Introduction

        In recent years, due to the continuous improvement of global education quality, teachers have been given higher expectations. The responsibilities and workload of teachers have also increased in the short term, while their rest time has been continuously reduced due to heavy teaching tasks (Hargreaves, 2003). As a result, teachers experience feelings of anxiety under long-term pressure, which can affect their teaching work and even lead to professional burnout (Jennett et al., 2003). Research has shown that environmental conditions can affect an individual's sense of self-efficacy (Schunk & Pajares, 2002). Furthermore, a teacher's self-efficacy can further influence various aspects of their professional development, such as their use of teaching strategies and attitude toward innovation (Gibbs, 2003; Klaeijsen et al., 2018).

         This study utilized a quantitative approach and focused on primary school teachers in Chongqing, China. It investigated the perceived school environment, anxiety, and self-efficacy of these teachers to explore the impact of different aspects of the school environment on teacher anxiety, as well as the dynamic changes in their emotions under the influence of self-efficacy.

Theoretical Framework

         The school environment as perceived by teachers refers to their experience of school life and reflects the goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structure of the school. Previous studies have categorized school environment into five aspects: collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, school resources, decision-making involvement, and teaching innovation (Johnson et al.,2007). 

         Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy reflects an individual's belief in their ability to perform a specific behavior or activity at a certain level before engaging in it (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). Teachers' self-efficacy primarily stems from four sources: mastery experience、vicarious experience、social persuasions、physiological and affective states. Among them, the mastery of experience mainly comes from individual's past performance and achievements, which is the most influential source of self-efficacy.

        Emotions are an important component of individual's psychological well-being and are commonly present in teachers' teaching activities, influencing teacher burnout, teacher turnover, and teaching quality. Teacher emotions include enjoyment, anger, anxiety, pride, guilt and shame, boredom, pity, etc (Frenzel et al., 2009). The study primarily focuses on anxiety, specifically the anticipation of future danger, which includes cognitive components such as attention, worry, or problem-solving, as well as physiological components like sweating and insomnia. According to the Control-Value Theory, if a teacher feels that they only have partial (moderate) control over an event and they are afraid of failure, they will experience anxiety.

        Research has shown that pre-service teachers experience an increase in their self-efficacy after gaining early teaching experience (Morris et al., 2017; Tschannen-Moran & McMaster, 2009). However, novice teachers may spend a significant amount of time focusing on their own teaching and have limited participation in collaboration with other teachers, making them more prone to anxiety (Chapman, 1988). Previous studies have explored the relationship between teachers' overall perception of school environment and their self-efficacy, but there is limited research on the specific impact of different aspects of school environment on teacher anxiety and the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and their emotional state.

Based on theories and previous empirical results, this study puts forward the following hypotheses.

         H1: Collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, and innovative teaching significantly and positively influence teachers' self-efficacy.

         H2: Collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, school resources, and involvement in decision-making significantly negatively affect teacher anxiety, while teaching innovation positively affects teacher anxiety.

Methods Participants Researchers distributed questionnaires to primary school teachers from Chongqing, a southwestern city in mainland China. After excluding invalid questionnaires, a total of 2,873 primary school teachers were selected as the research sample. Measures School environment. To measure the school environment, a modified scale adapted from Johnson was used (Johnson et al., 2007). This scale includes five aspects: collaborative teaching, teacher-student relations, school resources, decision making, and colleague innovation, with a total of 21 questions. All the items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).A sample item is Our school does not emphasize teamwork among teachers. The internal consistency coefficient for the 21 questions was found to be 0.910, and the KMO value was 0.923, as shown in Table 1. The internal consistency coefficients for each dimension ranged from 0.74 to 0.84, indicating good reliability and validity for the scale. Teacher self-efficacy. To measure teachers' self-efficacy in teaching, the Tschannen-Moran scale was utilized (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001). The scale consists of 12 items, a sample item is To what extent are you able to use various evaluation methods. All the items were rated on a 9-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (completely unable) to 9 (extremely high extent). Anxiety. To measure the emotions of teachers, a questionnaire developed by Frenzel was used (Frenzel et al., 2016). This questionnaire measures three primary emotions: enjoyment, anxiety, and anger, with a total of 12 items. For this study, data on anxiety emotions were selected, consisting of 4 items. A sample item is I often worry that my teaching is not good. All the items were rated on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested and found to be good, as shown in Table 1. Instrument Validation and Data Analysis Measurement model was conducted to assess the reliability and validity of scales. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to answer the research question. All the statistical analyses were performed in SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 28.0. Teachers’ gender, educational background, and teaching experience have been controlled.

Significant Findings 1：The Effect of Teacher self-efficacy on School environment The research findings indicate that in predicting teacher self-efficacy, the collaborative school environment, teacher-student relationships, and colleague innovation can significantly and positively predict teacher self-efficacy. 2：The Effect of Anxiety on School environment In terms of predicting anxiety levels, collaborative teaching, school resources, and participation in decision-making significantly negatively predict teacher anxiety. Additionally, colleague innovation also significantly negatively predicts teacher anxiety. 3: Mediating Role of Teacher self-efficacy This study found that self-efficacy plays a mediating role in the impact of collaborative teaching, teacher-student relationships, and colleague innovation on anxiety. Specifically, collaboration among teachers not only directly alleviates teachers' anxiety, but also mitigates anxiety through self-efficacy.

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