the study i.e., burnout, creativity, and emotion regulation.
3.1. Participants
The questionnaire was
administered to 329 Chinese EFL instructors, teaching
in language institutes and schools of which 326 questionnaires were valid. The
participants, selected by taking advantage of a convenient sampling method, had
various academic degrees including high school (23.4%), bachelor’s (45.5),
master’s (24.32 %), and other degrees (3.65%). To increase the generalizability
of the results, the participants comprised both genders (98 males, 29.79 %, and
326 females, 70.21%) from different majors including English Language and
Literature, Translation, Business English, and English Teaching. All the
participants had the experience of teaching in online classes both during
COVID-19 and even after that.
3.2. Instruments
To carry out the present
study, a questionnaire involving Likert-type items with four separate parts was
administered. The first section collected data on participants’ age, gender,
teaching experience, hours of online teaching in a week, academic qualification,
and major. The second part concerned teachers’ creativity. Teaching for
Creativity Scale (TCS) with 41 items (DaVia Rubenstein, et al., 2013).
According to the developers of TCS, it has a good fit for data (CMIN/df = 1.819) and TLI
rho2=0.917. The scale included 41 items with seven subscales, from Strongly
Disagree (1) to Strongly Agree (7). The next part of the instrument was the
Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003) with two subsections,
reappraisal factor (6 items) and suppression factors (4 items),
and estimating with seven subscales of agreement or disagreement. The
last section of the questionnaire was the teacher version of the Maslach
Burnout Inventory (MBI-ES), developed by Maslach et al., (1996), including 23
items rating teachers’ burnout by a 7-point scale from never (1) to always (7)
with the Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.85.
3.3. Data
Collection Procedure
The required data for the
present study were collected in two months starting from 2023.2.10. A
self-report Likert-type questionnaire including items on emotion regulation,
creativity, and burnout was administered in online style using WhatsApp and
WeChat. Prior to the completion of the questionnaire, participants are informed
about the objectives and probable risks of the study
and they are assured of their right to withdraw from the study, the animosity
of their information, and the use of their information only for research
purposes. They are asked to sign the consent form and submit it online. In order to avoid the possibility of misunderstanding or
ambiguity, the questionnaire was converted to Chinese by to translation experts
and then the reverse translation was carried out. The validity of the
questionnaire was controlled by two experts. After collecting the
questionnaires, they were checked reading their validity for use in the data
analysis step.
4. RESULTS
The collected data were
analyzed on the basis of the following hypotheses:
NH1: EFL teachers’ emotional regulation does not
predict teachers’ burnout in online classes.
NH2: EFL
Teachers’ creativity does not predict teachers’ burnout in online classes.
NH3: EFL
teachers’ emotional regulation does not predict their creativity.
In Table 1, the result
indicated that five determiners are the ratio of CMIN-DF,
goodness-of-fit index (GFI), normed fit index (NFI), comparative fit index (CFI), and root mean square
error of approximation (RMSEA). The model fit indices
are all within specifications. Therefore, CMIN/DF is
2.643 (spec. ≤ 3.0), GFI = 0.728 (spec. > 0.9), NFI = 0.625 (spec. > 0.9), CFI = .727 (spec. > 0.9),
and RMSEA = 0.071 (spec. < 0.080).
