A comparison of student perceptions of Dutch physics teachers' interpersonal behavior and their educational opinions in 1984 and 1993

Abstract

According to the literature, in the 1980s the intended science curriculum exhibited a worldwide movement toward a curriculum for all, with a more contextually embedded approach. In writings about science teaching pedagogy, a trend can be observed to consider seriously students' conceptions, based on the premises of constructivism. This article examines consequences of these trends for teacher behavior and concludes that classes should become more student centered. In terms of the model for interpersonal teacher behavior (Wubbels & Levy, 1993), teachers must give their students more responsibility and act in a more understanding way. It is to be expected that teachers' beliefs and opinions have to change before this trend can be implemented in the classroom. We have therefore tested whether teachers' opinions about objectives and content of physics education, on the one hand, and the implemented curriculum, particularly teachers' interpersonal behavior, on the other, display the same trend observed in the intended curriculum. In 1984 and 1993, data on students' perceptions of their teachers' behavior were gathered from ninth-grade students of a random sample of Dutch physics teachers. Data on the teachers' self-perceptions of their behavior and their opinions about physics education also were included. The results show that teachers were more in favor of realistic teaching content in 1993 than in 1984, a shift that is in line with the trend in the intended curriculum. Students' perceptions indicated clearly that Dutch teachers behaved less dominantly and more cooperatively in 1993 than in 1984.

Two decades of research on teacher–student relationships in class

“…Although a small number of studies reported non-significant differences between students' and teachers' perceptions (Ben-Chaim & Zoller, 2001;Wubbels & Levy, 1991) most studies show rather distinct differences in scale scores as well as on the dimensions Influence and Proximity (Brekelmans & Wubbels, 1991;den Brok, Levy, Rodriguez, & Wubbels, 2002;Fisher, Fraser, Wubbels, & Brekelmans, 1993;Levy, Wubbels, & Brekelmans, 1992;Wubbels & Brekelmans, 1997). On average, teachers reported higher ratings of their own leading, helpful/friendly and understanding behavior than did their ARTICLE IN PRESS loud Fig.…”

Interpersonal Teacher Behaviour and Student Outcomes

“…Both datasets used include cognitive as well as affective (subject-specific motivation) student outcomes. The Physics teachers' dataset was gathered some time ago, but that probably does not mean that it is outdated: A more recent study with a similar sample showed that their interpersonal behaviour had hardly changed over the past 10 years (Wubbels & Brekelmans, 1997). This may suggest that any conclusions drawn from the Physics dataset are probably still valid.…”

A Knowledge Base for Teachers on Teacher-Student Relationships

“…6.5). Also the Wubbels and Brekelmans' (1997) study showed small differences in the behaviour of physics teachers over a 10 years period.…”

“…Several studies (e.g. Wubbels and Brekelmans 1997) have investigated changes in the teacher-student relationship over the years comparing the mean scores for a sample of teachers in different years. Brekelmans (2010) showed in a large Dutch database that these relationships are remarkable stable over time (see Fig.…”