How teachers’ enthusiasm influences Chinese students’ school belonging: The mediation role of teaching practices

Abstract

School belonging is an important positive feeling for students within schools. Guided by the ecological system theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1994) and teacher-emotion-student-outcome conceptual framework (Frenzel et al., 2021), this study investigates the mechanism underlying teachers’ enthusiasm and students’ school belonging with the mediation role of four teaching practices (i.e., teacher's support, teacher-directed instruction, teacher feedback, and adaptive instruction) in a Chinese school context. Data from 12,057 Chinese students in PISA 2018 were analyzed using multilevel mediation models. Results show that (1) teacher enthusiasm plays an important role in predicting students’ school belonging, where the mediating effects of the four teaching practices account for 33.14 % of the total effects; (2) teacher feedback is the most influential mediator; (3) mediation effect sizes vary to a moderate extent. Finally, discussion and future directions are provided.