A Multidimensional Model of Teacher-Student Interaction Styles

The aim of the research is to identify the parameters for a multidimensional model of teacher-student interaction styles in the framework of the teacher's management activity. Literature analysis shows that all the models of teacher-student interaction styles can be divided into two groups according to the ways of classification criteria distribution. The first group comprises onedimensional models which assign certain characteristics to the teacher leadership styles. The example of such an approach is the traditional classification of styles into authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire modes of teacher's behavior. The other group of classifications of teacher-student interaction styles includes two-dimensional models. They use two parameters in different combinations to result in four leadership styles. The author states that teacher-student interaction is so complex and multi-level that two criteria are not enough to describe teacher leadership styles. She proposes a multidimensional model of teacher-student interaction styles based on six components of teacher's organizational activities: target, stimulation and motivation, content, operation, control and regulation, assessment. According to these components, the author identified six parameters of teacher-student interaction styles which a teacher can exhibit to a different extent within the two opposite characteristics: 1) formulation of tasks to learners (implicitly - explicitly), 2) stimulation of learners' autonomy (directive behavior - delegating behavior), 3) variability of content (predetermined -available for choice), 4) interaction with students (detachment - involvement), 5) intensity of control (continuous - dispersed), 6) type of assessment (standard - essence-based). All the six parameters are independent dimensions of an individual teacher-student interaction style. To empirically verify the proposed multidimensional model of teacher leadership styles, a questionnaire was developed. It consists of 18 statements, three statements assessing each parameter. The display of characteristics was measured by values with assigned numbers: ‘never' -2, ‘no rather than yes' -1, ‘sometimes' 0, ‘yes rather than no' +1, ‘always' +2. The values -2 and +2 are the extreme poles of the behavior characteristics. The arithmetic average was counted out of the three answers on each parameter. According to the survey of school teachers, individual teacher-student interaction styles comprise characteristics of different polarity. The proposed multidimensional model of teacher-student interaction styles is a flexible, variational and open system.