| dc.description.abstract |
Teachers play a central role in shaping student learning, and much educational research has focused on how teacher characteristics and practices affect students. However, some research-ers have highlighted the importance of also considering how students may influence teachers. Reciprocal models propose that teacher-student interactions are dynamic and bidirectional, with students potentially affecting teachers’ emotions, motivation, and instructional quality. Recogniz-ing these reciprocal influences is important, as assuming only one-way effects may lead to mis-interpretations of observed relationships between attributes of teaching and student outcomes. This dissertation addresses these gaps using a triangulation approach across four studies, each exploring how student groups influence teachers and teaching. Study 1 surveyed 108 teachers about their perceptions of student group effects on their motivation, emotions, and be-havior. Teachers reported that student engagement, classroom climate, and misbehavior signif-icantly influenced their motivation and instruction—often in non-linear ways. Both highly moti-vated and highly challenging groups were perceived to improve instructional quality. Study 2 analyzed self-ratings from 162 teachers and 4,059 students across three time points using 522 random-intercept cross-lagged panel models. The study found as much evi-dence for effects of students on teachers as of teachers on students: teacher variables like the facilitation of group work and work avoidance and student characteristics like intrinsic motiva-tion, self-concept, and learning strategies mutually reinforced each other. A specifically robust bidirectional link was identified between teacher work avoidance and student interest. Study 3 tested a key theoretical model—Frenzel et al.’s (2018) proposition of bidirectional emotional transmission between students’ enjoyment and teachers’ enthusiasm—on three sep-arate samples as well as on a pooled sample including ratings from over 6,401 students and 308 teachers. Cross-lagged analyses showed significant reciprocal effects between teacher enthusiasm and student interest and enjoyment in mathematics, supporting the tested theory. Study 4 used a quasi-experimental design to assess whether changes in student groups in-fluence perceptions of teaching quality. 146 teachers who taught either the same or different student groups over two years were compared. Results showed student ratings of teaching quality varied significantly depending on the group, while teacher ratings were less affected but still influenced by changes in the student group, indicating that teaching quality depends also on the taught students. Together, these studies provide strong evidence that student groups shape teacher behav-iors, emotions, and instructional quality. Student factors like engagement, motivation, misbehav-ior, and classroom climate interact with teachers’ motivation and teaching style. The findings support refining reciprocal models of classroom dynamics and suggest that teachers may either reduce their efforts due to socio-emotional strain or adapt their instruction in response to chal-lenging student groups. Future research should explore what conditions trigger these different responses, and whether institutional support or teacher training can improve adaptive teacher responses. Intensive longitudinal data derived from automated AI supported assessment of teaching situations may allow further insights in processes of teacher-student interactions. |
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