Associations between Teachers’ Interpersonal Behavior and Students’ Socio-Emotional Learning Skills in Social Sciences Classrooms in Turkey

Abstract

Associations between students’ socio-emotional learning skills and students’ perceptions about their social sciences teachers’ interpersonal behavior were investigated in this study. A primary level version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was adapted into Turkish in order to gather the data concerning teacher interpersonal behaviors in the Turkish elementary classrooms. This process together with the collection of data concerning students’ socio-emotional learning skills was performed in several state elementary schools with 386 students from Grade 5 and Grade 6. Descriptive statistics, Canonical Correlation Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (with Mplus) were utilized for the purposes of data analyses. The results revealed that the Turkish version of the QTI for primary schools demonstrated a reasonable fit with the data with some minor deviations. The results also indicated that students’ perceptions about their teachers’ leadership, helpful, uncertain and understanding behaviors were positively but admonishing, dissatisfied and strict behaviors were negatively related to students’ socio-emotional learning skills.

Keywords

• Interpersonal teacher behavior
• Teacher interaction
• Socio-emotional learning
• Mplus analyses
• Canonical correlation analyses
• Circumplex models

References

1. Basu, A. & Mermillod (2011). Emotional intelligence and social-emotional learning: An overview, Psychology Research, 1(3). 182-185.
2. Berisha Kida, E. & Karaj, T. (2020). Development of an Albanian version of the questionnaire on teacher-student interaction, CEPS Journal, 10 (3), 145-169. doi: 10.26529/cepsj.451
3. Blackburn, R., & Renwick, S. J. (1996). Rating scales for measuring the interpersonal circle in forensic psychiatric patients. Psychological Assessment, 8, 76-84.
4. Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2021, from https://casel.org/
5. Dattalo, P. (2014). A demonstration of canonical correlation analysis with orthogonal rotation to facilitate interpretation. Unpublished manuscript, School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. Retrived from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=socialwork_pubs
6. den Brok, P. (2001). Teaching and student outcomes: a study on teachers’ thoughts and actions from an interpersonal and a learning activities perspective (Un published doctoral dissertation), Utrecht University, Utrecht.
7. den Brok, P., Brekelmans, M., & Wubbels, T. (2006). Multilevel issues in research using students' perceptions of learning environments: The case of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Learning Environments Research, 9(3), 199–213. doi: 10.1007/s10984-006-9013-9
8. den Brok, P., Fisher, D., Brekelmans, M., Rickards, T., Wubbels,T., Levy, J., & Waldrip, B. (2003, March). Students’ perceptions of secondary science teachers’ interpersonal style in six countries: A study on the cross national validity of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED475164.pdf

