The major purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between teacherstudent interpersonal behaviour in the middle level of schooling with the students' academic achievement in science as determined by the term grade (typically issued after a six or nine week grading period). The study also provided validation data for the Questionnaire on Teacher Interactions (QTI) survey instrument with a large American sample of students and teachers drawn from randomly selected the State of Ohio schools. The QTI was designed to elicit students' and teachers' perspectives of effective teaching and learning in classrooms. Numerous studies, here and abroad, during the last five years and have caused awareness that students' perceptions of their school experience are a significant influence on how and what students learn in the classroom. Few studies have been conducted on the topic of student perceptions in comparison to their respective teachers' perceptions in science or how this variance might influence student achievement. The focus of the present study was to compare the perceptions of students and their teachers regarding effective teaching and learning, while concurrently noting students' achievement in science. This study presumed that there was a definite disparity between what teachers perceive to be effective teaching and learning in comparison to what students perceive. The intention of the study was to identify some of the factors associated with any disparity. The hypothesis for the study, simply stated, was that student achievement, according to student's accumulative grade, would reflect a variance in perception with that of their science teacher. / Restated, the student's perception of effective teaching and learning could demonstrate to be a strong indicator of academic success or failure, depending upon the extent of difference with their respective teachers'. The research design of the study was based on the survey research method incorporating: 1) student and teacher questionnaires; 2) student and teacher interviews and; 3) students' science achievement, as measured in a teacher-issued grade. A probability sample of 433 middle school students was surveyed using the 48-item short form of the Australian version of the QTI (Wubbels, 1993). This sample comprised 21 middle level science classes, ranging from grade 5 through grade 9. Twelve cooperating science teachers associated with the teaching of science to these students were also surveyed using Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). In addition, random interviews were conducted using interview logs with 6 teachers and 6 students selected from a convenience sample of those also responding to the questionnaire. Another major component of the research design was the term grade recorded by the cooperating science teacher, as a means of gauging "student academic achievement". All student and teacher questionnaire data were statistically analysed using Microsoft Excel 2000 and the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for Windows 1999. The analysis was according to the proper categories in the QTI based on leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, student responsibility and freedom, uncertain, and dissatisfied, admonishing and strict behaviour established in the QTI. / The use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods from a range of data sources provided a means of triangulation to strengthen the validity of the findings, which thus afforded a means of comparing data consistency and cross validation for the purpose of improving the rigour of the research design. As a means of collecting empirical data, schools were randomly chosen (probability sample) from the 20001-2002 Ohio Educational Directory, a directory produced by the Ohio Department of Education. Thirty-three schools were drawn. Between October 20002 and January 2003, each school was sent two letters inviting their participation in the study; one letter was sent to the on-site principal and one to the "head science teacher". Five weeks from the date the original letter was sent out to those not responding. Eventually, twenty-one classes returned their surveys for analysis. The Questionnaire of Teacher Interaction (QTI) was chosen due to its record of validity and its ease of administering. The qualitative data were tallied and recorded. The quantitative data analysis was completed using both manual and computerised methods to address the objectives of this study.

The major aim of this study was to investigate the use of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) in health science classrooms in Tasmania, Australia. In the past, the QTI has been used in a number of learning areas. However, it has not been used in the learning area of health science.This study involved 1,471 grade 9 and grade 10 health science students and their teachers in 75 classes. The QTI was used to study student and teacher perceptions of health science teacher interpersonal behaviour.Statistical analyses revealed that the QTI is a valid and reliable instrument for use in health science classrooms. Quantitative results from the QTI were supported by qualitative data including comments from the students and a reflective narrative of the experiences of the researcher as a health science teacher.An investigation into the associations between QTI scales and student attitudinal and cognitive outcomes revealed that all scales of the QTI related to student attitudinal and cognitive outcomes in health science classrooms. It is, however, the scales of Leadership and Helping/Friendly which make the greatest positive influence to student attitudinal and cognitive outcomes.Health science students perceived their teachers as displaying high levels of leadership, helping/friendly and understanding behaviour, and low levels of uncertain, dissatisfied and admonishing behaviour. Teachers generally perceived themselves in a more favourable manner than their students did.The students also perceived the less experienced teachers as less dominant and more oppositional compared to teachers with more experience. Female health science students generally perceived their teachers in a more positive way than male students and male students, in general, have better attitudes to health science lessons.

