Unravelling the Psychological Underpinnings of Classroom Dynamics: A Study on Teacher-Student Interaction

Abstract

The study was intended to explore the psychological bases of Teacher-Student Interaction (TSI) in the classroom. Moreover, differences in five psychological bases, emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, inattention, and peer interaction across teachers' gender, qualification, and teaching experience, were also the study's purpose. A cross-sectional quantitative survey study was designed for this purpose. The participants of the study were secondary school teachers from the Gujranwala district. A self-developed Teacher-Student Interaction Scale (TSIS) was used to collect data from 285 respondents. Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, one sample, independent sample t-test, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). It was found that conduct and emotional bases are teachers' most frequently used psychological bases to develop TSI, while peer interaction is comparatively less contributing base. It was also revealed that there were insignificant differences regarding psychological bases across gender and qualification of the teachers. Furthermore, there was a contradiction in using psychological bases like emotional, hyperactivity, and the total scale across teachers' teaching experience. Hence, we suggest that future researchers conduct more in-depth studies on STIs to find the factors that lead to similar bases across gender, qualification, and experience.