Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the causal relationship between psychological hardiness and communication skills with teaching quality through the mediation of classroom management. The aim of the present study was to determine the causal relationship between psychological hardiness and communication skills with teaching quality through the mediation of classroom management.

The research design was correlational, path analysis type. For this purpose, 129 students were selected using simple random sampling method from Kurdistan Farhangian University, Kermanshah and Hamedan who were teaching in the academic year 2024-2025, And they responded to the tools used, including the Seraj Teaching Quality Questionnaire (2003), the Psychological Hardiness Scale (Long and Goulet, 2003), Communication Skills (Fetro, 2000), and the Ali and AminYazdi Classroom Management (2008).

Findings: The collected data were analyzed using the correlation matrix and path analysis statistical method using Amos software. The results showed that all three variables of psychological hardiness, communication skills, and classroom management have a significant direct effect (p<0.001) on teaching quality. The results also showed that the indirect effect of all paths on teaching quality through classroom management is significant (p<0.001).

In addition to the results obtained in this study, it can be acknowledged that in the present era, in terms of the strategic role of higher education centers in advancing the country's goals, universities are expected to focus on the production and development of knowledge and strive to train the specialized and committed human resources necessary for the country; because universities, given their mission and vocation, are the source of developments in every country. With this description, the most important asset of scientific and academic communities is its faculty members, and it must be said that faculty members and the quality of their teaching and training have the greatest impact on students' professional and career preparation for entering the labor market and producing capital (Sanfo, 2024).

In this regard, in recent years, the issue of teaching quality at Farhangian University has been considered an important issue in implementing general policies related to training an efficient and effective workforce, and special attention has been paid to it. Therefore, improving and promoting the quality of education and teaching requires appropriate mechanisms that must be considered, and ensuring the quality of university education is an activity that requires research, evaluation, interaction, and commitment from all stakeholders. This assurance will not be achieved in our country unless it is considered from a problem-oriented perspective (Salehizadeh, Ghorchian, Davoudi and Qalavandi, 2019).

In a study conducted by Khadivi and Seyed Kalan (2018) on factors affecting the teaching quality of Farhangian University professors, they concluded that the professional characteristics of professors, including classroom management skills, physical classroom space, and weekly schedule, were among the most important variables affecting the teaching quality of professors.

Classroom management is the process of leading classroom and instructional activities by setting the curriculum, organizing work steps and resources, organizing the environment to enhance learners' attention span, and monitoring knowledge progress and anticipating potential problems (Gangal & Yilmaz, 2024).

In order to examine the quality of teaching in more depth, in addition to skill and knowledge variables, this study also examined personality factors and psychological traits, including psychological toughness and communication skills of professors.

Yazdani and Soleymanpour (2017) in a study titled "The Relationship Between Communication Skills and Teaching Quality of University Professors from the Perspective of Medical Sciences Students" concluded that among professors' communication skills, verbal skills and feedback skills had the highest correlation with teaching quality.

Communication skills are the process by which individuals share information, thoughts, and feelings with each other through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages (Lee & Son, 2024). About seventy percent of adults' waking time is spent communicating with others.

In this regard, the communication skills of university professors, especially at Farhangian University, are of great importance because the goal of this university is to produce, transfer, and disseminate knowledge for student teachers and ultimately students. If communication skills are not paid attention to, it can be said that the educational process will be severely deficient and ineffective (Khadivi and Seyed Kalan, 2018).

According to Hartcamp-Bakker & Martens (2024), teachers who have a high level of challenge seeking are usually less concerned about losing control of the class in the classroom and can easily use all challenging classroom and individual situations of students as opportunities for learning, Because from the perspective of emotion-based approaches in psychology, what we learn deeply is related to emotional and challenging life situations, not monotonous life situations. Therefore, professors with a high level of challenge and excitement seeking and a low level of anxiety can easily avoid boring monotony in the classroom and, conversely, use different and efficient teaching methods in the classroom according to the teaching subject. Naturally, in such classes, the quality of teaching will increase and more effective cooperation will be witnessed.

Finally, it can be concluded that the reason for the importance of the quality of university professors' teaching is the subtle and complex interaction of this with the dimensions of professors' personality traits, such as their challenge-seeking and psychological toughness, the professors' interpersonal and communication skills, and also their familiarity with classroom management styles and principles, In a way, it can be said that considering the different dimensions of psychological toughness, including 1) commitment and responsibility, 2) internal control and resilience, and 3) challenge and excitement seeking, professors who possess these dimensions in the teaching process and educational tasks and who use these skills and capabilities in classroom management, can effectively apply important teaching principles such as student activity, student participation, attention to mastery goals in learning, and promotion of students' intrinsic motivation, which ultimately improves the quality of their teaching in the classroom. (Chuning et al, 2024).

The aim of the present study was to determine the causal relationship between psychological hardiness and communication skills with teaching quality through the mediation of classroom management.

The research design was correlational, path analysis type. For this purpose, 129 students were selected using simple random sampling method from Kurdistan Farhangian University, Kermanshah and Hamedan who were teaching in the academic year 2024-2025, And they responded to the tools used, including the Seraj Teaching Quality Questionnaire (2003), the Psychological Hardiness Scale (Long and Goulet, 2003), Communication Skills (Fetro, 2000), and the Ali and AminYazdi Classroom Management (2008).