The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher

Lu, Liting; Xu, Hang; Wang, Yuxuan

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01123-zpmid: N/A

This study examines how university foreign language teachers in Chinese higher education negotiate occupational well-being under AI-enhanced conditions. Existing research has often conceptualised teacher well-being as a relatively stable psychological outcome, but such framings are less well suited to contexts marked by rapid socio-technical change. Drawing on constructivist grounded theory and in-depth interviews with 23 teachers, the study develops a process-oriented account of how occupational well-being is repeatedly made workable, disrupted, and partially re-stabilised over time. The findings suggest that well-being was negotiated through recurrent cycles of appraisal of AI-related change, legitimacy repair, mobilisation of psychological, relational, and digital supports, and tactical adaptation under mediated institutional and discursive conditions. These negotiation cycles were shaped by two interconnected forms of socio-technical mediation: institutional mediation, including evaluation regimes, platform reliability, training provision, and workload organisation, and broader discursive climates concerning automation, replaceability, and the value of language-related work. The analysis also identifies temporal consolidation as the partial stabilisation of repeated negotiation cycles through the development of workable routines, interpretive boundaries, and restored professional control. Grounded in the experiences of university foreign language teachers in Chinese higher education, the study reconceptualises occupational well-being as a negotiated and temporally unfolding accomplishment rather than a fixed endpoint.

Liu, Yuanzhen; Dang, MyDuyen; Chen, Jihe; Huang, Jiaxin

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01121-1pmid: N/A

Teachers are the direct practitioners of integrating various technologies into teaching, yet insights from the perspectives of principal leadership and teachers’ psychological needs remain insufficient. Grounded in Organizational Support Theory and Self-Determination Theory, this study utilizes data from 1286 teachers in the Shanghai region of China from the TALIS 2024 database to explore the impact of principal leadership on teachers’ ICT self-efficacy and digital literacy. The findings reveal that principal leadership not only directly and positively predicts teachers’ ICT self-efficacy and digital literacy but also exerts significant indirect effects through teacher autonomy and teacher collaboration. The results indicate that within the educational system, principals satisfy teachers’ psychological needs through the dual pathways of autonomy and belonging by empowering teachers and fostering a collaborative atmosphere, thereby stimulating their digital teaching practices. This study provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the mechanisms of school leadership in the context of digital transformation and offers empirical evidence for education policymakers and school administrators in promoting the integration of digital technologies.

Cai, Yuyang; Lin, Jia

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01114-0pmid: N/A

According to the situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), reading achievement can be driven by two key motivational factors (expectancy and task value) and the interaction between them. Existing studies on reading have mostly focused on the main effects at the expense of insufficient attention to interaction. Besides, interaction has merely been operationalized as the product term between expectancy and value (i.e., expectancy multiplying value, Type 1 interaction), neglecting the relative (or comparative) importance of expectancy and value (i.e., the competition between them, Type 2 interaction) in determining reading achievement. To address these gaps, the current study examined the main effects of and the two types of interaction between two expectancy-value factors, namely, reading enjoyment (indicating value) and self-concept (indicating expectancy), in predicting reading achievement. We used the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data generated by 532,835 students (Mean age = 15.79, SD = 0.29, 51% = females) from 79 countries/economies. The results indicate that (1) both reading enjoyment and self-concept positively predict reading achievement and together they accounted for approximately 8% of the variance in reading achievement; (2) reading self-concept has a stronger association with reading achievement than reading enjoyment; and (3) reading enjoyment and self-concept positively moderate each other’s relation to reading achievement. The study suggests the importance of simultaneously fostering reading enjoyment and self-concept to boost students’ reading achievement.

Zou, Bin; Wang, Chenghao; Xu, Miaolin; Zhang, Weizheng; Zan, Ruiling; Liang, Mingxi

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01128-8pmid: N/A

With the integration of generative artificial intelligence into EFL speaking instruction, AI-generated feedback (AIGF) has diversified in terms of interactivity and the extent of embedded teacher expertise. Although the pedagogical value of AIGF is well established, limited research has examined how these two dimensions jointly shape learners’ speaking development and willingness to communicate (WTC). Grounded in the Interaction Hypothesis, this quasi-experimental mixed-methods study investigated the effects of three AIGF modes differing in interactivity and embedded teacher expertise over a four-week intervention. Sixty-two Chinese university students were assigned to one of three feedback modes: (1) EAP Talk, a low-interactivity, assessment-oriented system integrating teacher-informed feedback through structured scoring and diagnostic guidance; (2) Doubao, a high-interactivity, open-ended dialogic system emphasising learner-initiated expression and meaning negotiation; and (3) Doubao Agent, a moderate-interactivity, pedagogically guided dialogic system balancing instructional scaffolding with conversational flexibility. Pre- and post-tests, together with measures of WTC and technology acceptance, showed that EAP Talk was particularly effective in improving grammatical accuracy and in-class WTC. Weekly structured reflective responses further suggested EAP Talk supported a feedback–revision–repractice pattern, characterised by problem noticing, output revision, and repeated practice. In contrast, Doubao supported idea generation and fluency in a low-pressure dialogic environment, while Doubao Agent demonstrated a partial balance between form-focused guidance and interactional flexibility. Overall, the findings suggest that interactivity alone does not determine effectiveness; rather, learning outcomes depend more critically on the alignment between feedback design, pedagogical structuring, and embedded teacher expertise.

Bao, Yuangen

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01125-xpmid: N/A

Educational digital transformation is a global consensus and national strategy, with principal digital leadership key to school transformation success. Existing Western-rooted assessment tools lack adaptability to Chinese K-12 principals’ unique responsibilities and local contexts, and sufficient validation. Based on grounded theory, this study extracted four core dimensions (digital strategic deployment capability, digital ecosystem building capability, digital humanistic care capability, and digital technology mastery capability) via interviews with principals from 15 Smart Education Model Schools, developed an 18-item DL-CPSPLS through EFA and CFA. With satisfactory reliability and validity, the scale integrates scientific rigor and local adaptability, filling the methodological gap in relevant quantitative research and holding significant theoretical and practical value.

Yang, Xiuli; Zou, Di; Zhou, Zhencheng

doi: 10.1007/s40299-026-01120-2pmid: N/A

This study explores the effects of involvement load, L2 motivation, and their association with L2 vocabulary learning. Non-English majors from a northern China university (N = 114) were randomly assigned to three experimental groups and one control group. The three experimental groups participated in three tasks with different involvement load indices. Two types of word knowledge (word recognition and word recall) were measured to examine the treatment effects. Participants completed an L2 motivation questionnaire measuring their L2 motivation. The results of regression analysis from the three experimental groups provided partial support for the Involvement Load Hypothesis (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001). A moderation analysis of motivation variables and word knowledge across different involvement-load tasks showed that one component of L2 motivation moderated the effects of two task conditions, revealing an association between involvement-load tasks and L2 motivation.