THE IMPACT OF TEACHER-STUDENT INTERACTIONS ON STUDENT MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT
Teachers who take time to create classroom environments that promote positive cultures can motivate students to channel their energies and desires to reach their goals. Using Vroom’s Expectancy Theory as theoretical framework of this study, the researcher explored as to what extent teachers and students differ in their perceptions of teacher-student interaction and their relationships to student motivation and achievement. Based on the expectancy theory, individuals are motivated by the desire to experience positive instead of negative outcomes. In this study, the researcher conceptualized the importance of classroom environments that promote healthy teacher-student interactions. Descriptive-correlational method was used to find out the extent of relationships between and among the variables included in the study. A sample of 175 or 55% of teacher education students and 61% of their teachers were involved in the study. Two sets of modified questionnaires were used to gather data about teacher-student interactions and motivation strategies with reliability index of 0.80. Paired samples test on teacher-student interactions did not show significant difference t (.091) df (10) as perceived by both students and teachers. The relationships between teacher-students’ interaction and motivation and between achievement and motivation were not statistically significant. However, Pearson r indicated a significant relationship at 0.01 level between teacher-students’ interaction and achievement. The findings of this study imply that the continuing professional development of faculty may include workshops to share best practices in building positive relationships that can influence student achievement and motivation.
impact, teacher-student interaction, student motivation, achievement