Temporal orientation and the teaching life cycle: pathways linking teachers’ growth, recognition, and performance across two studies

This research examines how professional growth, achievement recognition, and temporal orientation interact to shape teaching performance among Chinese secondary school teachers. Two complementary studies were conducted: Study 1, a cross-sectional survey, and Study 2, an experiment manipulating temporal orientation. Study 1, involving 234 teachers, showed that professional growth was positively associated with teaching performance and that a small but statistically significant indirect effect via achievement recognition emerged, despite uncertainty in the strength of the path from professional growth to recognition. Study 2, with 253 participants, showed that experimentally inducing a long-term (vs. short-term or control) time orientation increased mean levels of recognition, professional growth, and teaching performance, but did not support the hypothesized moderation of the mediation mechanism. Overall, findings indicate that professional growth is a consistent predictor of teaching performance, recognition serves as a modest psychosocial pathway, and temporal orientation operates primarily as a contextual enhancer of mean levels rather than as a structural moderator of the mediation process. The study contributes to theoretical and practical understanding of how teacher development, recognition practices, and future-oriented thinking can jointly sustain motivation and effectiveness within the Chinese secondary education system.