Consequences of teacher humility

During their classes or conversations with students, some teachers or lecturers express humility.  They acknowledge limitations in their knowledge, express uncertainty about their beliefs, and demonstrate respect towards the opinions of students and other people. As research demonstrates, teachers who express this humility tend to enhance the motivation of their students—especially the motivation of these students to learn and to extend their knowledge and skills. 

Specifically, when teachers are humble and recognise their limitations, they are likely to respect the opinions and suggestions of their students.  Their students, therefore, are not as likely to behave as passive receptors, amassing the snippets of knowledge their teacher expresses, but as active participants, contributing their knowledge and opinions to classroom discussions.  Because of this role, students feel more empowered to co-create knowledge, enhancing their confidence, and hence their motivation, to learn.      

Nevertheless, if students do not trust or respect the capabilities of their teacher, students are not as likely to benefit from the humility of their teachers.  That is, they may feel vulnerable rather than confident in their capacity to learn the materials.   

To illustrate, in a study that explores this association between teacher humility and student motivation, published by Zou and Chen (2025), 808 psychology students at four universities in China completed a survey that assesses

• the degree to which these students perceive their teachers as humble, epitomised by questions like “My teacher admits to me when he or she doesn’t know how to do something”,
• the extent to which these students feel motivated to learn, assessed with questions like “I come to most classes with questions in mind that I want answered” (Biggs et al., 2001),
• the degree to which students feel confident they can succeed at university, called academic self-efficacy (Pintrich et al., 1993), and
• the extent to which the students believe the teacher had developed the capacity to improve the performance of their pupils, such as “My teacher has specialised abilities that can increase our performance”.

As hypothesised, when teachers demonstrated humility, students were especially motivated to learn.  Academic self-efficacy mediated this association.  However, when students did not trusted the capacity of the teacher to improve the performance of their pupils, the degree to which the humility of teachers enhanced academic self-efficacy subsided.

To motivate themselves to study, students utilise a variety of strategies. Schwinger et al. (2007), for example, delineated eight distinct strategies that student often apply and constructed a set of questions to measure each strategy.  Schwinger and Otterpohl (2017) divided these strategies into two clusters.  The first cluster revolves around strategies that increase the extent to which the task seems interesting to students.  For example, students may

• modify a tedious activity or utilise their imagination, assessed by items like “I make myself look for ways to bring more fun to the tasks”, such as use a variety of colours when annotating notes (Sansone et al., 1992),
• relate the activity to their personal life or interests (Kryshko et al., 2020), measured by items like “I strive to relate the learning material to my own experiences”,
• reward themselves if they successfully complete a task (Schwinger & Otterpohl, 2017), such as “I promise myself that, after work, I will do something that I like”.

The second cluster revolves around goal setting and self-talk.  To illustrate, students may

• divide large projects into specific tasks, such as “I break down the workload in small segments so I get the feeling that I can handle it more easily”,
• persuade themselves about the importance of learning, such as “I challenge myself to finish the task and thus learn a lot for me personally”,
• persuade themselves about the importance and benefits of achievement, such as “I call my attention to the fact of how important it is to obtain good grades”,
• persuade themselves about the need to prevent failures, such as “I tell myself that I have to push me more if I do not want to make a fool of myself”,
• cultivate an environment that sustains concentration and motivation (cf., Zimmerman & Martinez-Pons, 1986), such as “I make sure that distractions occur as seldom as possible”.

According to Kwok et al. (2022), from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, if teachers are humble, students may be more inclined to apply these strategies.  Specifically, humble teachers acknowledge their limitations and respect the perspective of students.  These behaviours tend to foster a trusting and supportive relationship between teachers and students. 

For several reasons, these trusting relationships inspire students to apply a range of strategies to boost their motivation.  For example, when students have established trusting, supportive, relationships with teachers

• they feel compelled to reciprocate the support they receive from teachers and thus devote more effort to their studies,
• they are more inclined to trust themselves and thus experiment with a range of strategies to boost their motivation,
• they are more likely to embrace the advice they receive from teachers about how to motivate themselves.

To verify this premise, Kwok et al. (2022) disseminated a survey to 250 students, all enrolled at a university in Hong Kong.  Only one of these students did not complete the survey.  The survey included questions that measure

• the degree to which the teachers exhibit humility, such as acknowledges their faults,
• the extent to which the students feel they have established a trusting relationship with their teacher, derived from the LMX scale, such as “How well does your teacher understand your problems and needs” (Graen & Uhl-Bien, 1995),
• the degree to which the students apply the eight motivation strategies.

The data were subjected to partial least-square structural equation modelling—a variant of structural equation modelling that is not as sensitive to deviations from multivariate normality (Hair et al., 2019). As hypothesised, when teachers were perceived as humble, students were more inclined to apply the eight strategies to boost motivation.  The relationship between the teacher and students mediated this association. 

Besides self-efficacy and motivation strategies, researchers have uncovered other reasons why humble teachers might enhance the motivation, interest, and engagement of students.  For example, Porter, Leary, and Cimpian (2024) presented, and then substantiated, three additional reasons that explain how teacher humility could benefit students.  First, when teaches express intellectual humility—and acknowledge limitations in their knowledge and beliefs—they imply they accept these limitations in other people, including their students.  Students, therefore, feel they will be accepted by their teacher, despite their personal shortcomings.  These students will be more willing to attempt subjects in which they are unfamiliar, diminishing an aversion to specific topics and facilitating interest as well as curiosity.

Second, when teachers express intellectual humility and acknowledge their limitations, students feel their peers will also recognise that shortcomings are acceptable and inevitable.  Accordingly, students believe they are likely to be accepted, rather than rejected, by their peers, regardless of their faults or flaws.  This belief tends to foster a sense of belonging—and this sense of belonging is central to the retention, engagement, interest, and persistence of students at school (e.g., Gillen-O’Neel, 2019; Hausmann et al., 2007; Wilson et al. 2015). 

Third, when teachers express intellectual humility and concede their limitations, students are more inclined to conclude that such shortcomings, or even mistakes, errors, and failures, may be helpful rather than harmful (cf., Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016).  After all, these teachers have seemed to succeed despite their limitations.  Because of this assumption, the usual inclination of students to shun topics in which they may fail dissipates.  Consequently, students may become interested and engaged in subjects they had previously eschewed.

Porter, Leary, and Cimpian (2024) conducted a sequence of five studies that corroborate these premises.  For example, in one pilot study, 131 high school students read about a fictional maths teacher. This account also articulated the philosophy of this teacher. Participants read one of four philosophies, depending on the condition in which they had been assigned. That is, the teacher either

• modelled intellectual humility, expressing comments like “I will admit when I make mistakes” and “I do not know all there is to know about math”,
• recommended intellectual humility, expressing comments like “You should admit when you make mistakes”,
• revealed excitement about mathematics, expressing comments like “Math is elegant”,
• expressed more neutral comments, like “I hope to meet you soon”, representing a control condition.

Next, the students answered questions that assess

• the degree to which they would be willing to express intellectual humility and acknowledge their limitations in this class,
• the extent to which they would be interested in enrolling in this class,
• the degree to which they would feel accepted by this teacher—rather than inadequate or uncomfortable,
• and the extent to which this teacher seems knowledgeable or comfortable.

As the findings revealed, if the teacher modelled, rather than merely recommended, intellectual humility, students were especially inclined to express intellectual humility themselves, to feel accepted by the teacher, to be interested in the class, and to perceive the teachers as knowledgeable.    That is, teachers who demonstrated humility not only promoted interest in students but were perceived as more competent as well. 

A subsequent study, in which the participants were 485 undergraduate psychology students, replicated this pattern of findings.  This study also clarified the reasons that teacher humility promoted interest in the class.  That is, when the professors demonstrated rather than recommended humility

• the students felt more accepted by the teacher,
• the students were also more likely to endorse statements like “I would feel comfortable around other students” (cf., Muradoglu et al., 2022), indicating they experienced a greater sense of belonging,
• the students were less likely to endorse statements like “Experiencing failure in the class would hurt learning and development”, indicating they recognised that failure can be beneficial,
• this acceptance by teachers, sense of belonging, and recognition that failure can be beneficial promoted interest in the class—and partly mediated the association between demonstrated humility and interest.

When teachers are humble, students are more inclined to solve problems creatively and to suggest novel solutions.  Several accounts could explain this association between teacher humility and student creativity (see Zhang & Chi, 2025). 

First, when teachers exhibit humility—when they acknowledge their limitations and respect the perspectives of pupil—students perceive these teachers as trustworthy.  For example, these teachers demonstrate they accept limitations and recognise that errors or shortcomings are inevitable.  These teachers will thus accept, rather than reject, the mistakes or flaws of students.  Students feel they will be respected and understood rather than derided or criticised unfairly, a manifestation of trust.  Because of this trust, students are more willing to explore and to suggest novel and original suggestions, secure in the knowledge they will not be mocked.

Second, when teachers exhibit humility, they respect the knowledge and perspectives of students.  Students thus feel they are granted the autonomy and respect to reach their own decisions.  Consequently, these students feel empowered to explore novel avenues or creative solutions to the problems they experience.  Accordingly, both trust and empowerment could mediate the association between the humility of teachers and the creativity of students.

To explore this possibility, two academics from the Dalian University of Technology, Xiyue Zhang and Jingming Chi (2025), administered surveys to undergraduate students, enrolled at three Chinese universities, at three times, across eight weeks.  Specifically,

• during the first occasion, the students answered questions that assess the humility of their teachers, such as “My teacher demonstrates an openness to others’ ideas”,
• during the second occasion, the participants answered questions that assess their cognitive and affective trust in teachers, such as “I can freely discuss my learning difficulties with my teacher, knowing he or she is willing to listen”,
• at this time, the students also completed a measure of psychological empowerment, typified by questions like “I have a significant amount of freedom and independence in my studies” (Spreitzer, 1995)
• during the third occasion, the participants responded to questions that measure the degree to which they engaged creatively at school, such as “I spend significant time filtering information that facilitates new ideas” (Zhang & Bartol, 2010).

As hypothesised, when teachers were humble, students were more inclined to engage creatively at school.  Both trust in teachers and psychological empowerment partly mediated this association.  Furthermore, trust partly mediated the association between teacher humility and student empowerment.