The effect of teacher interpersonal behaviour on students' subject-specific motivation

Abstract

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 interms of two, independent behaviour dimensions called Influence and Proximity. This study investigated the added value of students’ perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour (after correction for covariates such as gender, report card grade, class size, etc.) on students’ subjectspecific motivation. Data of 52 third-year EFL-classes (English as a Foreign Language; 1041 students), taught by 32 secondary teachers, were included in the analyses. The study used multilevel analysis of variance to investigate the effect of teaching on motivation and included several covariates as well. For all of the discerned subject-related attitude variables – pleasure, relevance, confidence and effort – a positive and strong effect was found for teacher Proximity. In addition, for three of the outcome variables – pleasure, relevance and effort – Influence also had a positive effect. Overall, however, proximity seemed to be of greater importance than teacher influence. The results demonstrate the significant role of teacher interpersonal behaviour in student motivation and the importance of combining insights from various educational research disciplines.