The focus of this study was to get insight into how accurate students in secondary education extract interpersonal information from teacher behaviour. Students’ aggregated judgments of interpersonal behaviour based on short video fragments of teachers they were unacquainted with (n = 375), were examined in relation to judgments of students who knew the teacher for at least one year (n = 250). Based on 5 minutes video fragments students were asked to complete a version of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI-SIT). The original QTI measures student interpersonal perceptions of behaviour using a circumplex with Influence and Proximity as underlying dimensions (Wubbels et al., 2006). The judgments of unacquainted students predicted those of students who were acquainted with the teacher quite well. Also the general interpersonal perception of the teachers’ behaviour (QTI), as it was measured in the acquainted classes one month in advance to the presentation of the video fragment, was predicted rather well by the students who were unacquainted with the teacher. Individual interpersonal perceptions of unacquainted students however, seemed to be hardly related with QTI scores in acquainted classes at all.

The main focus of this study is whether unacquainted students’ interpersonal perception of teacher behaviour, based on 5 minutes video fragments, resemble those perceptions of students who know the teacher for at least a year. We conceptualize student’s interpersonal perceptions by a circumplex model of interpersonal behaviour (Wubbels et al., 2006). This model states that interpersonal perceptions can be organized around a circle configured around two orthogonal dimensions. We call these dimensions Influence and Proximity. Aggregated student perceptions are interpreted as the teacher-class relationship or class climate. Research has shown that the relationship between teacher and class is an important factor and in many ways enabling aspect for effective teaching.

It is often assumed that it takes several weeks for a teacher-class relationship is fully developed. The first time a new teacher enters the class, students are theorized to have a notion of the teacher, based on general expectations, gossip and stereotypes. The perception of the teacher students have is supposed to be altered and fine-tuned by what students perceive during the following lessons. Thus, the process of becoming acquainted is conceptualised in terms of progressive altering and fine tuning of pictures perceptions of students. These ideas reflect basic assumptions of well known Continuum Model of Impression Formation. However, research conducted within the Thin Slices Paradigm draws a somewhat different picture, the paradigm was used for example to predict evaluative outcomes of teachers on the basis of video fragments as short as one minute (in some studies even shorter). These studies show that annual teacher evaluations are resembled quite accurately by judgements of unacquainted students. Further, teacher differential behaviours were inferred from thin video slices quite well. Thus, it might be very well possible that students form their impressions of teachers rather fast. The common assumption sketched above, that a period of becoming acquainted might last as long as several weeks, might be exaggerated. Attending one lesson or even less than that may be enough to form an interpersonal perception of a teacher that resembles those of students who know the teacher quite well (e.g. longer than one year). Another fact that might contradict the idea of a gradual development of class climate that takes several weeks is that consensus of interpersonal perceptions within a group of judges (e.g. a class) seems not to grow through time (Kenny, 2004). According to Kenny, on the one hand agreement between perceivers increases because they get to know the person perceived, but on the other hand, agreement decreases because the effect of shared aspects of person perceptions such as stereotypes diminishes. Increase and decrease in consensus or agreement are theorized to cancel each other out. According to Kenny, consensus at zero acquaintance is due to shared stereotypes.

A quasi experimental design was used to compare the judgment (sores on the QTI-SIT) of video fragments of two groups of students. Five fragments with each a different teachers were used as stimuli. In the experimental condition students (n = 375, aggregated in 15 classes) were unacquainted with the teacher shown in the fragment. In the control condition however, students (n = 225, aggregated in 10 classes) were well acquainted with the teacher in the fragment, that means they had been taught by that teacher for at least 1 year. Students in the experimental condition were primed with subject taught by the teacher, sex, and an age indication (‘younger teacher’ versus ‘older teacher’) in order to resemble an ecological valid situation and were asked to complete the QTI-SIT after they had watched the video fragment. In order to prevent memory effects, the stimulus material was taped in classes that were not included as subjects but that were well acquainted with the teacher. Thus, each fragment represented a new situation for both, the experimental and the comparison group. As an additional criterion variable the original version of the QTI was completed by the control group for the teacher in the fragment one month in advance of judging the fragments. Students in the experimental and control condition were recruited from matched schools in different cities in the Netherlands.

Preliminary results of regression analyses show that aggregated judgments based on 5 minutes fragments of teacher behaviour by unacquainted students predict those of students who were acquainted with the teacher quite well. Also the general interpersonal perception of the teachers’ behaviour (QTI scores) as it was measured in the acquainted classes is predicted rather well by aggregated judgments of students who were unacquainted with the teacher. However, individual judgments predict aggregated perceptions of acquainted students poorly. Further, consensus of acquainted and unacquainted classes bear a resemblance to an extend usually found in literature.

In conclusion, we believe our findings support the idea that interpersonal perceptions of teachers’ behaviour can be rather accurate on the basis of short fragments of behaviour, at least at class level. Further, it maybe questionable indeed that the establishment of any teacher-class relationship takes at minimum several weeks, on the other hand of course, this process might take longer than just a few minutes as well. Regarding our findings and those gained in Thin Slices research it is reasonable to suppose that the relationship between teacher and class (e.g. the class climate) might be established quite fast. The question is whether this holds for students’ idiosyncratic interpersonal perceptions as well.

Kenny, D. A. (2004). "PERSON: A General Model of Interpersonal Perception." Personality and Social Psychology Review 8(3): 265-280.

Wubbels, Th., Brekelmans, M., Brok, P. den, & Tartwijk, J. (2006). An interpersonal perspective on Classroom Management in Secondary Classrooms in the Netherlands. In C. Evertson & C Weinstein (Eds.) Handbook of classroom management: Research, Practice, and Contemporary Issues, (pp. 1161-1191). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.