Multilevel issues in research using students’ perceptions of learning environments: The case of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction

The design of learning environment studies investigating students’ perceptions often is multilevel in nature. This multilevel nature of studies can appear in the object of research (for example, teacher behaviour towards the individual student or towards the class), the level of perception (personalised perceptions or group perceptions) and the sampling of data (usually clustered: students are sampled with their classmates, classes are sampled with other classes taught by the same teacher, etc.). In the present study, the impact of decisions about level is studied using students’ perceptions of the teacher–student relationship as assessed with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Data were gathered in one school (59 classes of 29 teachers) with two versions of this questionnaire: a personalised version and a class version. For reasons of comparison, additional data on the class version were analysed from 44,415 students from 1,913 teachers in 207 schools. Results from multilevel and single-level analyses of the class and personal versions of the QTI indicated that multilevel analyses are to be preferred over single-level analyses and that different conceptual structures could apply depending on the object of study and the level of perception.

[1]  T. Leary.  Interpersonal diagnosis of personality , 1957 .

[2]  P. Watzlawick,et al.  Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes , 1964 .

[3]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports as Data , 1984 .

[4]  H. Goldstein.  Multilevel Statistical Models , 2006 .

[5]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  Interpersonal Perception: A Social Relations Analysis , 1988 .

[6]  D. Funder,et al.  Profiting from controversy. Lessons from the person-situation debate. , 1988, The American psychologist.

[7]  M. Brekelmans,et al.  A study of student perceptions of physics teacher behavior , 1990 .

[8]  L. Ross,et al.  The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology , 1991 .

[9]  T. Wubbels,et al.  A comparison of interpersonal behavior of Dutch and American teachers , 1991 .

[10]  Jack Levy,et al.  Do You Know What You Look Like?: Interpersonal Relationships In Education , 1993 .

[11]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Protocol analysis: Verbal reports as data, Rev. ed. , 1993 .

[12]  B. Muthén,et al.  Multilevel Covariance Structure Analysis , 1994 .

[13]  Barry J. Fraser,et al.  An evaluation of computer‐assisted learning in terms of achievement, attitudes and classroom environment , 1994 .

[14]  Darrell L. Fisher,et al.  Interpersonal behaviour in senior high school biology classes , 1995 .

[15]  Joop J. Hox,et al.  Applied Multilevel Analysis. , 1995 .

[16]  R. Blackburn,et al.  Rating scales for measuring the interpersonal circle in forensic psychiatric patients , 1996 .

[17]  S. Strack.  Introduction to the special series--interpersonal theory and the interpersonal circumplex: Timothy Leary's legacy. , 1996, Journal of Personality Assessment.

[18]  Richard G. Lomax,et al.  A Beginner's Guide to Structural Equation Modeling , 2022 .

[19]  Swee Chiew Goh,et al.  Validation of an Elementary School Version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction , 1996 .

[20]  C. L. Cox,et al.  Evaluating the circumplexity of interpersonal traits and the manifestation of interpersonal traits in interpersonal trust , 1997 .

[21]  M. Browne,et al.  Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Testing the Circumplex Structure of Data in Personality and Social Psychology , 1997, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[22]  J. Campbell,et al.  Personal and Class Forms of Classroom Environment Instruments , 1998 .

[23]  B. Fraser.  Science Learning Environments: Assessment, Effects and Determinants , 1998 .

[24]  Kenneth Tobin,et al.  International handbook of science education , 1998 .

[25]  Darrell L. Fisher,et al.  Interpersonal Behavior, Laboratory Learning Environments, and Student Outcomes in Senior Biology Classes. , 2000 .

[26]  Aaron L. Pincus,et al.  Interpersonal Adjective Scales: Confirmation of Circumplex Structure from Multiple Perspectives , 2000 .

[27]  den Pj Perry Brok.  Teaching and student outcomes : a study on teachers' thoughts and actions from an interpersonal and a learning activities perspective , 2001 .

[28]  Perry den Brok,et al.  Perceptions of Asian-American and Hispanic-American teachers and their students on teacher interpersonal communication style , 2002 .

[29]  Myint Swe Khine,et al.  Studies In Educational Learning Environments: An International Perspective , 2002 .

[30]  Barry J. Fraser,et al.  LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS RESEARCH: YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW , 2002 .

[31]  M. Brekelmans,et al.  Students' Perceptions of Interpersonal Aspects of the Learning Environment , 2003 .

[32]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  PERSON: A General Model of Interpersonal Perception , 2004, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[33]  R. Schumacker,et al.  A beginner's guide to structural equation modeling, 2nd ed. , 2004 .

[34]  J. Gill.  Hierarchical Linear Models , 2005 .

[35]  Mieke Brekelmans,et al.  An Interpersonal Perspective on Classroom Management in Secondary Classrooms in the Netherlands. , 2006 .