9. den Brok, P., Brekelmans, M., & Wubbels, T. (2004). Interpersonal teacher behaviour and student outcomes. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15(3-4), 407–442. doi: 10.1080/09243450512331383262 den Brok, P., Fisher, D., & Scott, R. (2005). The importance of teacher interpersonal behaviour for student attitudes in Brunei primary science classes. International Journal of Science Education, 27, 765–779. doi:10.1080/09500690500038488.
10. Elias, M. J., Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Frey, K.S., Greenberg, M.T., Haynes, N.M.,… Shriver, T.P. (1997). Promoting social and emotional learning: Guidelines for educators. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Retrieved from https://earlylearningfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/promoting-social-and-emotional-learning-1.pdf
11. Fisher, D.L. & Fraser, B.J. (1981). Validity and use of My Class Inventory. Science Education, 65(2), 145-156. doi: 10.1002/sce.3730650206
12. Fisher, D.L., Henderson, D., & Fraser, B.J. (1995). Interpersonal behaviour in senior high school biology classes. Research in Science Education, 25, 125-133. doi: 10.1007/BF02356447
13. Fraser, B.J. (1998). Classroom environment instruments: Development, validity and applications. Learning Environments Research, 1, 7–33. doi:10.1023/A:1009932514731
14. Fraser, B. J. (2002). Learning environments research: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. In S. W. Goh & M. S. Khine (Eds.), Studies in educational learning environments: An international perspective (pp. 1–25). World Scientific.
15. Fraser, B. J., Aldridge, J. M., & Soerjaningsih, W. (2010). Instructor-student interpersonal interaction and student outcomes at the university level in Indonesia. The Open Education Journal, 3, 21-33. doi: 10.2174/1874920801003010021
16. Fraser, B.J., Anderson, G.J., & Walberg, H.J. (1982). Assessment of learning environments: manual for learning environment inventory (LEI) and my class inventory (MCI) (3rd version), Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth, Australia.
17. Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1982). Predictive validity of my class inventory. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 8(2), 129–140. doi: 10.1016/0191-491X(82)90004-9
18. Fraser, B. J., & Fisher, D. L. (1983). Use of actual and preferred Classroom Environment Scales in person–environment fit research. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(2), 303–313. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.75.2.303
19. Frey, K.S., Nolen, S.B., Van Schoiack Edstrom, L., & Hirschstein, M.K. (2005). Effects of a school based social-emotional competence program: Linking children’s goals, attributions, and behavior. Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 171-200.
20. Goh S. C. & Fraser, B. J. (1996). Validation of an elementary school version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Psychological Reports, 79, 515–522.
21. Goh, S. C. & Fraser, B. J. (1998). Teacher inter personal behaviour, classroom environment and student outcomes in primary mathematics in Singapore. Learning Environments Research, 1, 199–229. doi:10.1023/A:1009910017400.
22. Greenberg, M., Domitrovich, C., Weissberg, R., & Durlak, J. (2017). Social and Emotional Learning as a Public Health Approach to Education. The Future of Children, 27(1), 13-32. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/44219019
23. Gurtman, M. B. (1992). Construct validity of interpersonal personality measures: the interpersonal circumplex as a nomological net. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(1), 105-118. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.63.1.105
24. Gurtman, M. B., & Pincus, A. L. (2000). Interpersonal adjective scales: Confirmation of circumplex structure from multiple perspectives.Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(3), 374–384. doi: 10.1177/0146167200265009
25. Hair, J., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education International.
26. Jones, S. M., Brown, J. L., & Aber, J. L. (2011). Two-year impacts of a universal school-based social-emotional and literacy inter-vention: An experiment in translational developmental research. Child Development, 82(2), 533–554. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01560.x
27. Kabakçı, Ö. F. & Owen F. K. (2010). Sosyal Duygusal Öğrenme Becerileri Ölçeği Geliştirme Çalışması. Eğitim ve Bilim. 35(157), 153-166. Retrieved from http://egitimvebilim.ted.org.tr/index.php/EB/article/view/293/162
28. Kim, H. B., Fisher, D. L., & Fraser, B. J. (2000). Classroom enviroment and teacher interpersonal behaviour in secondary science classes in Korea. Evaluation and Research in Education, 14(1), 3-22. doi: 10.1080/09500790008666958
29. Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
30. Kokkinos, C. M., Charalambous, K., & Davazoglou, A. (2009). Interpersonal teacher behaviour inprimary school classrooms: A cross-cultural validation of a Greek translation of the Questionnaireon Teacher Interaction.Learning Environments Research, 12, 101–114. doi: 10.1007/s10984-009-9056-9
31. Koul, R., & Fisher, D. (2005). Cultural background and students’ perceptions of science classroomlearning environment and teacher interpersonal behaviour in Jammu, India.Learning EnvironmentsResearch, 8(2), 195–211. doi: 10.1007/s10984-005-7252-9
32. Kusché, C.A., & Greenberg, M.T. (2001). PATHS in your classroom: Promoting emotional literacy and alleviating emotional distress. In J. Cohen (Ed.), Caring classrooms intelligent schools the social emotional education of young children (pp.140-161). New York: Teacher College Press.
33. Kyriakides, L. (2005). Drawing from teacher effectiveness research and research into teacher interpersonal behaviour to establish a teacher evaluation system: A study on the use of student ratings to evaluate teacher behaviour. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 40, 44–66.
34. Kyriakides, L. (2006). Measuring the learning environment of the classroom and its effect on cognitive and affective outcomes of schooling. In D. Fisher & M. S. Khine (Eds.). Contemporary approaches to research on learning environment: Worldviews (pp. 369– 408). Australia: World Scientific Publishing.
35. Lapointe, J. M., & Legault, F. (1999). Version francophone du Questionnaire for Teacher Interaction encontext que ́be ́cois [French version of the Questionnaire for Teacher Interaction in the Quebeccontext].Mesure et e ́valuation en e ́ducation, 22, 1–20.
36. Lee, S.S., Fraser, B.J., & Fisher, D.L. (2003). Teacher–Student Interactions in Korean High School Science Classrooms. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 1(1), 67–85. doi:10.1023/A:1026191226676