Table 1. The Goodness of Fit Estimation
Threshold |
|||||
Criteria |
Terrible |
Acceptable |
Excellent |
Evaluation |
|
CMIN |
6721.152 |
||||
DF |
2543 |
||||
CMIN/DF |
2.643 |
> 5 |
> 3 |
> 1 |
Excellent |
RMSEA |
.071 |
> 0.08 |
< 0.08 |
< 0.06 |
Acceptable |
CFI |
.727 |
- |
> 0.9 |
> 0.95 |
- |
NFI |
.625 |
- |
> 0.9 |
> 0.95 |
- |
GFI |
.728 |
- |
> 0.9 |
> 0.95 |
- |
Figure1. The Final Modified CFA Model with
Standardized Estimates
Figure2. The Measurement Models
Table 2. Composite Reliability and Discriminant
Validity of the Factors
CR |
AVE |
MSV |
MaxR(H) |
CRE |
EMOREG |
BURN |
|
Creativity |
0.961 |
0.862 |
0.585 |
0.974 |
0.928 |
||
Emotional Regulation |
0.765 |
0.626 |
0.585 |
0.845 |
0.765 |
0.791 |
|
Burnout |
0.770 |
0.553 |
0.399 |
0.885 |
0.547 |
0.632 |
0.743 |
The results of Table 2 show
that composite reliabilities of the factors are acceptable (CR > 0.70). In
other words, the model has achieved composite reliability. The values also
demonstrate that the convergent validity of the factors reaches an acceptable
value (AVE > 0.50) or the model has achieved
convergent validity. Another requirement of convergent validity is factor
loading more than 0.50. The results of factor loading are presented in Table 3.
In addition, the results indicate that the model has achieved discriminant
validity (the square root of AVE > inter-construct correlations).
Table 3. Factor Loading and Standardized Regression
Weights
Estimate |
|||
Reappraisal Factor |
<--- |
Emotional Regulation |
0.908 |
Suppression |
<--- |
Emotional Regulation |
0.654 |
Emotional Exhaustion |
<--- |
Burnout |
0.921 |
Professional Accomplishment |
<--- |
Burnout |
0.814 |
Depersonalization |
<--- |
Burnout |
0.383 |
Societal Values |
<--- |
Creativity |
0.978 |
Environmental Encouragement |
<--- |
Creativity |
0.931 |
Teacher Self-efficacy |
<--- |
Creativity |
0.873 |
Student Potential |
<--- |
Creativity |
0.929 |
The results of Table 3 show
that almost all of the values are more than 0.50. It
means that the model has achieved convergent validity.
Table 4. The Prediction Power of Every Variable
in Standardized Regression Weights
Estimate |
|||
Emotional Regulation |
<--> |
Burnout |
0.632 |
Creativity |
<--> |
Emotion Regulation |
0.765 |
Creativity |
<--> |
Burnout |
0.547 |
The results of Table 4
represent that all null hypotheses are rejected. It means that teachers’
emotional regulation predicts teachers’ burnout in online classes. The values
indicate that about 63 percent of changes in burnout in online classes can be
predicted by their emotional regulation; about 55 percent of changes in
teachers’ burnout in online classes can be predicted by their creativity; 76
percent of changes in teachers’ emotional regulation can be predicted by their
creativity.
5. DISCUSSION
The primary aim of the
present study is to consider the existence or lack of any interplay among
Chinese EFL teachers’ creativity, emotional
regulation, and burnout levels in online classes. Therefore, three null
Hypotheses were formed and the related data were
collected employing a Likert scale questionnaire. The results obtained from the
SEM analysis showed an interplay among the variables of the study and all the
generated null hypotheses were rejected.
Regarding the first null
hypothesis i.e., lack of relationship between emotion regulation and EFL teachers’ burnout in online classes, the results showed
that about 65% of the changes in burnout level are due to teachers’ emotion
regulation capacity. This finding lends support to Gross’s (2015) division of
emotions into helpful and harmful ones. Burnout as a harmful emotion will be
lowered if teachers are trained to control harmful feelings. On
the basis of Metcalfe and Mischel’s (1999) model of emotion regulation,
teachers with the ability of effective emotion regulation find the power of
altering their hot spots to cool nodes and consequently act strategically,
reflectively, and show rational behaviors. This is consistent with the findings
of Fathi et al. (2021) who showed that teachers with higher levels of emotional
regulation strategies had lower levels of burnout in EFL
classes. In other studies, Fathi et al. (2022) and Gahizadeh
and Royaei (2015) showed a negative relationship
between emotion regulation and teachers’ burnout. As Gross and John (2003)
point out teachers who benefit from higher capacities of emotion regulation can
control their emotions efficiently and avoid emotional exhaustion. This outcome
also supports the findings of Chang (2020), who found a close, negative
relationship between Chinese teachers’ emotion regulation and job burnout.
