Abstract:

This research examined the association between social media usage and teachers’ professional well-being. The study also foresees that teachers’ self-efficacy mediates the positive relationship between using social media and teachers’ professional well-being. This is a descriptive study and a survey approach was used to collect data through the administration of questionnaires to the conveniently selected sample of 171 University teachers working in Pakistan. The researchers used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS-26) to analyze the data. The analysis revealed that social media use is positively associated with teachers’ professional well-being, directly and indirectly, via teacher’s self-efficacy. The findings of the study add to the existing literature by emphasizing the role of social media usage and teachers’ self-efficacy in modeling teachers’ professional well-being.

Key Words:

Teachers’ self-efficacy, Social media use, Professional well-being, University teachers.

Introduction

Well-being is being physically and psychologically healthy. It incorporates individuals' emotive reactions, area fulfillment, and comprehensive findings of life satisfaction (Suh, Smith, and Lucas 1999). The behavioral, social affective, and cognitive compounds are embedded in this conception (Taris, Schaufeli & Schreurs 2004).

Teachers’ professional well-being relies on the evaluation of a person about his/her level of proficiency which indicates the level of actual satisfaction of a teacher about the profession of teaching. General well-being holds a holistic concept about the individual’s emotions, and physical and psychological health (Diener et al. 1999), and professional well-being is derived from general well-being. The individual who can accomplish a specific task also shows positive emotions like Job Satisfaction and Self-efficacy. (Aelterman et al. 2007). Moreover, Rand researchers (McLaughlin & Berman, 1977; Armor et al., 1976) made their two simple items, based on the concept of locus of control, to understand the beliefs of teachers about their perception that teachers can bring positive and effective change in students over the environmental factors.

Teachers' Self-efficacy has been widely studied at the international level as a part of teachers' well-being. Bandura's theory of social cognition describes self-efficacy as the faith of an individual in his/her competencies to complete some specific tasks successfully. The teachers' self-efficacy plays a vigorous role in the academic accomplishment of the students which also has a positive relationship with the teachers' job satisfaction. Previous research shows a positive relationship between higher motivation and achievement of students and the self-efficacy of teachers and shows a positive relation between teacher's passion, obligation, job satisfaction, instructional practices, and teaching behavior and teacher's self-efficacy (Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2007). On the other hand, when the Self-efficacy of teachers is low then teachers face many problems with misbehaving students, being more depressed about learning students and suffering low levels of Job Satisfaction and a great degree of Job-Related Stress (Klassen and Chiu, 2010; Collie, Shapka and Perry, 2012). 

There were significant efforts by Gibson and Dembo (1984) in the area of teachers’ self-efficacy. They worked hard to develop new ways to measure the self-efficacy of teachers and they came ou with the most up-to-date evidence of two independent factors that they assumed as Self-efficacy and Response-Outcome expectations. Until 1990 many researchers used and conformed to these two factors of Gibson and Dembo (1984) which they named Personal Teaching Efficacy and General Teaching Efficacy (Enochs & Riggs, 1990;).

However, many research and theories have explored the holistic view of teachers’ self-efficacy.  That view may have an impact on the learning outcome and experiences of the students in a classroom environment when they have to perform a range of tasks. In the 1970s, the focus of the researchers was firstly on the level of students that there is a direct impact of teacher’s self-efficacy on the motivation and achievements of students. Rand construct (Armor et al., 1976), was basically on the hypothesis that a high level of teacher’s self-efficacy is very essential and beneficial for the learning of the students. The students of the teachers with high self-efficacy may have high achievers in their learning outcomes.

The literature remains dubious concerning whether the span of the Professional Development program or the duration of work capability of teachers adds any effect that the Professional Development program may have on students' accomplishment and Self-efficacy of teachers (Wayne et al., 2008)