37. Leary, T. (1957). An interpersonal diagnosis of personality. New York: Ronald.
38. Lewin, K. (1936). Principles of topological psychology. McGraw Hill.
39. MacCallum, R.C., Browne, M.W., & Sugawara, H., M. (1996), Power Analysis and Determination of Sample Size for Covariance Structure Modeling, Psychological Methods, 1(2), 130-49.
40. Maulana, R., Opdenakker, M. C., den Brok, P., & Bosker, R. (2011). Teacher-student interpersonal relationship in Indonesia: profiles and importance to student motivation. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 31(1), 33-49. doi:10.1080/02188791.2011.544061
41. Mccombs, B.L. (2004). The learner-centered psychological principles: A framework for balancing academic achievement and social-emotional learning outcomes. In J.E. Zins R.P. Weissberg, M.C. Wang, ve H.J. Walberg (Eds.), Building academic success on social and emotional learning what does the research say? (pp.23-29). New York: Teacher College Press.
42. McCormick, M. P., Cappella, E., O’Connor, E. E., & McClowry, S. G. (2015). Social-emotional learning and academic achievement: using causal methods to explore classroom-level mechanisms. AERA Open. doi: 10.1177/2332858415603959
43. Moos, R. H. (1979). Evaluating Educational Environments Procedures, Measures, Findings and Policy Implications. San Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass.
44. Murray, H.A. (1938) Explorations in personality. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
45. Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2017). Mplus user's guide (Eighth edition ). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén
46. Pedhazur, E. J. (1982). Multiple regression in behavioral research (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
47. Rakıcı, N. (2004). Eight grade students’perceptions of their science learning enviroment and teachers’ interpersonal behaviour. (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
48. Rickards, T., & Fisher, D. (2000, April). A comparison of teacher and student perceptions of classroom interactions: a catalyst for change. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED440971.pdf
49. Saydam, G. & Telli, S. (2011). Eğitimde Bir Araştırma Alanı Olarak Sınıfta Öğrenci Öğretmen Kişilerarası İletişimi ve Öğretmen Etkileşim Ölçeği QTI. Bogazici Univesity Journal of Education, 28(2), 23-28.
50. Scott, R. H., & Fisher, D. L. (2004). Development, validation and application of a Malay translation of an elementary version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction. Research in Science Education, 34, 173–194. doi:10.1023/B:RISE.0000033759.09807.50.
51. Sherry, A., & Henson, R. K. (2005). Conducting and interpreting canonical correlation analysis in personality research: A user-friendly primer. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84, 37–48. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa8401_09
52. Stevens, J. (1996). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences (3rd ed.). Mahwah: Erlbaum.
53. Şimşeker, M. (2005). Eight grade students’ perceptions of their mathematics teachers’ interpersonal behaviors (Unpublished master thesis). Middle East Technical University, Ankara.
54. Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2013). Using Multivariate Statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
55. Telli, S. (2006). Students’ perceptions of their science teachers’ interpersonal behaviour in two countries: Turkey and the Netherlands. (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). İzmir Democracy University, İzmir.
56. Telli, S., Cakıroglu, J., & den Brok, P. (2006). Turkish secondary education students’ perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their attitude towards Biology. In D. L. Fisher & M. S. Khine (Eds.), Contemporary approaches toresearch on learning environments: Worldviews (pp. 517-542). Singapore: WorldScientific.
57. Telli, S., den Brok, P., & Çakıroğlu, J. (2007). Teacher- students interpersonal behaviour in secondary science classes in Turkey. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 42 (2), 31–40.
58. Walberg, H.J. & Anderson, G.J. (1968). Classroom Climate and Individual Learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 59, 414-419.
59. Waldrip, B. G., Fisher, D. L., & Dorman, J. P. (2008). Students' perceptions of assessment process: questionnaire development and validation. In D. Fisher, R. Koul, & S. Wanpen (Eds.), Sustainable communities and sustainable environments: Beyond cultural boundaries(pp. 561 - 568). Perth WA Australia: Curtin University of Technology.
60. Wei, M., den Brok, P., & Zhou, Y. (2009). Teacher interpersonal behaviour and student achievement in English as a foreign language classrooms in China. Learning Environments Research, 12(3), 157-174.
61. Wiggins, J. S., Philips, N., & Trapnell, P. (1989). Circular reasoning about interpersonal behaviour: evidence concerning some untested assumptions underlying diagnostic classification, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(2), 296-305.
62. Wong, N. Y. (1995). The relationship between Hong Kong students' perception of their mathematics classroom environment and approaches to learning:A longitudinal study. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), University of Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3123452
63. Wong, A. F. L., & Fraser, B. J. (1994, April). Science laboratory classroom environments and student attitudes in chemistry classes in Singapore. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New Orleans, Louisiana. USA. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED404131.pdf
64. Wubbels, T. (1993). Teacher-Student Relationships in Science and Mathematics Classes (What research says to the science and mathematics teacher, No. 11). Perth: National Key Centre for School Science and Mathematics, Curtin University of Technology. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED373957.pdf.
65. Wubbels, T.., Brekelmans, M., & Hooymayers, H. (1991). Interpersonalteacher behaviour in theclassroom. In B. J. Fraser and H. J. Walberg (Eds.), Educational Environments: Evaluation, Antecedents, And Consequences (pp. 141-160). Oxford, England: Pergamon Press
66. Wubbels, T., Créton, H. A., & Hooymayers, H. P. (1985). Discipline problems of beginning teachers, interactional teacher behavior mapped out. The annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago (ERIC document 260040).
67. Wubbles, T., & Levy, J. (1991). A comparison of interpersonal behaviour of Dutch and American teachers. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 15, 1-18.
68. Wubbles, T., & Levy, J. (1993). Do you know what you look it?. Interpersonal Relationship in Education. London, England: Falmer Press.