The second hypothesis was
on the predictive power of creativity toward EFL
teachers’ burnout in online classes. The results indicated that teachers’
creativity predicted 55% of their burnout changes and the null hypothesis was
rejected. According to Gross (2015), creativity is one of the positive and
helpful emotions that channels sensory processes, enriches the decision-making
process, and motivates suitable behaviors. Therefore, the finding from the
present work is supported by Gross (2015). Although very few, other studies on
the relationship between creativity and burnout had somewhat different results.
For example, a study by Schaufeli et al., (1996) found empirical evidence on
the association between burnout, creativity, and innovation. In fact, they
found people with less creativity experience burnout. Landeche (2009) indicated
that there is a connection between personal achievement and creativity but no
relationship with burnout. Another study by Ghonsooly
and Raessi (2012) on the relationship between Iranian
EFL teachers’ creativity and burnout showed a weak
correlation between emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, two subscales
of burnout, but a reasonably significant relationship with reduced personal
achievements. It is postulated that creative teachers have
the ability to generate new ideas and innovative ways to cope with the
stress and hardships of online teaching and overcome the confronted challenges.
This result is also in agreement with Greenier et
al.’s (2021) outcome, which indicated that teacher creativity is negatively
connected to disengagement.
On the relationship between
emotion regulation and teachers’ creativity, i.e., the third hypothesis, the
results showed a positive correlation. EFL teachers’
creativity predicted 76% of their emotion regulation. This finding can be
explained both by Metcalfe and Mischel’s (1999) model of emotion regulation and
emotion division of Gross (2015). Creativity is naturally a helpful and
constructive emotion and can be enhanced by cool nodes of emotion regulation.
This outcome lends support to the results of Greenier
et al. (2021), who discovered a strong, desirable relationship between teacher
creativity and emotion regulation. It is assumed that it is the ability to
create innovative ways and new ideas that help teachers perceive different ways
of overcoming EFL context challenges and regulate
their emotions. As Valente et al. (2023) point out creative teachers usually
integrate and compose emotion regulation strategies to handle classroom
conflicts and challenges.
6. CONCLUSION AND
IMPLICATIONS
The finding of this study,
which was an indication of an interplay among EFL
teachers’ creativity, emotion regulation, and burnout in inline classes, may
provide several implications for language education stakeholders including
institute principles, syllabus designers as well as English teachers. Regarding
the significance of teachers’ emotional regulation in lessening teacher
burnout, language teacher educators need to take practical steps to enhance
teachers’ emotional regulation strategies, as these strategies can contribute
to reducing teachers’ depersonalization and emotional exhaustion. Khani and
Mirzaee (2015) argue that helping teachers to improve their professionalism can
reduce the likelihood of experiencing burnout. Further, the EFL
teacher training program should give more attention to burnout since feeling
burnout by EFL teachers may lead them to get less
engaged in their work, detached from teaching, feel fatigued, used up, and
finally inappropriately affect this perception of their learners. Consequently,
one of the primary purposes of teacher education from developing EFL teachers’ skills in China.
Consequently, EFL teachers’ education programs in China should provide EFL teachers with the necessary through organizing
workshops skills to improve teachers’ emotional regulation strategies and their
creativity in general and in online classes. For example, teachers may be
introduced to situations with different technological problems or students’
disinterest in learning activities in online classes, and teachers with
training on what they can do in such situations. Foreign language teachers’
educators in China need to reevaluate the pre-service teacher’s creativity to
ensure a prerequisite level of creativity for entering into
the profession. On the other hand, it is recommended that ELF teachers exploit
their potential to control their emotions and show creativity to protect
themselves from being burnt out.
