Primary teachers' interpersonal behaviour and cultural elements of the classroom environment

Within the domain of learning environments research many studies have investigated students' perceptions of their teachers' interpersonal behaviour. The present study adds to this line of research by (a) focusing on primary education, rather than secondary education, (b) establishing associations between perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour and perceptions of other elements of the learning environment, rather than uniquely focusing on interpersonal behaviour, (c) linking perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour to affective student outcomes taking into account perceptions of other elements of the learning environment. In this paper, an overview of past research linking students' perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour to perceptions of other elements of the learning environment is given, as well as a review of studies linking interpersonal behaviour to student outcomes. This review pertains to both secondary and primary education. Moreover, results of correlational analyses and multilevel analyses of variance, conducted on perception and outcome data of a sample of 2,178 Australian years 5, 6 and 7 students in 103 primary classrooms are presented. Students' perceptions of their learning environment were mapped with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and a primary version of the Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLEQ