Shouhong Zhao
ABSTRACT Self‐efficacy refers to the learners' beliefs in their abilities to adjust their learning, which can lead to learners' educational success and motivation, and thus, is important within the learning procedure. The learning climate has a vital effect on the educational performance, especially within the English language learning sphere. Moreover, teachers' behaviour in the classroom affects the students' performance, and among those behaviours, fairness dominates others because practitioners and researchers have been interested in practicing and researching fairness. Teachers' fair behaviour within the class enhances students' emotional and academic feelings. The present research investigated the effect of learning climate on the EFL learners' self‐efficacy, which investigated the mediating effect of teacher fairness in the relationship. Consequently, 691 students out of 758 in three Chinese universities took part and completed the three questionnaires. The results through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) indicated that both learning climate and teacher fairness significantly predicted EFL students' self‐efficacy and teacher fairness significantly mediated the relationship between learning climate and self‐efficacy. Indeed, the mediation effect accounted for 13.35% of the total effect, suggesting that teacher fairness works as a complementary mediator in the relationship between the two variables. The results provide practical applications for teacher policymakers to boost academic practices. The present research specified the learning climate's critical effect on improving learners' self‐efficacy. The results offer the foundation for future research.