Students’ motivational characteristics, such as growth mindset, self-concept, and interest are significant for their academic outcomes. Previous research shows that parental support plays a crucial role. Children who perceive parental support through homework assistance and encouragement show a more positive self-concept and subject-related interest. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying these relations, particularly the mediating role of children’s growth mindset. As children’s growth mindset is linked to both parental support and self-concept and interest, we assume that it might play an important role in the outlined relationships between parental support and both children’s science self-concept and science interest. In order to address this research gap, children’s growth mindset is examined as a mediator and thus as an explanation for the expected relations. We collected cross-sectional survey data from 401 primary school students (mean age 10.97 years; 46.88

Context personalization is an instructional approach aimed at enhancing students’ engagement and cognitive processing by embedding learning content in familiar contexts. Numerous studies explore the benefits of personalized tasks for learning, but few empirically examine cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of context personalization. In a cluster-randomized control trial with N = 156 elementary school students, we investigated (1) whether context personalization leads to an increased interest in the learning content. Furthermore, we examined (2) the role of working memory for learning and (3) whether the assumed effect of working memory on students’ learning performance was moderated by the use of context-personalized tasks. The results indicate that context personalization elicits interest in the learning content. In addition, working memory was a significant predictor of student performance across conditions. However, the hypothesized moderating effect of context personalization on the relationship between working memory and student performance was not supported. These results contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the cognitive and motivational effects of context-personalized tasks in elementary science education.

Schools are increasingly confronted with complex and evolving demands, requiring continuous organizational and instructional improvement. School leaders are in a pivotal position to design and initiate school improvement initiatives. Effective school improvement depends on change processes at both the organizational and individual teacher levels, yet few studies have addressed this interplay—especially from a longitudinal perspective. Drawing on theoretical frameworks at both levels, this study examines how principals involve teachers in school-level decision-making and how this is associated with teachers’ perceptions of organizational readiness for change and collective teacher efficacy. Based on panel data from three measurement points over 2.5 years ( T 1 : 619; T 2 : 674; T 3 : 263) collected from teachers in Germany, we find that while teachers report generally high levels of participation, relatively few are involved in concrete aspects of school improvement. Higher levels of participation are associated with increases in teachers’ perceptions of organizational readiness for change and collective teacher efficacy over time. These findings underscore the importance of leadership practices that meaningfully engage teachers in school improvement and suggest that principals need the skills to involve teachers appropriately, while school administration must ensure the structural conditions that allow teachers to act on their motivation.

Social media can support teachers' informal professional learning, yet professional non-use remains under-examined. This mixed-methods study investigates pre-service teachers' non-use of social media for professional purposes using the Will-Skill-Tool (WST) framework. In a cross-sectional survey of 147 pre-service teachers, users and non-users are compared on motivation, perceived relevance, and self-assessed skill. A MANOVA indicates significant group differences, with users scoring higher across all WST dimensions; differences are strongest for Will (motivation and relevance). Open-ended responses from non-users are coded into eight reason categories. The most frequent reasons are maintaining boundaries between private and professional life and perceiving no added professional value. Additional reasons include exclusive private use, lack of prior professional use without a specific reason, limited knowledge of professional use, self-protection, time/technical constraints, and privacy/legal concerns. Findings suggest teacher education should offer low-threshold, critically guided opportunities to explore professional social media use while respecting deliberate non-use.

Teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy are important predictors of various factors at the school, teacher, and classroom levels (e.g., school climate, job satisfaction, student achievement). However, little is known about the determinants of teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy. Based on assumptions drawn from social capital theory, we posit that principals are in a pivotal position to shape teachers’ work environments by providing school-based structures for collaboration, thereby enhancing teachers’ actual collaboration and their collective efficacy. Moreover, there is limited evidence on the dynamics of a school’s social capital, which includes teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy. Using longitudinal survey data from 1,112 teachers in Germany, collected on three measurement occasions over two and a half years, this study estimates a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to investigate the temporal relationships between principals’ leadership practices, teacher collaboration, and collective teacher efficacy. Our results suggest a temporal association between principal leadership and collective teacher efficacy, mediated through teacher collaboration. Additionally, we find a reciprocal temporal relationship between teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy. We contribute evidence on the causal relationship between teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy and highlight the role of principal leadership in fostering this interplay.