Concerning the limitations,
the present study is limited by a number of factors.
Firstly, as is mentioned in the methodology, the data of the present study is
from the Chinese EFL context, therefore, generalizing
the present findings to other EFL contexts and
teachers should be done with caution. The replication of the present study in a
different context is suggested for future studies. Another limitation is
related to the design of the study which was a questionnaire; in order to reach more accurate data and reliable findings,
it is recommended that future studies employ interview methods to take
advantage of mixed methods to enrich generalizability. This study was a
one-shot design, future studies can employ a longitudinal design to monitor the
probable changes in the teachers’ traits over time.
FUNDING INFORMATION
This work was supported by
Ningbo University Teaching Research Project “Research on teaching strategy of
ideological and political theory course based on acceptable psychology of
college students” (JYXMXZD2023040).
REFERENCES
Acheson,
K., Taylor, J., & Luna, K. (2016). The burnout spiral: The emotion labor of
five rural US foreign language teachers. The Modern Language Journal, 100(2), 522–537.
https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12333
Baer, J., & Kaufman, J.
C. (2012). Being creative inside and outside the classroom: How to boost
your students’ creativity–and your own (Vol. 2). Springer
Banaji, S., Burn A.,
Buckingham D. (2010). The rhetoric of creativity: A literature review (2
nd Ed.). The University of London.
Bielak, J., & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A. (2020). Language teachers’
interpersonal learner-directed emotion-regulation strategies. Language
Teaching Research .
https://doi. 10.1177/1362168820912352
Bing, H., Sadjadi, B.,
Afzali, M. & Fathi, J. (2022). Self-efficacy and emotion regulation as
predictors of teacher burnout among English as a foreign language teacher: A
structural equation modeling approach. Frontiers in Psychology ,13:
900417. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.900417
Chang, M. (2009). An
appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: Examining the emotional work of
teachers. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 193–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10648-009-9106-y
Chang, M. L. (2020).
Emotion display rules, emotion regulation, and teacher burnout. Frontiers
in Education, 5(1), 90. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00090
Cole, P. M., Michel, M. K.,
& Teti, L. O. D. (1994). The development of emotion regulation and
dysregulation: A clinical perspective. Monographs of the Society for
Research in Child Development ,
73–100.
Cremin, T. (2015) (Ed.). Teaching
English creatively. Routledge.
Daniel, E., & Van
Bergen, P. (2023). Teacher burnout during COVID-19: associations with
instructional self-efficacy but not emotion regulation. Teachers and
Teaching, 29(3), 310–328.
DaVia Rubenstein, L.,
McCoach, D. B., & Siegle, D. (2013). Teaching for creativity scales: An
instrument to examine teachers’ perceptions of factors that allow for the
teaching of creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 25 (3), 324–334.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2013.813807
Derakhshan, A, Eslami, Z.
R., Curle, S.,& Zhaleh, K. (2022). Exploring the predictive role of teacher immediacy and
stroke behaviors in English as a foreign language university students’ academic
burnout. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 12 (1),
87–115.http://dx.doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2022.12.1.5
Derakhshan, A., Greenier, V., & Fathi, J. (2022). Exploring the
interplay between a loving pedagogy, creativity, and work engagement among EFL/ESL teachers: A multinational study. Current
Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03371-w
Derakhshan, A., Kruk, M.,
Mehdizadeh, M., & Pawlak, M. (2021a). Activity-induced boredom in online EFL classes. ELT Journal, 76(1), 58–68.
https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab072
Derakhshan,
A., Kruk, M., Mehdizadeh, M., & Pawlak, M. (2021b). Boredom in online
classes in the Iranian EFL context: Sources and solutions. System, 101, 102556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102556
Derakhshan, A., &
Nazari, M. (2022). “I am fed up with the criticisms”: Examining the role of
emotional critical incidents in a novice teacher’s identity construction. The
Asia Pacific Education Researcher , 32(4), 449-458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-022-00666-1 .