I den här undersökningen översätts den internationellt använda studien QTI till svenska och delas ut till svenska gymnasieungdomar. Enkäten är tänkt att undersöka hur eleverna ser på sina lärare och relationen till dem. Enkäten utvärderas i uppsatsen och förslag på förbättringar ges. En genomsnittslärare tas fram utifrån resultaten, som visar på att svenska gymnasielärare är duktiga på att skapa fungerande klassrumsrelationer med sina elever, men då enkätens teman inte korrelerar fullständigt är det resultatet något osäkert.

The major purposes of this study were to provide validation data for the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) with a large Australian sample and examine the relationship of teacher-student interpersonal behaviour with student sex, cultural background and student outcomes. The sample from lower secondary science classrooms in Australia consisted of 3,215 students in 158 classes in 43 schools in two Australian states, namely Tasmania and Western Australia. The sample was chosen carefully so as to be representative, though only co-educational classes were used in order to permit an unconfounded test of sex differences. Students and teachers completed a questionnaire which included the QT1, an attitude to class scale based on the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), a cognitive achievement measure based on items from the Test of Enquiry Skills (TOES) and a five-item cultural background survey. The study follows the current trend in the field of classroom environment research of combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative component of the study involved about 100 interviews. This study is unique in that it provides a very large database of teacher-student interaction data in science classrooms and provides new insights into the relationships between teacher-student interpersonal behaviour with student sex, cultural background and student outcomes. The study found that there were associations between teacher student interpersonal behaviour and student sex and that there were differences in the way that students from different cultural backgrounds perceived their learning environments. Student achievement and student attitude to class were also found to be positively associated with teacher-student interpersonal behaviour. As a practical outcome of this study, the 48-item QT1 has been shown to be useful to Australian lower secondary science ++ / teachers as an initiator of self reflection on teaching practice.

The first purpose of the study described in this thesis was to provide validation information of three questionnaires that were modified and translated into the Thai language, namely, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), and the Attitude to Biology Class (ABC). A second purpose was to determine students' perceptions of teacher-student interactions and laboratory learning environments and their attitudes to biology classes in secondary schools in Thailand. A sample of 1,194 students from 37 biology classes in 37 schools completed the three questionnaires. The results of the study showed that most students in secondary schools of Thailand have moderately positive attitudes to their biology class. Students perceived their teachers as having good leadership, being helping/friendly, and understanding, but seldom uncertain, dissatisfied or admonishing. They also perceived that sometimes their teachers were strict, however allowing students responsibility and freedom. In biology laboratories, they perceived the environments as employing good student cohesiveness, less open-endedness and integration of the theory and practical, the rules were not clear and the materials were not good and insufficient. There were differences between students' actual and ideal perceptions of classroom interactions and laboratory learning environments. Students preferred teachers who showed strong leadership, were more helping and understanding, who gave their students more responsibility and freedom, and who were less uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing and strict. / Also, students preferred a biology laboratory environment with higher levels on the scales of Open-Endedness, Integration, Rule Clarity, and Material Environment but not Student Cohesiveness. Some commonality between the QTI and the SLEI scales was found in their contributions to the variance in student attitudes to biology classes. So now the QTI and the SLEI can be used by biology teachers and other science teachers in secondary schools who wish to improve science teaching and learning in Thailand.

