Post on 01-Apr-2015
Improving Teachers’ Reactions to Challenging Interactions: An Intervention Study
Markus Talvio¹, Kirsti Lonka¹, Erkki Komulainen¹, and Taru Lintunen²
¹ University of Helsinki, Finland
² University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Introduction
Theories of educational psychology, especially self-determination theory (Ryan and Deci 2000; Deci and Ryan 2002), emphasize the importance of students’ experience of autonomy, competence and relatedness.
One of the main tasks of the teacher is supporting autonomy in their students (Leroy, Bressoux, Sarrazin, and Trouilloud 2007).
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Introduction
With interaction skills, teachers can promote students’ responsibility and the feeling of being included.
Leroy et al. (2007) suggested that by using interaction skills, the intrinsic motivation of the students may also be improved.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
According systematic literature review(e.g. Aspegren, 1999; Brown & Bylund, 2008):
Communication skills can be taught and learnt in courses but they are easily forgotten if not maintained in practice
Basic skills can be learnt in a short period of training The teaching method should be experiential, teacher
centerd methods do not give the desired results.
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What we do not know is...
Surprisingly little research exists in education...
on how to study, develop and improve social
interaction
what skills are being taught
what is the overarching framework for organizing
communication skills (Cegala & Broz, 2002).
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Teacher’ Effectiveness Training
TET is a four-day training which offers the teachers the
communication and conflict resolution skills
Program was developed by Thomas Gordon (1918-2002)
The core components of social and emotional skills
(SEL):
self-awareness, self-management, social awareness,
relationship skills, and responsible decision making
(Elias et al., 1997/ Casel).
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Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET)(Gordon, 1974/2003)
The skills taught include
Listening skills
Passive listening (e.g. frowning, nodding, body movements)
Active listening (checking for facts and feelings)
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Teacher Effectiveness Training (TET)(Gordon, 1974/2003)
The skills taught include I –Messages (my feeling, description of act of other
person, and tangible effect on me)Confrontation I –messagePositive I -message
Avoiding Road blocksE.g. judging, praising or mockery .
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Training methods
Lectures
Demonstrations
Group discussions
Exercises
Homework
Reflection exercises
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The research questions were:
In terms of the Gordon’s TET course goals, do teachers in their responses to the DCI cases more often express desired ways of interacting and less often non desired ways of interacting after the TET course?
After the TET training, do teachers more often express autonomy supporting behaviours in their responses?
Do holistic measures indicate teachers’ descriptions overall to be improved in terms of the goals of the TET course?
Do the outcomes of the post test differ from the pre test results in terms of knowledge, behaviour and organizational results?
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Participants
School TETn
Waiting list/ No TET
n
Total
Class teachers 20 0 20
Subject-matter teachers
23 26 49
Total 43 26 69
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Materials
Pre and post test:
The data were collected in autumn 2007 and again in spring 2008 before and after TET. Also, the data of the comparison group that were on the waiting list but did not participate in the training were collected approximately at the same time.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Measures
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick’s model (2006) stresses the
importance of looking at various levels of the outcomes of
the intervention
reactions of participants (Course feedback)knowledge (Knowledge test) behaviour (DCI) organisational results (School well-being profile).
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Reactions
By the Reactions instrument feedback of the TET course was collected, for example the evaluations of the applicability of the course or how it was managed.
It included ten multiple choice questions with a Likert-type
scale with response options ranging from fully disagree to fully agree.
The course fulfilled my expectations and I can apply the studied skills at work were typical statements of the content and the goals of the course.
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Knowledge
In the Knowledge instrument, participants were asked to define in their
own words the central concepts of interaction skills studied in the TET.
