Students’ perceptions of science teachers’ interpersonal behaviour in secondary schools: Development of a Turkish version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a Turkish adaptation of an existing instrument for measuring teacher interpersonal behaviour. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) maps teacher behaviour in terms of two dimensions: Influence (Dominance-Submission) and Proximity (Cooperation-Opposition). A sample of 674 students from 24 classes (Grades 9-11) of experienced teachers in two Turkish secondary schools participated in the study. Development of the instrument involved several steps: translation and back translation by teacher educators; piloting of different versions while refining the items; interviews with students and teachers to establish the importance of teacher interpersonal behaviour in the Turkish context; and a final administration of the questionnaire to the sample described. Interview data and statistical analyses supported the reliability and validity of the instrument. Turkish teachers were perceived by their students as very cooperative and moderately dominant.

Development and evaluation of a Chinese version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)

“…This version was initially also applied in Australia and was then revised into a 48-item selection for the Australian context (Wubbels 1993). This Australian version of the QTI was then translated into several languages and applied in various countries such as Singapore (Goh and Fraser 1998), Brunei (Scott and Fisher 2004), Turkey (Telli et al 2007), Indonesia (Maulana et al 2012) and Italy (Passini et al 2015). Although these later translations could have had the goal of achieving to the original QTI parallel measures, most of them used translation procedures only.…”

“…the specific position of an item on the interpersonal circle). As noted by Telli et al (2007), if only translation and back-translation procedures are be applied, scale reliability might appear good, but it is questionable whether such a translation would be conceptually comparable to the original Dutch and English versions. Hence, when adapting the QTI to another language, it is essential to adapt to the local context by considering the position of the items on the circle, and thus to create a version conceptually parallel with the IPC-T.…”

“…Maulana et al 2012;Telli et al 2007;Passini et al 2015;Wubbels et al 2014). The importance of interpersonal relationships in education has been appreciated for years because positive relationships between teachers and students contribute to student learning and wellbeing (Den Brok et al 2004Goh and Fraser 2000).…”

“…The QTI was originally developed in Dutch (Wubbels et al 1985), and has been adapted to and translated into several other languages, including American English (Wubbels and Levy 1991), Australian English (Wubbels 1993), Turkish (Telli et al 2007) and Indonesian (Maulana et al 2012) (see Wubbels et al 2014 for an overview). However, some QTI adaptations have involved straightforward, literal translations, thus heightening the risk of misunderstanding caused by variation in the interpretation of seemingly similar interpersonal meanings of words in different languages (Wubbels et al 2012).…”

Interpersonal behaviour styles of primary education teachers during science lessons

“…This variety can partly be explained by student-related factors that affect perceptions (such as gender, ethnic background, age), class and school factors (such as school type, denomination, location, class size, grade level, subject matter) and also teacher factors (gender, ethnic background, age, experience) Fisher et al 2006;Fraser 2007;Levy et al 2003;Wubbels et al 2006). Research has also shown that differences between classes in terms of the learning environment that remain after taking into account all of the aforementioned factors are systematic and can be captured in terms of classroom profiles or typologies (den Rickards et al 2005;Telli et al 2007b;Wubbels and Brekelmans 1998;Wubbels et al 2006;Wubbels and Levy 1993). Many of these profiles were established within one particular strand of learning environments research, namely, research on the teacher-student interpersonal relationship, and used one particular instrument to map this behaviour, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI; Wubbels et al 1985).…”