College Students' Perceptions of the Student-Teacher Relationship

<p>Humans, as social creatures, pursue relationships with others to fulfill various needs. As such, when we enter school, we naturally seek to establish relationships with teachers, who act as significant individuals in our lives. In general, research has shown that students with close, warm relationships with their teachers tend to experience more favorable outcomes related to academic achievement, behavior, and social-emotional factors. Students with more negative relationships with their teachers conversely tend to experience poorer outcomes. Though decades of research have consistently shown this correlation, few studies have examined the relationships between college students and their professors. The current study aimed to fill this gap in the literature by evaluating the student-teacher relationship in college students, as well as the factors that contribute to differences in this relationship. College students reported on their relationships with their professors using the Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory, Other-to-Self form. It was expected that students who reported higher self-esteem, self-efficacy, academic commitment, and internal locus of control would also report having better quality STRs with their professors. Academic commitment was the single best predictor of STR quality for college students, though it was negatively correlated with STR quality. This indicated that students who were more academically committed were less likely to have close relationships with their professors.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy - School Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Human Services

Year dc:date.available

2024

Author dc:creator

• Biggs, Lauren E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Nina Ellis-Hervey
• Dr. Luis Aguerrevere
• Dr. Jaime Flowers

• school psychology
• student-teacher relationship
• college
• relationship quality

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/556

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.sfasu.edu:etds-1577