Pre-Tenure Faculty Enjoyment, Anxiety, and Boredom for Teaching and Research: Testing Predictors of Success

• In Event: Motivation and Emotions of University Faculty: Predicting Teaching and Research Performance, Stress, and Well-Being

Abstract

Although emotions are ubiquitous in education settings, their role in faculty development is rarely acknowledged or empirically examined. Professors have advanced degrees and are typically viewed as intellectuals trained in cutting-edge cognition, thus they are expected to behave in a logical and professional manner. Conversely, emotions are often considered primitive, childish, and “incompatible with the civilized nature of the academic world” (Postareff & Lindbolm-Ylanne, 2011, p. 800). Pekrun (2006) develop a well-fitting theoretical framework for faculty that states control and value appraisals serve as critical antecedents of achievement-related emotions, which in turn profoundly affect performance outcomes. For example, high-perceived controllability and value of successful activities (e.g., facilitating student engagement while teaching) are believed to evoke positive activating emotions, such as enjoyment, that foster improved performance by promoting task-related attention, strengthening motivation, and enhancing use of adaptive strategies. High control and value of failure outcomes (e.g., research manuscript rejected for publication) may elicit negative activating emotions, such as anxiety, that impair interest and intrinsic motivation; however, they may enhance extrinsic motivation to invest effort and avoid failures. Although the limited empirical findings to date supports the presence, range, and importance of discrete faculty emotions for teaching and research (e.g., Hagenauer et al., 2016; Kordts-Freudinger, 2017; Author, 2016; Trigwell, 2012), they suffer from critical limitations such as inclusion of faculty from a single institution or discipline/field, single-item measures of emotions, and little conceptual or empirical integration of established social-environmental predictors of faculty success.

The current study tested a model, based on the early-career faculty and emotion literatures (Pekrun, 2006), that hypothesizes social-environmental factors (balance, clear expectations, collegiality) predict teaching and research success, and that these effects are mediated by control and value appraisals that promote high enjoyment, low anxiety, and low boredom. Using social media, 312 pretenure faculty were recruited across USA and Canada to complete an online survey that included reliable multi-item emotion scales.

Structural equation modeling results revealed, for both teaching and research, that enjoyment positively predicted success while anxiety and boredom negatively predicted success, even after accounting for social-environmental predictors. In the teaching domain, value and emotions significantly mediated the relationship between collegiality and success. This effect suggests adaptive teaching emotions and success are strongly tied to social support from colleagues (e.g., collaborative curriculum development and sharing course materials). In the research domain, control and emotions mediated the connection between professional balance and success. This finding shows good time management at work (balancing teaching, research, service obligations) is key to more adaptive emotions and research success. Also, value and emotions mediated the linkage between clear expectations and success, suggesting clear guidelines on research expectations translate into motivating cognitions and emotions, leading to better research performance.

The results make important contributions to both the faculty development and emotion research literatures as faculty emotions require further empirical study. The findings also have implications for faculty development and retention as pathways for improving pretenure faculty emotions are highlighted (i.e., increasing value of teaching, increasing control and value of research).

Authors

• Robert H. Stupnisky, University of North Dakota

• Nathan C. Hall, McGill University

• Reinhard Pekrun, University of Essex