Many teachers use social media for professional purposes, but the impact of these activities on their well-being is underexplored. In this study, we developed four scales to assess stressors from teachers' Instagram use and examined their relationship to Instagram-related stress among 304 teachers. Structural equation modeling revealed that information overload, social comparison, and procrastination are associated with teacher stress. Passive Instagram use (e.g. seeking information) was related to more social comparison and procrastination, while active use (e.g. sharing information) was associated with less social comparison. Our findings contribute to understanding potential side effects of teachers' job-related social media use. Moreover, this study adds quantitative insights into how social media affects teacher stress, informing educators and policymakers alike.

Teacher collaboration and collective teacher efficacy are key factors in a school's capacity for improvement. Based on assumptions drawn from social capital theory, we posit that principals play a pivotal role in shaping teachers' work environments, thereby enhancing collaboration and collective efficacy. However, evidence on the determinants of these factors and their dynamics as aspects of a school's social capital remains limited. Using longitudinal survey data from teachers in Germany collected over three measurement occasions (n1 = 619, n2 = 674, n3 = 263), this study provides evidence of a temporal relationship between principal leadership to promote within-school collaboration and collective teacher efficacy, mediated by teacher collaboration. Additionally, we find a reciprocal temporal relationship between teacher collaboration and collective efficacy. Our findings contribute to understanding the causal relationship between these factors and underscore the critical role of principal leadership in fostering this interplay.

The digital transformation in the education sector is leading to an increased range of online professional development (PD) courses for teachers. However, the online space harbors some peculiarities, such as the lack of physical presence, which could be associated with a variety of challenges for teacher educators. The aim of this article is to identify these challenges. To this end, 142 teacher educators were interviewed as part of a written online survey, whose responses were evaluated using qualitative content analysis. Social and communicative challenges were mentioned most frequently, technological and health challenges second most frequently and design and organizational challenges third most frequently. Furthermore, social and communicative challenges were reported significantly more frequently by teacher educators with little job experience. These findings show that teacher educators need support in the design and implementation of online PD courses. What this support could look like is outlined at the end of the article.

Principal leadership plays an important role in teacher practices and student achievement. Professional development (PD) can help principals to improve their leadership practices—yet few studies to date have examined the effects of formal PD on principals. The present study uses matched data from n = 62 principals and n = 1112 teachers to investigate the longitudinal effects of an 18-month PD program regarding school improvement for principals in Germany. Results from baseline latent change score modelling suggest positive changes in principals’ self-reported leadership practices aimed at improving instructional quality at their schools and promoting teacher development. The positive change in practices is partly reflected in the reports of teachers in the respective schools. We find evidence for characteristics of high-quality PD programs for principals, such as joint participation of leadership pairs, group discussions, internships and coaching, that might help practitioners to design future PD activities for principals. Research should further examine characteristics of effective PD for principals taking control groups and confounding variables into account.

Asking questions on social media acts as a stimulus for professional learning among educators, while the answers can offer them valuable resources. Framed by the concept of digital social support and using a cross-cultural comparative approach, we investigate what type of digital social support educators seek when using educational social media spaces, and what they receive from other users who answer their questions. Analyzing 2,274 tweets and 2,020 replies from two hashtags popular among German and US teachers, #twlz and #teachertwitter, we find that educators mainly seek instrumental support (e.g. materials). Yet what is being sought influences the likelihood of getting the desired response, not the user's characteristics. Differences emerge between the two hashtags in the kinds of support educators seek and the way educators respond to requests. The findings highlight the need for educators to possess digital competencies to fully utilize social media spaces.