Insofar as the notion of social media is concerned it is a cluster of many Internet-based apps built on the theoretical and technological basics of Web 2.0, permitting the opening and interchange of user-generated content (Haenlein & Kaplan 2010).  Tools of Social Media are generally connected to the existence of user-created content and with what is stated as Web 2.0 technologies. Firstly, the word Web 2.0 was used in the 2000s. It was utilized to depict a developing method of utilizing the web, with increasingly practical and cooperative surfing of the web just as the change and creation of online stuff by web surfers. Blogs and wikis are examples of early social media tools, linked later by Social Networking Sites. Moreover, it has been evident from different researchers that teachers’ self-esteem, well-being, and job satisfaction are important from the educational perspective. These aspects help improve the teaching-learning practices and student-teacher interaction (Ortan, Simut & Simut, 2020). Similarly, it was found that the self-efficacy of teachers is directly associated with their job satisfaction which is dependent on several other factors like promotion, salary, identification, and professional well-being. On the other hand, there are different research studies in which a strong relationship between teachers' self-efficacy and their well-being as well as teachers' well-being and their job satisfaction was found. Teachers' enthusiasm and contentment are directly related to their well-being whereas it is negatively correlated to their anxiety and despair (Huang, Yin, & Lv, 2019). Therefore, for effective teaching and learning processes and to enhance the students' achievements teachers' well-being and self-esteem are important. In the age of social media, it has become more important for teachers to be more efficient and hardworking to improve student-teacher relationships and mutual interaction.

In facilitating a person to scatter ideas, catch compatible peers, and social change mobilization, social media plays a vital role. The people (e.g. teachers) who look out daily possibilities to influence positive change, get the picture of how social media are used in comparatively stable social frameworks. There have been ideal transferals in the world after the influx of information technology, and the quick progress in most recent 2 decades, several states have increased exposed entrance to the Internet. The Worldwide Web was made for the troops of the US in the 90s but has not supported the situation for the administration of US armed forces however far along became approved as a useful engine for civilians for multipurpose like interaction, education purposes, and enjoyment.

As described in the above studies in present days as technology advances and everyone knows its benefits. So, in Pakistan where there are rare resources and financial difficulties for teacher training, it is essential to encourage teachers and students to use social media to enhance their skills and capabilities. It’s the most demanding side to inspire the teachers to self-learning which can improve their grip on subject matters and improve teaching. 

These features enabled social media to convert the teaching-learning process into open and collaboration-oriented. More specifically social networking tools can assist a distributed knowledge-building process through social interaction of connections and promotion of networks. Teachers’ professional well-being needs to be considered in the context of the quality of education and learning of students. Therefore, the leaders of schools and policymakers must give it attention as it plays a vital role in the future determination of teachers (Caprara et al. 2006).

Nowadays teachers are expected to achieve great tasks that are even not in their responsibilities. Teachers are supposed to build cognitive skills as well as non-cognitive skills (e.g. student collaborative skills, self-confidence, and engagement). There is also great expectation from them to coordinate with fellow teachers and parents for the sake of the holistic growth of their students, keeping in view the individual differences of students. The method and characteristics of teaching are also challenging as they perform in real-time with live situations handling moods that demand instant reactions. The teacher’s reaction is observed by students in the class and can build the manner the teacher is supposed to in the institute from that day onward.  

The review of the existing literature has shown that sound consent proceeds righting with the practice of Social media and its impact on teachers’ professional well-being and function of self-efficacy as a determinant of professional well-being on male and female teachers has not been reached yet. 

Purpose of the Study

The focus of this research endeavor is to describe the supposed role of using social media on the self-efficacy and professional well-being of teachers. However, despite its possibility to serve as an important tool underlying social media and teachers’ professional well-being, there is a scarcity of research work that investigated the interrelationships between social media, teachers’ self-efficacy, and their professional well-being in the teaching context. Thus, the model that links social media usage and teachers' professional well-being incorporates their self-efficacy as a mediator of the social media-teacher’s professional well-being link. The theoretical model is shown in Fig. 1.



In sum, the study developed and tried out a model that links social media with teachers’ professional well-being directly and indirectly via teachers’ self-efficacy. Thus, the present work boosts the worth of the substantial prospects of social media in modeling teachers’ self-efficacy and professional well-being. By presenting that social media positively contributes to teachers’ professional well-being, directly and indirectly simultaneously, via teachers’ self-efficacy. This research study suggests that social media usage not only contributes to individuals’ focus on professional development but also enhances the learning outcomes of students. Thus, the study presents social media and teachers’ self-efficacy as mechanisms to help teachers enhance their professional well-being. Thus the objectives of the study are as under;

i To find out the correlation between social media usage and teachers’ professional well-being

ii To determine the mediatory role of teachers’ self-efficacy in the association between the usage of social media and teachers’ professional well-being. 

