Assessing Teacher Educators’ Interpersonal Behaviour in a Teacher Education Classroom Setting in India. (original) (raw)

An Assessment of the Learning Environment and Teacher Interpersonal Behaviour at the Teacher Education Level

Effective Teaching Around the World-Theoretical, Empirical, Methodological and Practical Insights, 2023

The Indian teacher education scenario has undergone numerous changes in the last few years especially with the shift to the two-year teacher preparation programmes. As a result of this change, both the teacher educators and the student teachers had to adapt to the modified curriculum, teaching methodologies and assessment process. This paper focuses on assessing student teachers’ perceptions about their classroom learning environments and teacher interpersonal behaviour. The study utilises the modified version of the What Is Happening In This Classroom (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). The data was collected from 150 student teachers from a teacher education college studying in the third and fourth semester of the two-year B.Ed./B.Ed. Special Education programme. The results show that student teachers positively perceived their classroom learning environments. They expressed a lot of student cohesive- ness, teacher support for the students, task orientation and involvement of students in the classroom activities. Students perceived an environment that promotes innovation, equity and a high level of cooperation. Results for teacher interpersonal behaviour show that student teachers perceived their teacher educators as good leaders who understand their needs. They are helpful and friendly and provided ample opportunities for students to express themselves freely. They also give responsibility to accomplish different tasks. The negative aspects of teacher interpersonal behaviour like uncertainty, admonishing and dissatisfied behaviour were given a low rating by the student teachers. They, however, felt that the teacher educators were strict in the class. Data analysis reveals that no significant associations exist between academic achievement and classroom learning environments and teacher interpersonal behaviour. Results also show that there were no significant gender differences in the learning environments. However, there were significant gender differences in the teacher interpersonal behaviour in favour of female student teachers. Also, no semester and programme based differences in the classroom learning environments and teacher interpersonal behaviour exist at the teacher education level

Student Teachers' and Educators' Perceptions of Educator Interpersonal Behavior at Teacher Education University in Iran

Imam Khomeini International University, 2019

Classroom is an environment where teachers and students as inhabitants of different worlds are supposed to experience some sort of daily give-and-take. Such inherent discrepancies between these two groups of interlocutors might be among the untouched areas of research. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the cords and discords between first-year student teachers' and their educators' perceptions of educator interpersonal behavior. The sample of the study included 4 EFL educators and 102 student teachers majoring in TEFL at two branches of Iranian Teacher Education University. Data were collected with the Australian version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) that was validated and modified into four formats for measuring the participants' perceptions of the actual educators and an ideal educator interpersonal behavior. The results indicated that although both groups perceived an ideal educator interpersonal behavior similarly, the educators generally overestimated their cooperative behaviors and underestimate their oppositional ones in comparison to what their student teachers perceived. The results also indicated that male and female student teachers perceived some cooperative behaviors in the educators from the opposite gender more significantly. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that there are some perceptual mismatches between student teachers' and educators' perceptions of actual educator interpersonal behavior. Therefore, the findings imply that educators should take some measures to locate these perceptual mismatches and eliminate them gradually.

The Effect of Teacher Interpersonal Behaviour on Students

Journal of Classroom Interaction, 2005

This study brings together insights from research on teaching and learning in specific subjects, learning environments research and effectiveness research by linking teacher interpersonal behaviour to students' subject-related attitudes. Teaching was studied in terms of a model originating from clinical psychology that was adapted to education. Teacher interpersonal behaviour was analysed in terms of two, independent behaviour dimensions called Influence and Proximity. This study investigated the added value of ...

An interpersonal perspective on teacher behaviour in the classroom.

In this article we present research investigating teacher behaviour from an interpersonal perspective. This perspective refers to the teacher-student relationship. This relationship is important for the working climate in the classroom. Our conceptualisation of the interpersonal perspective is based on a model with two dimensions: Proximity (Cooperation-Opposition) and Influence (Dominance-Submission). The Proximity dimension designates the degree of cooperation or closeness between those who are communicating. The Influence dimension indicates who is directing or controlling the communication, and how often. Based on this model a questionnaire has been developed describing interpersonal styles of teachers. Our studies with the questionnaire have shown the existence of eight distinctive interpersonal styles. The chapter reviews the theoretical framework used to describe the interpersonal perspective on teacher behaviour and research conducted with the questionnaire, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). We will describe results of research on the relationship between interpersonal styles of teachers and students' cognitive and affective outcomes, on differences in interpersonal styles between teachers, on development of the interpersonal style during the teaching career and on the significance of nonverbal teacher behaviour in everyday classrooms for (the development of) interpersonal styles.

Interpersonal teacher behaviour and student outcomes

School Effectiveness …, 2004

In this study, the effectiveness of secondary education teachers' interpersonal behaviour is investigated by analysing data from 2 samples: a study on 45 Physics teachers and their 3rd-year classes and a study on 32 English as a Foreign Language (EFl.) teachers and their 3rd-year classes. Teacher interpersonal behaviour was studied by means of students' perceptions of this behaviour, collected with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). These perceptions include 2 important dimensions: Influence and Proximity. Results of multilevel analyses with various covariates indicated that Influence and Proximity were positively related to both cognitive and affective outcomes. Interpersonal behaviour explained up to more than half of the variance in student outcomes at the teacher-class level. The outcomes suggest that interpersonal behaviour as perceived by students may be an important variable for educational effectiveness researchers.