Teacher shortages have led schools to fill vacant positions with student teachers who are not yet fully qualified but work part-time in schools. When student teachers begin working in the classroom, they face professional challenges that can lead to work-related stress. Drawing on assumptions from the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, we surveyed 172 student teachers in Germany and found that more complex instructional activities (e.g., teaching independently) are related to higher work-related stress. While social support from colleagues moderates this relationship, student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs do not.

The number of online professional development (PD) activities for teachers has increased over the past decade. While there is evidence on characteristics of effective face-to-face PD, little is known about the quality of online PD activities. The present study investigates the quality of online PD activities as perceived by teachers, and the association of PD quality with teachers' satisfaction and their changes in practice. The study is based on survey data from N = 387 teachers who participated in a formal online PD activity. Our results indicate high levels of cognitive activation, as well as high clarity and structure of the online PD activity, and moderate levels of collaboration among participants in online PD. While all quality characteristics predict teachers' satisfaction, only cognitive activation and collaboration in online PD predict changes in teachers' professional practices.

Teacher collaboration is an important feature of job satisfaction and self-efficacy for teachers. Moreover, the collaboration of teachers is important for adopting professional changes as professional development (PD) activities that include opportunities for collaboration have been shown to support teachers in improving classroom practice. This may even lead to higher student performance. Situated in the context of the Advanced Placement (AP) reform in the United States, we investigated the perceived importance of opportunities to collaborate with colleagues as a rationale to participate in PD (N = 3,725 teachers). The opportunity to collaborate with colleagues was a primary rationale why teachers selected PD activities. While this rationale is only slightly related to school and teacher characteristics, it was related to PD characteristics. Specifically, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues were important to teachers in selecting informal face-to-face (FtF) PD activities. We conclude that collaborative structures benefit all forms of teacher professional development.

Empirical research considers teacher collaboration to be an important predictor of outcome variables at the student, teacher, and school level. Principals are responsible for shaping teachers’ work environments, and in doing so, they can strengthen and support teacher collaboration. Drawing on social interdependence theory, we hypothesized that teachers’ collective efficacy has a mediating effect on the relationship between principal leadership and teacher collaboration. We collected data from 630 teachers in 29 primary and secondary schools in Germany and found, based on structural equation modeling, that principal leadership had a significant indirect effect on teacher collaboration, mediated by teachers’ collective efficacy. We discuss the implications of these results for supporting school improvement.

Teacher collaboration is an important feature of job satisfaction and self-efficacy for teachers. Moreover, the collaboration of teachers is important for adopting professional changes as professional development (PD) activities that include opportunities for collaboration have been shown to support teachers in improving classroom practice. This may even lead to higher student performance. Situated in the context of the Advanced Placement (AP) reform in the United States, we investigated the perceived importance of opportunities to collaborate with colleagues as a rationale to participate in PD (N = 3,725 teachers). The opportunity to collaborate with colleagues was a primary rationale why teachers selected PD activities. While this rationale is only slightly related to school and teacher characteristics, it was related to PD characteristics. Specifically, opportunities to collaborate with colleagues were important to teachers in selecting informal face-to-face (FtF) PD activities. We conclude that collaborative structures benefit all forms of teacher professional development.

Social media platforms can be sites for professional collaboration and the provision of digital social support among teachers. Instagram is one such platform that is widely used but that has received only limited attention from education researchers. To date, little is known about which teachers use Instagram for collaboration, the ways in which they collaborate, and how this collaboration contributes to their perceptions of digital social support. Using questionnaire data from 249 teachers from Germany, we identified three collaboration activities among teachers on Instagram: information seeking, information sharing, and co-creating. While teachers with higher levels of enthusiasm for teaching in particular are more likely to use Instagram to seek information, teachers with higher self-efficacy levels are more likely to share content. In addition, seeking and sharing information as well as co-creating are each positively associated with various forms of perceived digital social support. These findings point to the potential of social media use contributing to teacher professional development and indicate that it deserves more attention in both teacher education and research.