Perils of perfectionistic concerns among teachers

Abstract

The current study examined how teachers’ perfectionism (personal standards [PS] and concern over mistakes [COM]) relates to their achievement goals for teaching, instructional practices (creation of mastery vs. performance classroom goal structures), job satisfaction, and flow experience during teaching. The data were collected from teachers (N = 143; mean age = 43.5; 70% female; 100% European American) practicing in the Midwestern U.S. Path analyses indicated that teachers’ high personal standards predicted endorsement of mastery goals for teaching, creation of mastery goal structure emphasizing personal progress and learning, high job satisfaction, and frequent flow experience during teaching. On the contrary, teachers’ high concern over mistakes predicted endorsement of performance‐approach and ‐avoidance goals, creation of classroom performance goal structure emphasizing competition among students, low job satisfaction, and infrequent flow experience during teaching. A significant interaction between PS and COM was found for fluency (subscale of flow) experience, indicating that PS can buffer the harmful effects of COM. Therefore, the study evidenced the benefits of PS and the drawbacks of COM.

Not all Perfectionists Are as They Are Assessed: An Investigation of the Psychometric Properties of the Perfectionism Inventory in the Teaching Profession

“…In the present research study, we investigated the internal validity of the PI (Hill et al, 2004 ) in an occupation that encourages perfectionistic tendencies in own behavior or in students' behavior (Shim et al, 2020 ). Our focus on teacher perfectionism was motivated by the fact that previous studies reported that it is a powerful predictor for teacher efficiency and teacher burnout (Craioveanu, 2014 ; Ghorbanzadeh and Rezaie, 2016 ), and can have an impact on students' variables (Lozano et al, 2019 ).…”

“…The educational environment encourages high standards of academic achievement (Flett et al, 2009 ; Schruder et al, 2014 ), therefore it can encourage perfectionistic tendencies in students and in teachers (Gilman and Ashby, 2006 ). As part of the educational environment, teaching is a complex task that requires teachers to set achievement goals to students, and to monitor how students fulfill these goals (Shim et al, 2020 ). Despite its relevance for the outcomes of the educational environment (for a detailed discussion, see Starley, 2019 ), research on teacher perfectionism is limited (Starley, 2019 ; Shim et al, 2020 ).…”

“…As part of the educational environment, teaching is a complex task that requires teachers to set achievement goals to students, and to monitor how students fulfill these goals (Shim et al, 2020 ). Despite its relevance for the outcomes of the educational environment (for a detailed discussion, see Starley, 2019 ), research on teacher perfectionism is limited (Starley, 2019 ; Shim et al, 2020 ). As recent research suggested that perfectionistic tendencies are associated with a wide range of affective disorders (Egan et al, 2011 ; Maricuţoiu et al, 2019 ), it is important to understand how perfectionistic tendencies are manifested by teachers in the educational environment.…”

“…Schoolteachers perceive a real social pressure to be perfect—from students, peers, and parents (Pelletier et al, 2002 ), and the fear of imperfection determines teachers to be more authoritarian (Dinkmeyer et al, 1980 ). More recently, Shim et al ( 2020 ) reported that teachers that are concerned regarding their mistakes are less likely to promote the intrinsic value of learning to their students. In a similar vein, high levels of perfectionism concerns are associated with teaching efficacy and teacher burnout (Ghorbanzadeh and Rezaie, 2016 ).…”

Devising A Structural Equation Model of Relations Between Teachers’ Goal Orientations, Epistemological Beliefs And Self-Efficacy

“…Although students' motivation is the basic subject of research in studies in educational psychology, it is surprising that the number of studies about teacher motivation is small (Butler, 2007;Papaioannou & Christodoulidis, 2007). However, the number of studies on teachers' achievement goal orientations is increasing (George & Richardson, 2019;Li et al, 2021;S. Shim et al, 2020).…”