Defining types of Australian teacher-student interpersonal behaviour

Development of an Australian typology of interpersonal teacher behaviour has not been done before. This new study reports on the first such development of Australian teacher typologies. Teacher interpersonal behaviour was measured using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). Earlier work with the QTI in the Netherlands and the USA revealed eight different interpersonal styles. A first analysis of the data with SPSS sought to examine whether the eight types found in the Netherlands and U.S. were also present in the Australian data. A cluster analysis using various clustering methods and procedures was used to determine Australian typologies and compare this to earlier Dutch findings. Results of the cluster analyses were verified by analyses of variance (ANOVA), by plotting QTI scale scores graphically and by presenting a set of sector profile graphics to two independent researchers and having them sort these into different styles as found in the statistical analyses. This study resulted in some new typologies being suggested for Australian Teachers