Research Questions

i Does social media use have a significant positive relationship with teachers’ psychological well-being?

ii Does the teachers’ self-efficacy Mediation role signify the relationship between the usage of social media and teachers’ professional well-being?

Research Methodology

In the views of Creswell (2003), an appropriate research design should be independent of any personal bias rather it should be drawn from the research philosophy that can better comprehend the nature and objectives of the understudied relationships. Easter by-Smith et al. (2008) stated that when the objective of the study is to test hypothesized relationships it is appropriate to use the positivist approach that allows researchers to use numbers-based quantitative data to draw results that can be generalized to the whole population. In other words, it demands numeric data, collected through a survey or secondary data depending upon the form of the study. Hence, the discussion supports the positivist approach based on quantitative methods is most appropriate for the study.

The population of the study comprised the teaching professionals of the public sector universities in Punjab. On the other hand, for the selection of sample random sampling technique was used. Random sampling is supposed as purest form of probability sampling and the most popular method for selecting a sample population. There is an equal chance of selection for every member of a study population. The sample is selected without the choice of researcher and therefore no chance of bias. The sample size for the study was 417 teaching professionals of public sector universities in Punjab. 

Three research instruments were used to collect data. The social media use was assessed by acclimating a scale consisting of 09 items developed by Gupta, et al. (2018). Similarly, teachers’ self-efficacy was determined by adapting a scale viz. TALIS developed by Rutkowski, et.al. (2013). It comprised 16 items. Finally, teachers’ professional well-being was judged by adapting a sixteen-item scale from Rebecca J. Collie (2014). 

For data collection 10 public sector universities were randomly selected from Punjab. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from the teaching professionals of public sector universities in Punjab. The access to the potential respondents was managed through personal and professional references. A web link containing a survey was sent to the respondents via email and other social media means to the potential respondents with a request to fill in the survey by clicking the web link. After carefully screening data, the total number of usable respondents was 171.

Analysis of Data

The structural model is used to evaluate the significance of the proposed model that explains the hypothesized relationships among studied variables. The direct and indirect relationships are tested in the structural models.

Direct Relationship between the Social Media Usage and Teachers’ Psychological Wellbeing

The evaluation of the structural model was completed in three steps. Firstly, in the structural model (1), a direct relationship between social media usage and teachers’ psychological well-being was observed. The analysis presented a significant positive relationship between social media usage and teachers’ psychological well-being (? = .33, p < .001). The fit indices – ?2(269) = 464.94, ?2/df = 1.720, IFI = .920, TLI = .910, CFI = .92, and measure of RMSEA = .06 displayed that the structural model (1) has a decent fit with the data. Thus, hypothesis 1 was supported. Social media use has a significant positive relationship with teachers’ psychological well-being.

For a significant long time, policymakers, researchers, and teachers alike have criticized that much of teachers’ professional development flops to definitively improve teaching and teaching (Parker & Patton, 2017). The institution's instructed professional development frequently utilizes one-size-fits-all methodologies, so it may need arrangements with particular teachers' availability, needs, and interests. Several teachers are involved in self-directed professional happenings beyond official requirements and professional responsibilities, resulting from such limitations in traditional ways. Specifically, for professional determination the teachers recently turned to social media platforms, for example, Facebook, Twitter (Greenhalgh & Koehler, 2017), Pinterest, and Reddit. This study conceived and empirically tested a model that proposed that the use of social media is positively associated with teachers’ professional well-being. The study also suggested that teachers’ self-efficacy mediates the association between social media use and professional well-being. Based on web survey data collected from 171 teachers from 10 universities in Pakistan and measured using SEM, the outcomes reinforced the projected relationships.

The findings show that social media usage positively contributes to teachers' professional well-being. Moreover, the findings indicate the role of social media positively influences teachers’ professional well-being. By bringing to the fore, social media practices as a central feature for strengthening the poise of teachers in their teachings, the findings expanded the scarce literature on the teachers’ professional development link (Parker & Patton, 2017). Significantly, the present study recognized teachers’ self-efficacy as a key mechanism underlying the connotation between social media use and teachers’ professional well-being and the association between social media use and teachers’ self-efficacy. The findings eloquently extended our comprehension of why social media use is positively related to teachers’ professional well-being.

