Employing longitudinal or experimental designs to clarify causal relationships

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future-work section and limitations and future work of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2025 and 2026, spanning 4 journals. Those papers have been cited 10 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 4 representative gaps

• Effectiveness of a Training Program on the Psychological Well-Being and Self-Efficacy of Active Teachers, Controlling for Gender and Experience (2025) · Education Sciences · cited 7× · doi

  extend the sample to include teachers from other educational levels and regions to obtain broader and more representative conclusions - further explore how gender, years of teaching experience, and other factors might influence the outcomes of training programs - conduct longitudinal follow-ups to assess whether the program's positive effects are sustained over time and to examine how similar interventions can be adapted to different stages of teachers' professional careers - investigate the indirect effects of improvements in teachers' well-being and self-efficacy on their students, offering a comprehensive perspective on the benefits of such programs

  generalfuture-work section
  Keywords: extend sample include teachers other educational levels regions
• The Interplay of Self-efficacy, Classroom Management, Engagement, Reflection, and Feedback in Pre-service Science Teacher Development: Insights from a Bootstrapping Approach (2026) · Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education · doi

  While this study highlights the interconnectedness of self-efficacy, classroom management skills, engage- ment, feedback, and reflection in pre-service teacher development, it is essential to acknowledge its limitations. The small sample size of 29 pre-service teachers, drawn from a single method course during one semester, constrains the generalizability of the findings. The resource-intensive nature of analyzing lesson plans, a key component of this study, posed significant constraints, limiting the ability to include a larger sample. As a result, while the findings provide valuable insights, they should be interpreted with caution and considered transferable primarily to contexts with similar characteristics. Additionally, the cross-sectional design limits the ability to draw causal inferences from the observed relationships. While directional pathways are theoretically informed, the findings should be interpreted as associations rather than evidence of causation. Future research using longitudinal or experimental designs is needed to examine causal mechanisms more rigorously. Another limitation concerns the self-report measurement instruments used in this study. Although the scales demonstrated acceptable reliability and were reviewed for content relevance, comprehensive validation procedures such as factor analysis and convergent or dis- criminant validity testing were not conducted. This limits the extent to which the constructs can be inter- preted as fully established latent variables and indicates the need for further validation in future research.

  generallimitationsevidence 5/5
  Keywords: self service sample ability interpreted limits causal future validation highlights interconnectedness efficacy classroom management skills
• Learning-Oriented School Cultures and Teacher Outcomes: Self-Efficacy as a Mediator in a Centralized Education System (2026) · International Journal of Educational Methodology · doi

  mental https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13141715 teacher Zee, M., & Koomen, H. M. Y. (2016). Teacher self-efficacy and its effects on classroom processes, student academic adjustment, and teacher well-being: A synthesis of 40 years of research. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 981-1015. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315626801 Zhang, J., Yin, H., & Wang, T. (2023). Exploring the effects of professional learning communities on teacher’s self-efficacy 17-34.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: teacher https self efficacy effects mental healthcare koomen classroom processes student academic adjustment well synthesis
• Generative Artificial Intelligence Self-Efficacy and Learning Engagement Among Special Education Teacher Trainees: A Moderated Mediation Model (2026) · Behavioral Sciences · cited 3× · doi

  employ longitudinal or experimental designs to clarify causal relationships - adopt stratified sampling across broader geographic regions and institutional contexts to enhance representativeness - incorporate multi-method data sources (e.g., behavioral logs and performance assessments) to strengthen measurement validity - extend the model to in-service teachers and other disciplinary domains to further test its generalizability and boundary conditions

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 5/5
  Keywords: employ longitudinal experimental designs clarify causal relationships adopt

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