ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1666870
This article is part of the Research TopicEducational Leadership and Sustainable DevelopmentView all 20 articles
Teachers' effectiveness, cooperative learning, and servant leadership: Examining the mediating role of satisfaction with studies in a Latin American university sample
Provisionally accepted
- 1Peruvian Union University, Lima, Peru
- 2Universidad Autonoma del Peru, Lima District, Peru
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: The importance of addressing topics related to higher education is increasingly recognized, with greater impetus since the education sector has expanded rapidly worldwide since the second half of the 20th century. These educational conditions have created the need to evaluate the mediating role of satisfaction with studies in the influence of teachers' effectiveness and cooperative learning on servant leadership in the context of higher education. Method: An explanatory study was conducted with the participation of 2,165 university students from Latin America, with an almost equal distribution between women (51.8%) and men (48.2%), with ages ranging from 18 to 56 years (M = 21.26; SD = 3.48). Data were collected using an online self-report questionnaire employing the Student Evaluation of Teachers' Effectiveness (SETE) scale, the Cooperative Learning Questionnaire (CLC), the Servant Leadership Short Scale (SLSS), and the Brief Scale of Study Satisfaction (BSSS). Results: The hypotheses were supported, observing the effect on satisfaction with studies of both teachers' effectiveness (β = 0.185; p = 0.000; t = 6.297) and cooperative learning (β = 0.358; p = 0.000; t = 11.491); and the effect on servant leadership of both teachers' effectiveness (β = 0.122; p = 0.000; t = 4.247), cooperative learning (β = 0.576; p = 0.000; t = 21.186), and satisfaction with studies (β = 0.151; p = 0.000; t = 7.734). Likewise, the results indicate the mediating role of satisfaction with studies in the effect of teachers' effectiveness on servant leadership (β= 0.028; p= 0.000; t= 4.784), and of cooperative learning on servant leadership (β= 0.054; p= 0.000; t= 6.531). Discussion: This new model suggests a re-evaluation of existing models on these topics. The results of this research provide valuable insights for higher education management and leadership seeking to achieve higher levels of academic satisfaction among Latin American university students. This model warrants special attention in future research, including the exploration of other potential factors and the application of these findings to diverse contexts and cultures.
Keywords: teachers' effectiveness, cooperative learning, servant leadership, satisfaction with studies, Latin America
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Villar-Guevara, García-Salirrosas and Fernández-Mallma. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Miluska Villar-Guevara, miluskavillar@upeu.edu.pe
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.