The influence of teachers' criticism styles on students' intention to improve disruptive classroom behavior: A dual-mediation model of negative academic emotions and teacher-student relationship

OBJECTIVE: Disruptive classroom behavior in physical education classes is a common challenge in classroom management. Teachers often respond to such behavior with criticism; however, different types of criticism may produce distinct behavioral responses among students. This study investigates how teachers' use of constructive criticism and destructive criticism in response to students' disruptive classroom behavior in physical education classes influences students' intention to improve such behavior through the mediating effects of negative academic emotions and teacher-student relationship. METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected from 583 Chinese junior high school students, and the mediating effects in the model were estimated using the product-of-coefficients approach with bias-corrected Monte Carlo bootstrapping. RESULTS: (1) The mediating effect of constructive criticism was significant. (2) The mediating effect of destructive criticism was also significant. (3) The predictive effect of the constructive criticism path was significantly stronger than that of the destructive criticism path. CONCLUSIONS: (1) When teachers respond to students' disruptive behavior in physical education classes with constructive criticism, they can enhance students' intention to improve their behavior by alleviating negative academic emotions and strengthening teacher-student relationship. (2) When teachers respond to students' disruptive behavior in physical education classes with destructive criticism, they can reduce students' intention to improve their behavior by increasing negative academic emotions and weakening teacher-student relationship. (3) Constructive and destructive criticism have significantly different effects on students' intention to improve disruptive classroom behavior, with constructive criticism demonstrating greater effectiveness in enhancing their intention to improve.