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher and students' perceptions of teacher-student interpersonal behaviour in regional secondary classrooms. Teachers were then presented with this information so that a comparison between teacher ideal, teacher actual and student perceptions of their classroom could be examined. The results were then able to be used by teachers to reflect on and seek to improve their teaching practice. This study utilised the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) to collect data about the classroom learning environment of Australian regional mathematics and science classrooms. Qualitative information in the form of classroom observations and informal interviews has also been collected from a small subset of the student sample. This qualitative information was collected by the researcher in the dual roles of teacher and researcher. Triangulation of the methods of data collection sought to better validate the data collected, and assess multiple perspectives in the classroom. The study has involved a large sample of students from one country high school in Western Australia. All the mathematics classes from Years 8, 9 and 10 and all science classes from Years 8 and 10 have been included in this study. A particular focus for this study was the inclusion of both streamed and non-streamed classes from the mathematics and science areas. / The value of this research has been enhanced in that the results have been used as a teaching feedback tool for participants involved in the study to examine, reflect and improve on their teaching practice. The research is a real world, authentic example of one instance where results from the study were used immediately on a local scale by participants. A unique feature of the outcomes from this project is that the teacher appears to play a greater role in determining the classroom climate than does the homogeneous or heterogenous grouping of students within a subject.

The purposes of this study were to analyse the learning environment, teacher-student interactions and educational outcomes in physical chemistry laboratory classrooms inThailand. In addition, the validation of the Chemistry Laboratory EnvironmentInventory (CLEI), the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and Attitude Scale was examined. The sample was composed of 100 physical chemistry students in four Rajabhat Universities who responded to both Actual and Preferred Forms of the CLEI and QTI. Also, interviews and written stories were used with twelve students.Students' learning outcomes were investigated using a cognitive test, a practical test and the Attitude Scale. Before the questionnaires were used with the 100 students sample, the reliability and validity of the CLEI, QTI and Attitude Scale were confirmed with 198 tertiary science students in seven Rajabhat Universities. In addition, the results of students' interviews and written stories supported the validityof both the CLEI and QTI, and students improved their achievement outcomes. Thestudy found that there were differences between the students' preferred learningenvironments and what they perceived to be actually present. Associations were also found between students' perceptions of the classroom environment and student outcomes.

Research has shown that interest in science often decreases in the middle-school grades for both boys and girls, but that more boys continue on the science track in high school and college, leading to males dominating the fields of science and engineering in the work place. The interpersonal interaction between teachers and students, as both individuals and as a group, comprises a large part of the classroom learning environment. Though these interactions last only a school year, they can influence student attitudes and achievement in the long term. Past research has suggested that a key factor in improving student achievement and attitudes is to create learning environments which emphasize characteristics that have been found to be linked empirically with achievement and attitudes. The purpose of this study was to use quantitative methods to validate a learning environment questionnaire (Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, QTI), to investigate outcome-environment associations, and to compare male and female students in terms of their attitudes, classroom environment perceptions and achievement. An attitude scale, based on items from the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), and a 48-item eight-scale version of the QTI were administered to 1228 science students in Grades 6, 7 and 8 at one middle school in South Florida. Student achievement was measured using the students’ quarterly (nine-week) science grade. / The results revealed satisfactory internal consistency reliability for the QTI, with alpha reliability coefficients ranging from 0.51 to 0.83 for different scales with the student as the unit of analysis and from 0.54 to 0.96 for class means. For the 10-item attitude scale, the alpha coefficient was above 0.80 for both the student and the class mean as the unit of analysis, demonstrating high internal consistency reliability. Overall, the results of the statistical analyses supported that the QTI questionnaire and the attitude scale are valid and reliable instruments for use with secondary science students in South Florida. A strong relationship was found between student outcomes (attitudes and achievement) and many of the eight QTI scales with either the individual or the class mean as the unit of analysis. For example, students’ attitudes towards science were more positive when teachers exhibited more leadership and understanding behaviors and science achievement was higher when teachers were friendlier and less uncertain. The use of MANOVA tentatively revealed gender differences in students’ perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior, attitudes towards science, and science achievement. However, the differences between males and females were statistically significant only for the Helping/Friendly, Dissatisfied, and Admonishing scales of the QTI and for achievement. In general, relative to males, female students had more positive perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior and higher academic achievement.