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The purposes of this study were to describe the validation of a new instrument, the Teacher Communication Behaviour Questionnaire (TCBQ) and to show its use in assessing students' perceptions of their interactions with their teachers by focusing on their teachers' communicating behaviors. Participants were 1,202 students in grades 7 through 9 from 30 science classes in Taiwan. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in the development and validation process, and the questionnaire was then used to study the teachers' behaviors and their associations with students' perceptions and attitudes toward science and science academic achievement. Results show that all five scales of the TCBQ have satisfactory internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, and factor validity. There were strong associations between the scales of the instrument and students' attitudes toward science. Two of the scales were associated with cognitive achievement. This instrument adds to research on teacher-student interactions by focusing on the use of challenging questioning to promote students' creative thinking ability and the use of verbal and nonverbal feedback to enhance students' attitude toward science and their academic achievement outcomes. (Contains 5 tables and 22 references.) (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to describe the validation of a new instrument called the Teacher Communication Behavior Questionnaire (TCBQ). This instrument is meant for use in assessing students' perceptions of their interactions with their teacher by focusing on their teachers' communicating behaviors. The study described in this paper occurred in secondary science classrooms in Taiwan. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used in the development and validation processes of the TCBQ. The questionnaire was then used to investigate Taiwanese secondary science teachers' behaviors and their associations with students' perceptions and attitudes toward science and science academic achievement. Results indicate that all five scales of the TCBQ were found to display satisfactory internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, and factor validity. There were strong associations between the scales of the instrument and students' attitudes about science, and two of the scales were associated with cognitive achievement. This instrument has added an additional aspect to research on teacher-student interactions by focusing on the use of verbal and non-verbal feedback to enhance students' attitudes toward science and their academic achievement outcomes. Contains 22 references. (Author/WRM)

A cross-national study of learning environments in Taiwan and Australia is one example of research that employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper describes the part of that study related to the development and validation of an instrument called the Teacher Student Interaction (TSI) which assess student perceptions of teacher behavior. After using the questionnaire with groups of students, the data were quantitatively analyzed, the questionnaire validated, and quantitative descriptions of teacher behavior obtained. To further validate the questionnaire and understand the teacher interactions according to the perceptions of students, a qualitative approach was used. Students were interviewed and the researchers visited and observed in science classrooms. (DDR)

This study reports on the development and validation of a questionnaire to assess student perceptions of the teacher-student interaction in Taiwan and Australia. The questionnaire is part of a cross-national study of science classroom environments in Taiwan and Australia. The questionnaire contains five domains: (1) higher-order questioning behavior; (2) encouragement and praise behavior; (3) non-verbal supportive behavior; (4) understanding and friendly behavior; and (5) strict behavior. The development process included the translation of the Chinese version into English, the back translation of the English version into Chinese again by people not involved in the original translation, and subsequent changes to wording where necessary. Following the translation, a pilot study was conducted in both countries which included interviews with students about their comprehension and interpretation of individual items in the questionnaire. Refinements were made to the questionnaire based on statistical analyses the interviews. Administration of the questionnaire to a total of 100 grade 7-9 science classes (N=2,397) from both Taiwan and Australia supported each scale's internal consistency, reliability, and validity. Contains 11 references. (Author/JRH)