# Do teacher-training college students become more engaged in their studies because of commitment? The mediating role of self-control and the moderating role of core self-evaluation

## TL;DR

This study explores how professional commitment affects learning engagement in teacher-training students, with self-control and self-evaluation playing key roles.

## Contribution

It identifies self-control and core self-evaluation as mediators and moderators in the relationship between professional commitment and learning engagement.

## Key findings

- Professional commitment dimensions significantly influence self-control systems.
- Self-control systems (impulse and control) strongly affect learning engagement.
- Core self-evaluation moderates the impact of self-control on learning engagement.

## Abstract

As prospective educators, teacher candidates’ learning engagement and development require significant attention. This study aims to investigate the mechanism of the role between professional commitment and learning engagement of teacher-training college students.

A questionnaire survey was conducted with 846 randomly sampled teacher-training college students using four validated scales: the College Student Professional Commitment Scale, the Self-Control Dual-System Scale, the Core Self-Esteem Scale, and the Learning Engagement Scale. The study employed descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling to validate the proposed measurement model and analyze the interconnections between the variables under investigation.

The results showed that (1) Different dimensions of professional commitment have significant effects on self-control; (2) Both the impulse and control systems of self-control significantly affect learning engagement; (3) The impulsive system and control system of self-control mediate the different dimensions of professional commitment; (4) The effect of the impulse system and control system of self-control on learning engagement is moderated by core self-evaluation.

The study’s results reveal the mechanism of different dimensions of professional commitment’s influence on learning engagement, particularly the roles of self-control (including both impulsive and control systems) and the core self-evaluation. These findings provided valuable insights for designing intervention to enhance learning engagement among teacher education students.