Gender and Teacher-Student Interactions in Middle School Science

The interpersonal interaction between teachers andstudents comprises a large part of the classroomlearning environment and can greatly influencestudent attitudes and achievement. Past research hasshown that a key factor in improving studentachievement and attitudes is to create learningenvironments which emphasize characteristics that arelinked empirically with achievement and attitudes.The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) wasused to investigate outcome-environment associationsand to compare male and female students in terms oftheir attitudes classroom environment perceptionsand achievement. A modified form of the TOSRAmeasured students' attitudes to science. Students'quarterly (nine-week) science grade was used tomeasure student achievement. A strong relationshipwas found between student outcomes (attitudes andachievement) and many of the eight QTI scales. Genderdifferences in students' perceptions of teacherinterpersonal behavior attitudes towards scienceand science achievement were also revealed. Ingeneral relative to males female students had morepositive perceptions of teacher interpersonalbehavior and higher academic achievement