The findings of the study specify that through interaction with other people and creating a learning environment, social media use enables teachers to develop a positive attitude toward learning and promote their professional well-being for their own (Wang, & Huang 2017) and, turn, enhance the learning experiences and outcomes of their students. These findings are in line with the available literature on the self-efficacy of teachers that concluded that teacher’s self-efficacy demonstrates an increase in the positive emotions of learning through social media and gives a rise in the professional well-being of teachers (Park, 2009.



Mediation analysis provides insight into the underlying mechanism that can explain the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable. It is the addition of a third variable called a mediator between the independent and dependent variables. The fundamental assumption of mediation is that there should be a significant relationship between the independent and a dependent variable or a direct relationship between an independent and a dependent variable should also be significant. Suppose the relationship between an independent and a dependent variable becomes insignificant after adding a mediator then, it indicates that there is full mediation. However, if the direct relationship between the independent and dependent variable remains significant then it is called partial mediation.

Indirect Relationship between the Use of Social Media and Teachers’ Psychological Well-being via Teachers’ Self-Efficacy

The first step of structural analysis indicates a significant positive direct relationship between social media usage and teachers’ psychological well-being, so it meets that basic assumption of mediation analysis. In step 2, the structural model (2) included teachers’ self-efficacy as a mediator of the association between social media use and teachers’ psychological well-being. The fit reflects - ?2(171) = 921.30, ?2/df = 1.49, IFI = .92, TLI = .91, CFI = .92, and RMSEA = .05 displayed that the 2nd structural model also possesses a good fit with the data, signifying that the role of teachers’ self-efficacy as a mediator of the relationship social media use and teachers’ psychological wellbeing was important.



Table 3 Direct and indirect effects (Model 2)

Parameter	Estimate	LL	UP
Standardized direct effects
social media use à teachers’ psychological wellbeing	.21*	.10	.36
social media use à teachers’ self-efficacy	.32*	.24	.42
teachers’ self-efficacy à teachers’ psychological wellbeing	.36*	.38	.54
Standardized indirect effects
social media use à teachers’ self-efficacy à teachers’ psychological	.12*	.13	.24

Notes: *The empirical 95% con?dence interval does not overlap with zero. n = 177 (bootstrapping by specifying a sample of size 2,000). LL lower limit. UP = upper limit

Discussion and Finding

For a significant long time, policymakers, researchers, and teachers alike have criticized that much teacher’s professional development flops to definitively improve teaching and learning (Parker et.al, 2017; Timperley & Alton-Lee, 2008). The institution's instructed professional development frequently utilizes one-size-fits-all methodologies, so it may need arrangements with particular teachers' availability, needs, and interests. Several teachers are involved in self-directed professional learning activities outside official and required professional enhancement programs, resulting from such limitations in traditional ways. Specifically, for professional determination the teachers recently turned to social media platforms, for example, Facebook (Kelly & Antonio, 2016; Twitter, and Pinterest (Schroeder, Curcio, & Lundgren, 2019), This study theorized and empirically tested a model proposed that the use of social media is positively associated with teachers’ professional well-being (Siddique, & Saleem, 2021). The study also suggested that teachers’ self-efficacy mediates the positive association between social media use and professional well-being. Based on web survey data collected from 171 teachers in 10 universities in Pakistan and analyzed using SEM, the results supported the proposed relationships.

The findings of the study indicate that through interaction with other people and creating a learning environment, social media use enables teachers to develop a positive attitude toward learning and to promote their professional well-being for their own and that, in turn, enhances the learning experiences and outcomes of their students. These findings are comparable with the literature on the self-efficacy of teachers that concluded that teacher's self-efficacy demonstrates an increase in the positive emotions of learning through social media and gives a rise in the professional well-being of teachers (Park, 2009).

References

• Aelterman, A., Engels, N., Van Petegem, K., & Verhaeghe, J. P. (2007). The well‐being of teachers in Flanders: the importance of a supportive school culture. Educational Studies, 33(3), 285–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690701423085 

• Aelterman, A., Engels, N., Van Petegem, K., & Verhaeghe, J. P. (2007). The well‐being of teachers in Flanders: the importance of a supportive school culture. Educational Studies, 33(3), 285–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690701423085 

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