Unpacking the role of school climate factors in fostering teacher enjoyment and self-efficacy in higher education

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329001 August 13, 2025 7 / 17 Data collection The survey was administered online and included sections for demographic information as well as three scales: R-SLEQ, TSES, and TES. It was distributed via a Weblink and WeChat application, with some teachers and administrators volun- tarily sharing the survey link with colleagues and acquaintances, helping to broaden the reach for data collection. Partic- ipants’ personal identification information like real name and contact information were not required in the form, and they were all fully informed that their personal information would be safely kept and accessible only to the research team. Addi- tionally, there was no set deadline for survey completion, allowing respondents to answer at their convenience. Detailed instructions were provided for completing the questionnaires, and participants were advised to carefully consider their answers and complete the survey whenever and wherever it was most convenient for them. The data collection phase lasted for two months, from 3rd July to 3rd September 2024, resulting in 791 completed surveys with no missing data. Data pre-processing Prior to analysis, pre-processing steps were undertaken to ensure data quality. The dataset was thoroughly reviewed with the assistance of three attention check questions embedded in the survey, such as, “Please choose Neutral for this question if you are attentively filling out the questionnaire.” and “To answer this question, please choose Agree.” Following

these checks, 182 responses were identified as inadequate and excluded from the analysis. This resulted in a final sam- ple size of 609 valid cases. Data analyses Data analysis was performed using SPSS 27.0 and AMOS 26.0. To assess the construct validity of the measurement model, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted with the three scales (see Measurement validation). Subse- quently, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to examine the structural model and analyze the path rela- tionships between constructs [93]. Furthermore, a bootstrapping procedure consisting of 5000 re-samplings, along with a 95% bias-corrected percentile interval and a percentile confidence interval, was carried out to test the possible mediating effects of teacher self-efficacy. Result The results are presented in three parts. First, we report the descriptive statistics for the study variables. Next, we analyze the relationships among the five dimensions of perceived school climate, teacher enjoyment, and teacher self-efficacy. Finally, we conduct mediation analyses to examine the mediating role of teacher self-efficacy in the relationships. Table 1. Discriminant validity and composite reliability of the scales. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R-SLEQ Innovation .775 Decision .222** .721 Relations .198** .19** .728 Resources .224** .239** .172** .790 Collaboration .172** .186** .149** .183** .732 TSES TSE .359** .163** .08** .183** .175** .772 TES TE .221** .164** .084** .192** .13** .407** .855 AVE .600 .520 .529 .624 .535 .595 .732

CR 0.856 0.761 0.817 0.866 0.872 0.893 0.916 CR = composite reliability; AVE = average variance extracted; TSE = Teacher Self-efficacy; TE = Teacher Enjoyment. **p < .01. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329001.t001