Interpersonal Sensitivity in Teaching Interactions

This study investigated the relation between the amount learned by high school students in a brief teaching session conducted by their peers and two aspects of the interpersonal sensitivity of teacher and student, encoding ability and decoding ability. Encoding ability was measured with a paper-and-pencil scale of empathic sensitivity believed to measure self-presentation and role-taking ability. Decoding ability was measured with (a) the PONS, a film designed to assess sensitivity to nonverbal behavioral cues, and (b) a measure of person-perception accuracy derived from self-report and rating-of-partner questionnaires. Student learning was strongly correlated with the encoding skill of the teacher but was not correlated with the teacher's decoding ability. The opposite pattern of results emerged for students. Students' learning was correlated with their own decoding skill but was not correlated with their encoding ability. Results support a multidimensional construct of interpersonal sensitivity and demonstrate its potential impact in one-on-one teaching interactions.