The effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model is a theoretical model of a psychosocial work environment with adverse effects on health and well-being that focuses on a mismatch between high efforts spent and low rewards received at work. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically test an effort-reward imbalance questionnaire for teachers (Teacher ERIQ) based on the ERI model. The structure validity, reliability, and criterion validity of the new questionnaire’s scores were evaluated in a sample of 475 Chinese teachers. The results of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed that a structure of four factors of effort (workload, emotional demands, student-related issues, and social responsibility) and two factors of reward (emotional reward and material reward) in accordance with the ERI model had significant factor loadings and acceptable model fit. The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients of all dimensions’ scores showed that the questionnaire scores had good reliability. Criterion validity was indicated by significant correlation coefficients of scores of most dimensions along with teachers’ self-reported job burnout and non-reciprocal social relations, as well as the ANOVA results showing that the differences of the scores of the two criterion scales in different ERI ratio levels were significant. The results also showed that teacher’s ERI level varied with demographic variables such as age, gender and school type. The Teacher ERIQ is a valid and reliable new measurement for assessing teachers’ psychosocial work characteristics. It can be an important tool to provide new explanations of stress-related health risks among teachers and to guide the development of preventive measurements.

A video lecture instructor exhibiting positive emotion has been shown to induce similar emotions in students, improving the students’ motivation and increasing their attention, thus improving their learning performance. However, little systematic research exists on which specific design features with regards to the instructor can induce such emotions. The current study aimed to test whether congruent body gestures boost the effects of an instructor’s facial expressions (happy vs. bored) on learning from video lectures in terms of students’ emotions, motivation, attention, cognitive load, and learning performance. There were four conditions: (1) a happy face without body gestures, (2) a happy face accompanied with happy body gestures, (3) a bored face without body gestures, and (4) a bored face accompanied with bored body gestures. One-way repeated ANOVAs showed that congruent body gestures strengthened the emotional effects, and strengthened the attentional split effects of the happy face; when the instructor did not produce body gestures, her happy face facilitated students’ learning performance compared to the bored face. Our findings suggest that instructors should be encouraged to exhibit a happy face without body gestures when giving video lectures to increase students’ learning.