On the Relationship among the Iranian EFL Teachers’ Creativity, Reflective Thinking, and Burnout Levels: An Structural Equation Modelling

Abstract

In the field of teaching, there are many factors that have important roles in teachers’ performance. Three of these effective psychological factors in the context of education include creativity, reflective thinking, and burnout. This study aimed to investigate the relationship among Iranian EFL teachers’ creativity, reflective thinking, and burnout level. Two-hundred and eight teachers from different universities and schools were asked to answer three questionnaires, namely English Language Teacher Creativity Scale, Reflective Thinking Scale, and Maslach Burnout Inventory as the main data collection instruments. Structural Equaton Modeling on SPSS AMOS version 24 was employed to examine the hypothesized model of relationships. This model was confirmed following the application of the modification indices suggested by the software (Normal Chi-Square = 3.7; RMSEA=.06; RMR =.05; GFI = .97; AGFI =.94; NFI =.96; CFI =.97; IFI =.97). The findings showed that there were significant internal correlations between all the latent variables and their sub-scales. Furthermore, the results of multiple regression analysis represented that creativity positively predicted reflective thinking, with creativity exerting more predictive power in comparison with burnout. It was also reported that all sub-scales of creativity and reflective thinking are statistically very relevant. On the other hand, burnout weakly predicted reflective thinking, with burnout exerting less predictive power in comparison with creativity. In total, there was a negative correlation between creativity and burnout in which not only these two latent variables, but also all their sub-scales were negatively related to each other. Pedagogical implications of the study have been discussed.