There were eight questions altogether;
For example, participants were asked to define what is active listening
and to list the components of a positive I-message and explain what is
so called No-lose method of resolving conflicts method,
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Behaviour
Behaviour was measured by using the Dealing with Challenging
Interaction (DCI) instrument. Teachers were asked to describe how they would act in seven central
interaction situations at their work. Each task consisted of a description of a common event at school and a
question where the respondent was asked to describe in a few lines
their possible reactions to that event. For example, in an event that involves Confronting the behaviour of a
student, the teacher was asked to describe what he/she would do or
say to a student who is sending text messages during the lesson,
which is against the rules in that school.
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Organizational results
There are questions of four categories: Social relations, Relations with
parents, Self-fulfilment and Lack of ill-being symptoms. Social relations category consists of the questions of teachers’
relationships with their students and colleagues. Questions about the relations with parents assess the quality of the
relationships between teachers and students’ parents. Self-fulfilment category consists of the questions assessing teachers’
possibilities to work according to his or her own capabilities and
abilities. With the questions of Lack of ill-being symptoms the psychosomatic
symptoms are assessed to reflect mental health issues Organisational results were measured by modifying the School Well-
being Profile (Konu 2005)copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Analyses
Correlations among scales in pre- and post-
measurements were calculated. With one-way Anova the significances of the changes in
the answers of the scales between the Pre TET test and
Post TET test were calculated In both time points the association of the scales and
background variables was examined with one-way Anova. The association between change scores and background
variables was examined in this way.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Between other background variables and measurement scales
Background variables: Gender, Working experience, Years worked in
the same school Permanency,Full-time/Part time
After TET the significant differences were found only between
Knowledge test and Permanency of work. Teachers with no
permanent work scored significantly better in Knowledge test
compared to those with a permanent job.
No other statistical differences were discovered.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Contrast of groups for Pre-TET Test and Post-TET Test
Comparison group Intervention group
Subject-matter teachers Subject-matter teachers Class teachers
Scales t (df) Cohen's d t (df) Cohen's d t (df) Cohen's d
Knowledge -2.37(25)* -0.36 10.46(22)*** 2.23 8.22(19)*** -2.19
Dealing with Challenging interaction (DCI)
Listening -1.00(25) -0.24 3.76(22)** 0.89 5.66(19)*** 1.83
Positive I-Mess. -0.33(25) -0.00 3.07(22)** 0.81 0.78(19) 0.22
Confront I-Mess. -0.76(25) -0.19 3.89(22)** 0.95 10.35(19)*** 2.38
Other I –Mess. 0.12(25) 0.18 1.44(22) 0.29 1.88(19) 0.62
Supporting autonomy 0.44(25) 0.00 3.19(22)** 0.78 2.34(19)* 0.62
Road blocks -0.57(25) -0.15 1.53(22) 0.42 -4.75(19)*** -1.40
Global rating -0.55(25) -0.14 3.73(22)** 1.17 13.27(19)*** 3.58
Social relations -0.20(24) -0.59 0.67(22) -0.10 1.41(15) -0.53
Relationships with p. -0.46(24) -0.10 -3.49(21)** -0.62 1.48(15) -0.38
Self-fulfillment 0.95(24) 0.16 -0.30(21) 0.00 2.22(15)* -0.40
Lack of ill-being sym -0.89 (24) -0.02 -0.51(21) -0.08 -1.35(15) -0.39
Results
Reactions: generally pleased with the course.Knowledge: significant improvement during TETBehaviour: significant improvement during TET in all
desired ways of interacting categories (except in Other I-Message and in Positive I-message among class teachers) including supporting autonomy and Global rating categories
Organisational results: Positive development in Self-fullfillment among class teachers and negative development among subject teachers during TET
Teachers of the comparison group did not show progress in any post test results. In Knowledge, a significant negative development was perceived.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
M(SD) N of the post- TET test