Derakhshan, A., Wang, Y.L, Wang, Y.X, &
Ortega-Martín, J. L. (2023). Towards innovative research approaches to
investigating the role of emotional variables in promoting language teachers’
and learners’ mental health. International Journal of Mental Health
Promotion, 25(7), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.32604/ijmhp.2023.029877
Derakhshan, A., & Zare,
J. (2023). The impact of altruistic teaching on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ emotion regulation: An intervention study. Brain
Sciences, 13, 458. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13030458
Dewaele, J. M., & Li,
C. (2020). Emotions in second language acquisition: A critical review and
research agenda. Foreign Language World , 196(1), 34–49.
Domenech, F., & Gomez,
A. (2010). Barriers perceived by teachers at work, coping strategies,
self-efficacy, and burnout. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 13 , 637–654.
Dorman, J. (2003). Testing
a model for teacher burnout. Australian Journal of Educational &
Developmental Psychology, 3, 35–47.
Dornyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of
the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition .Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Fan, J. & Wang, Y.
(2022). English as a foreign language teachers’ professional success in the
Chinese context: The effects of well-being and emotion regulation. Frontiers
in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.952503.
Fathi,
J., & Derakhshan, A. (2019).Teacher self-efficacy and emotional
regulation as predictors of teaching stress: An investigation of Iranian
English language teachers. Teaching English Language , 13(2), 117–143.
Fathi, J., & Saeedian, A. (2020). A structural model of teacher
self-efficacy, resilience, and burnout among Iranian EFL
teachers. Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes
, 9(2), 14–28.
Fathi, J., Greenier, V., & Derakhshan, A. (2021). Self-efficacy,
reflection, and burnout among Iranian EFL teachers:
The mediating role of emotion regulation. Iranian Journal of Language
Teaching Research, 9(2), 13–37. https://doi.org/10.30466/ijltr.2021.121043
Fisher, R. (2005). Teaching
children to think (2 nd Ed.) . Nelson
Thornes.
Fleming, K. D. (2012). The
agony and ecstasy of workplace creativity: A qualitative study of how
facilitators view affect in helping adults learn creativity . The Pennsylvania State
University.
Frenzel, A. C., & Stephens,
E. J. (2013). Emotions. In N. C. Hall & T. G. Emotion (Eds.), Motivation
and self-regulation: A handbook for teachers (pp. 1–56). Emerald.
Fridlund, A. J. (1994). Human
facial expression: An evolutionary view . Academic Press.
Ghanizadeh, A. & Royaei,
N. (2015) Emotional facet of language teaching: emotion regulation and
emotional labor strategies as predictors of teacher burnout. International
Journal of Pedagogies and Learning,10(2), 139–150. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/22040552.2015.1113847
Ghonsooly, B., & Raeesi,
A. (2012). Exploring the relationship between creativity and burnout among
Iranian EFL teachers. International Journal of
Linguistics, 4 (3), 121–134. https://doi.10.5296/ijl.v4i3.2198
Greenier, V., Derakhshan, A., & Fathi,
J. (2021). Emotion regulation and psychological well-being in teacher work
engagement: a case of British and Iranian English language teachers. System
97, 102446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102446
Gross, J. J. (1998b). The
emerging field of emotion regulation: An integrative review. Review of
General Psychology, 2, 271–299.
Gross, J. J. (2015).
Emotion regulation: current status and future
prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26.
Gross, J. J., &
Barrett, L. F. (2011). Emotion generation and emotion regulation: One or two
depends on your point of view. Emotion Review, 3 , 8–16.
Gross, J. J., & Jazaieri, H. (2014). Emotion, emotion regulation, and
psychopathology: An affective science perspective. Clinical Psychological
Science, 2 ,
387–401.
Gross, J. J., & John,
O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes:
Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 85 (2), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.348
Hargreaves, A. (2005). The
emotions of teaching and educational change. In A. Hargreaves (Ed.), Extending
educational change. Springer. https://doi.org/doi: 10.1007/1-4020-4453-4
Huang, X., Lee, J. C. K.,
& Frenzel, A. C. (2020). Striving to become a better teacher: Linking
teacher emotions with informal teacher learning across the teaching career. Frontiers
in Psychology, 11, 1067. https://doi.10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01067
Jeffrey, B., & Craft,
A. (2004). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity: distinctions and
relationships. Educational Studies, 30(1), 77–87.
https://doi.org/10.1080/0305569032000159750
Khani, R. & Mirzaee, A.
(2015). How do self-efficacy, contextual variables, and stressors affect
teacher burnout in an EFL context? Educational
Psychology, 35 (1), 93–109, https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.981510
Lin, Y. S. (2011).
Fostering creativity through education–a conceptual framework of creative
pedagogy. Creative Education, 2(3), 149.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ce.2011.2302
Loh, C. E. & Liew, W.
M. (2016). Voices from the ground: The emotional labour
of English teachers’ work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 55 , 267–278.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.01.016
Lumapenet, H. T. & Usop, M. P. (2022).
School readiness towards the delivery of learning in the new normal education. International
Journal of Early Childhood, 14 (3), 2629–2637.
MacIntyre, P. D., Gregersen, T., &
Mercer, S. (2020). Language teachers’ coping strategies during the Covid-19
conversion to online teaching: Correlations with stress, wellbeing, and
negative emotions. System, 94 , 102352.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102352
Maslach, C. (1983) (Ed.). Burnout,
the cost of caring. Prentice Hall.
Maslach, C., & Leiter,
M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its
implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15 (2), 103–111.
Maslach, C., Jackson, S.
E., & Leiter, M. P. (1996) (Eds.). Maslach Burnout Inventory Manual .
Consulting Psychologist Press.
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.
B., & Leiter, M. B. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology,
52, 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397
McCormick, J. &
Barnett, K. (2011). Teachers’ attributions for stress and their relationships
with burnout. International Journal of Educational Management, 25 (3),
278–293. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541111120114
Metcalfe, J., &
Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification:
Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106(1), 3.
National Advisory Committee
on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE) (1999). All our futures:
Creativity, culture and education. Department for
Education and Employment.
Newton, L., & Beverton, S. (2012). Pre-service teachers’ conceptions of
creativity in elementary school English. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7 (3),
165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2012.02.002
Newton, L., & Newton,
D. (2014). Creativity in 21st-century education. Prospects, 44(4),
575–589
Pawlak, M., Derakhshan, A.,
Mehdizadeh, M., & Kruk, M. (2021). The effects of class mode, course type,
and focus on coping strategies in the experience of boredom in online English
language classes. Language Teaching Research .
https://doi.org/doi:10.1177/13621688211064944
Plucker, J. A., Beghetto, R. A., & Dow, G. T. (2004). Why isn’t
creativity more important to educational psychologists? Potentials, pitfalls,
and future directions in creativity research. Educational Psychologist, 39 (2),
83–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3902_1
Pressley, T., & Ha, C.
(2022). Teacher exhaustion during COVID-19: Exploring the role of
administrators, self-efficacy, and anxiety. The Teacher Educator
, 57(1), 61–78.
Read, C. (2015). Seven
pillars of creativity in primary ELT. In A., Maley, & N., Peachey, (Eds.). Creativity
in the English language classroom (pp. 29–36). British Council.
Schaufeli, W., Maslach, C.,
& Marek, T. (1996). Professional burnout: Recent developments in theory
and research. Taylor & Francis.
