Structural Equation Modeling of the Relationships between Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Professional Development and their Job Satisfaction and Teaching Commitment by considering the Mediating Role of their Job Enthusiasm

Abstract

The present study scrutinized the extent to which novice and experienced EFL teachers’ job satisfaction and teaching commitment predicted their professional development by taking the mediating role of their job enthusiasm into consideration. To this end, first, the researchers used convenience sampling to select 134 novice and 115 experienced male and female EFL teachers in various language institutes in Urmia (Iran) as the participants. Second, they administered the demographic information, professional development, job satisfaction, teaching commitment, and job enthusiasm questionnaires of the study to the participants. Lastly, they analyzed the obtained data using structural equation modelling.  Based on the results, novice EFL teachers’ job satisfaction and teaching commitment and experienced teachers’ teaching commitment and job satisfaction were respectively the first and the second significant predictors of their PD when the mediating effect of their JE was taken into account. The results of the study can provide teacher educators, syllabus designers, and language teachers with guidelines on the role of teacher factors in language instruction.