Measurement
scale
Number
of itemsα
Comparison
group
Subject-
matter
teachers
Class
teachers
Sig
.1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 DCI 5(10)a .81 0.09 (0.07) 26 0.27 (0.16) 23 0.47 (0.12) 20 *** 1
2 Knowledge
test8 .76 0.48 (0.39) 26 1.22 (0.39) 23 1.26 (0.43) 21 *** .66*** 1
3 Course
feedback10 .83 - 4.06 (0.33) 23 4.20 (0.42) 21 ns .16 .28 1
4 Social
relations15 .68 3.80 (0.49) 25 3.81(0.45) 23 3.71 (0.32) 16 ns -.07 .08 -.09 1
5 Relationships
with parents5 .66 3.32 (0.41) 25 3.19 (0.35) 22 3.81 (0.46) 16 *** .22 .07 .47** -.04 1
6 Self-fulfillm 21 .89 3.88 (0.35) 25 3.72 (0.39) 22 4.19 (0.49) 16 ** -.01 -.00 .28 .32* .46*** 1
7 Lack of ill-
being symptoms13 .88 3.92 (0.56) 25 3.51 (0.81) 22 3.96 (0.44) 16 * .01 .03 .20 .33** .21 .51*** 1
Psychometric Properties of the Measuring Scales and Intercorrelations (Pearson Correlation) among Them
Results
Teachers with a strong Self-fulfillment experienced that
their Social relations and Relationships with parents were
good. In addition, they reported less Ill-being symptoms Teachers who managed well in the Knowledge test
scored better in the DCI instrument. Teachers who felt the Relationships with parents being
positive gave positive Feedback about the TET course
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Reflections
The results of this study matched with the goals of the course. The participants showed progress on all the categories which are in the focus of the TET.
However, also the messages of supporting autonomy increased although it was not included explicitly in the course curriculum
According to the present study TET was an effective program to learn basic social and emotional skills among teachers.
The general aim of TET appears to be increasing constructive ways of communication, participatory, decision making and agency in both students and teachers.
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Reflections of limitations
Sample is small
There is no information that teachers’ behavior
really changes in challenging situations
The test right after the course is problematic
The attitude towards studying interaction skills
was positive
-
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
Further studies
Interaction in classroom video tape analyses
Academic achievement of students
Qualitative study of teachers’ new skills
copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
References
Aspegren, K. (1999). BEME Guide No. 2: Teaching and learning communication skills in
medicine-a review with quality grading of articles Medical Teacher, 21, 563 – 570.
Brown, R. F., & Bylund, C. L. (2008). Communication skills training: Describing a new
conceptual model. Academic Medicine, 83(1), 37-44.
Cegala, D. J., & Broz, S. L. (2002). Physician communication skills training: A review of
theoretical backgrounds, objectives and skills. Medical Education, 36(11), 1004-1016.
Deci, E. L. & Ryan, R. M. (2002). Overview of self-determination theory: an organismic
dialectical perspective. In E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-
determination research (pp. 3-36). University of Rochester Press
Elias, M. J., Zins, J. E., Weissberg, T. P., Frey, K. S., Greenberg, M. T., Haynes, N.M.,
Kessler, R., , Schwab-Stone, M. E., and Shriver, T. P. (1997). Promoting social and
emotional learning: Guidelines for educators. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com
References
Gordon, T. (2003). Teacher Effectiveness Training. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Kirkpatrick, D. L., & Kirkpatrick, J. D. (2006). Evaluating training programs: The four
levels. (Third ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Konu, A. (2005). School well-being profile. Retrieved May, 26, 2012, from
http://www10.edu.fi/hyvinvointiprofiili/info-eng.html
Lintunen, T. (2006). Social and emotional learning in the school physical education
context. In F. Boen, B. De Cuyper & J. Opdenacker (Ed.) Current research topics in
exercise and sport psychology in Europe. Leuven: Lannoo Campus, 25-33.
Leroy, N., Bressoux, P., Sarrazin, P., & Trouilloud, D. (2007). Impact of teachers' implicit
theories and perceived pressures on the establishment of an autonomy supportive
climate. European Journal of Psychology of Education 22(4), 529-545.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of
intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist,
55(1), 68. copyright: Markus Talvio, www.markustalvio.com