Dimensions of Interpersonal Teachers’ Skills in School Environment

EDULEARN19 Proceedings

The educational area is one of the most complex and most responsible areas of human activity. The educational process signifies a multi-dimensional reality, which implies relationships between teachers and students, teachers and school associates, students and parents, teachers and parents, actually implies the relationships of all factors of that process. The teacher greatly influences the effectiveness of teaching, interaction, and relationship in the classroom, because of that many research focuses on teacher skills that affect the quality of interpersonal relationships. Pedagogical communication is realized through the interpersonal, intrapersonal and social relations of the factors of the educational process. The quality of the relationship in the process of education is the result of the teacher's relationship with the students on the one hand and the relation of the student towards the teacher on the other. The dimensions of the teacher's interpersonal skills, which will be further emphasized below, are supporting for students, control, empathy towards students, teacher motivation for students, and cooperation with parents. Good quality relationship with students established teachers who are realistic, who appreciate the students and who are empathetic, and who show a way how to share their feelings with the students. These feelings include warmth, care, and sympathy. Teachers who appreciate students accept them and show respect for them, taking into account the specific characteristics, aspirations, opportunities, and interests of students. The cooperation of teachers and parents is also featured. Cooperation is highly dependent on the personality of the teacher, his commitment and attitude which has towards parents and towards cooperation. Since cooperation implies a reciprocal process, it is necessary to have the same engagement and motivation of the parents themselves to cooperate with the teachers, so the cooperation can be complete. Successful educational work is only possible within a quality school environment. For this reason, one of the main goals of the educational process is to establish the optimal interpersonal relationships on which the interpersonal communication of the factors involved in the educational process is based. The aim of this paper was to determine the frequency of occurrences of some interpersonal teachers' skills which contribute to the construction and maintenance of a positive school environment and the differences in appearance with regard to gender, age and work experience in the profession of teachers. For the purpose of this study, 100 teachers from 8 elementary schools from Zadar were examined. Out of this there were 80 female and 20 male respondents. We used a questionnaire containing 75 statements that examined five dimensions of teacher interpersonal skills using Likert scale. The data analysis first shows the frequency response of the examined skill. Then there was a comparison of the gender, age and work experience of the teacher. Research has shown that teachers mostly use medium and high support, control and empathy with the students, motivating students and cooperation with parents. The results also showed that male respondents used more control over the classes than female respondents, while they cooperate more closely with parents than male respondents.

Factors influencing students' perceptions of their teachers' interpersonal behaviour: A multilevel analysis.

This study investigates which student, teacher and class characteristics are associated with students' perceptions of their science teachers' interpersonal behaviour. Using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), two important dimensions of teacher interpersonal behaviour were investigated: influence (dominance vs. submission) and proximity (cooperation vs. opposition). Earlier work with the QTI in the USA and The Netherlands has shown that, in those countries, several factors affect students’ perceptions of their teachers. These factors include student and teacher gender, student and teacher ethnic background, student age, teacher experience, class size, student achievement and subject. It has been found that each of these variables has a distinctive effect, but also that they interact with each other when determining students' perceptions. For the present study, an analysis was performed on a large Australian QTI data set of secondary science teachers and their students. QTI dimension scores were examined against factors such as: gender, class size and subject. To investigate separate and combined effects of variables, a hierarchical analysis of variance (distinguishing between the school, class and student level) was conducted. This paper reports for the first time on the effect sizes and variance explained by these variables with respect to the Australian context.

Diagnosing and improving the quality of teachers’ interpersonal behaviour

International Journal of Educational Management, 2002

Due to increased external, societal pressure on schools via developments such as accountability and accreditation, there is a growing need of schools for instruments that provide them with information on the quality of the teaching and learning processes they organize. This paper presents an instrument that can be used to diagnose teachers’ interpersonal skills, one element of teaching quality that may be of interest to schools. The instrument is based on the theory of interpersonal communication of Timothy Leary. Apart from a discussion of the theoretical framework behind the instrument, the paper presents information on the instrument itself and procedures for using the instrument with teachers and students. Also, information is provided on possibilities of using the instrument for staff development and other purposes of schools. The instrument appears to be of high quality and is accompanied by a large database of information linking it to other factors in the classroom context.

The importance of teacher interpersonal behaviour for secondary science students in Kashmir.

This study focuses on the relationship between teacher-student interpersonal behaviour and students’ attitudes toward science. To investigate this relationship, student perception data have been gathered with 1021 secondary science students, located in 31 classes in Kashmir, India. Teacher interpersonal behaviour was conceptualised in terms of two behavioural dimensions, Influence (the degree of teacher control in communication with students) and Proximity (the degree of cooperativeness between teacher and students), and measured with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Multilevel analyses of variance were conducted on students’ attitude scores and the effect of the interpersonal variables was corrected for the effects of student, class and teacher background variables, as well as other elements in the learning environment. Results indicated that both teacher Influence and Proximity were positively associated with students’ attitudes and that their effect remained statistically significant after correction for other covariates and learning environment variables.