Teacher-Student Interactions: Theory, Measurement, and Evidence for Universal Properties That Support Students’ Learning Across Countries and Cultures

Abstract

Across the globe, strategies and investments to strengthen teacher effectiveness are increasingly a core component of countries’ efforts to improve educational outcomes for their citizens and, for many, to elevate standards of living. In this chapter, we present evidence demonstrating the role of teacher-student interactions in teachers’ ability to positively influence student development and learning across countries and cultures. We conceptualize teacher-student interactions as proximal processes that drive students’ engagement and learning. Evidence clearly demonstrates that interactions can be assessed through observation and improved through professional development interventions. Drawing on our experience and data available on tens of thousands of classroom observations across different countries and cultures, we present a framework that describes core features of effective teacher-student interactions that appear in common across these highly varied settings and cultural contexts. We review research that evaluates this framework in different contexts to examine the effects of interaction quality on student outcomes across the globe. We discuss the cross-cultural applicability of the framework and outline suggestions for education policy and practice and future directions for research.