Schwarz, N., & Clore,
G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well–being: Informative
and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 45, 513–523. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.513
Shang, W. (2022). Job
stress and burnout among ideological and political education teachers during
the COVID-19 pandemic: A moderated mediation model. Frontiers in Psychology,
13, 1008854. https://doi.10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1008854
Simonton, D. K. (2014).
Creative performance, expertise acquisition, individual differences, and
developmental antecedents: An integrative research agenda. Intelligence,
45, 66–73.
Skaalvik, E., & Skaalvik,
S. (2010). Teacher self-efficacy and teacher burnout: A study of relations. Teaching
and Teacher Education, 26 , 1059–1069.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.11.001
Solhi, M., Derakhshan,
A., & Ünsal, B. (2023). Associations between EFL
students’ L2 grit, boredom coping strategies, and emotion regulation
strategies: A structural equation modeling approach. Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development . https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2175834
Susskind, J. M., Lee, D.
H., Cusi, A., Feiman, R., Grabski, W., &
Anderson, A. K. (2008). Expressing fear enhances sensory acquisition. Nature
Neuroscience, 11 ,
843–850. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.2138
Sutton, R. E., Mudrey-Camino, R., & Knight, C. C. (2009). Teachers’
emotion regulation and classroom management. Theory into Practice, 48 , 130–137.
https://doi.10.1080/00405840902776418
Tao, J., & Gao, X. A.
(2022). Teaching and learning languages online: Challenges and responses. System,
107, 102819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102819
Thompson, R. A., Lewis, M.
D., & Calkins, S. D. (2008). Reassessing emotion regulation. Child
Development Perspectives, 2, 124–131.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2008.00054.x
Valente, S., Lourenço, A. A., Dominguez-Lara, S., Derakhshan, A., Németh, Z., &
S. Almeida, L. (2022). Teachers’
emotion regulation: Implications for classroom conflict management. Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, 47 (8), 18–32. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol47/iss8/2
Wang, H., & Hall, N. C. (2021).Exploring relations between teacher emotions,
coping strategies, and intentions to quit: A longitudinal analysis. Journal
of School Psychology ,
86(1), 64–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2021.03.005
Wang, L., & Kokotsaki, D. (2018). Primary school teachers’ conceptions
of creativity in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL)
in China. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 29, 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.06.002
Wang, Y., Derakhshan, A.,
& Azari Noughabi, M. (2022). The interplay of EFL teachers’ immunity, work engagement, and psychological
well-being: Evidence from four Asian countries. Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development .
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2092625
Wang, Y., Derakhshan, A.,
& Rahimpour, H. (2022). Developing resilience among Chinese and Iranian EFL teachers: A multi-dimensional cross-cultural study. Journal
of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2042540
Wang, Y., Ramos, A., Wu,
H., Liu, L., Yang, X., Wang, J., & Wang, L. (2015). Relationship between
occupational stress and burnout among Chinese teachers: a cross-sectional
survey in Liaoning, China. International Archives of Occupational and
Environmental Health ,
88, 589–597.
Xie, F. (2021). A study on
Chinese EFL teachers' work engagement: The
predictability power of emotion regulation and teacher resilience. Frontiers
in Psychology ,
12, 735969. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.735969
Yüce,
E. (2022).The immediate reactions of EFL
learners towards total digitalization at higher education during the Covid-19
pandemic. Kuramsal Eğitimbilim
Dergisi (Journal of Theoretical Educational Science),
15 (1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.30831/akukeg.939836
.
Yüce, E., Kruk, M.,
Derakhshan, A. (2023). Metacognitive knowledge and openness to diversity and
challenge among Turkish pre-service EFL teachers: The
mediating role of creative self-efficacy. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 50 , 101386.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2023.101386
Zhu, M., Liu, Q., Fu, Y., Yang, T., Zhang, X., & Shi, J. (2018). The relationship between teacher self-concept, teacher efficacy and burnout. Teachers and Teaching, 24(7), 788–801. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2018.1483913