Developing a Model of Classroom Interaction between Teacher and Students

The development of an instrument to measure teachers' use of fear appeals in the GCSE classroom

“…Most of the classroom environment literature conceptualizes the teacher as responsible for establishing the particular milieu in a classroom (e.g. Shamai et al ,1995), suggesting fear appeals may be instrumental in establishing a particular environment; consequence fear appeals producing one type of environment and timing fear appeals producing another. This hypothesis requires empirical support however and future research should employ a similar design to that outlined for the hypotheses surrounding test anxiety above: a longitudinal design to establish whether fear appeals are associated with a future increase in particular classroom environment, while controlling for that perceived classroom environment measured previously.…”

“…Although the importance of a positive learning environment is acknowledged by both teachers and students, the pre‐allocated authority to manage classroom behaviour creates a power imbalance where the responsibility for establishing and maintaining the classroom environment lies with the teacher (Shamai, Ilatov, Hertz‐Lazarovitz, & Bentsvi‐Mayer, 1995). Work based on the systems approach of communication and the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (Wubbels, 2005; Wubbels & Brekelmans, 2005; Wubbels & Levy, 1991) has identified two dimensions of behaviour: influence (dominance–submission) and proximity (opposition–cooperation), which underlie eight types of teacher behaviour: leading, helpful/friendly, understanding, student responsibility and freedom, uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing, and strict.…”