From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
more frequent. Positive interaction declines somewhat over the transition
to senior cycle but plateaus in sixth year. Negative interaction declines
over the transition to senior cycle with a further decrease in sixth year.
Figure 2.15: Positive and negative teacher-student interaction across
year groups
2.7
2.5
2.3
2.1
Positive
Negative
1.9
1.7
1.5
1st year
(September)
1st year (May) 2nd year JC year 5th year LC year
Among sixth year students, negative interaction is more prevalent among
male students, those who had the lowest Junior Certificate scores and
those who did not take Transition Year. LCA students report the highest
level of positive interaction but also the highest level of negative interaction,
reflecting a greater degree of student-teacher interaction in their
smaller classes. The frequency of positive and negative interaction is
found to vary across individual schools. As might be expected, students
who report more positive interaction with teachers tend to be more positive
about school and their teachers (with correlations of 0.37 and 0.31
respectively). Those who report more negative interaction are less likely
to like school or their teachers (with correlations of -0.22 and -0.26 respectively).
It should be noted, however, that these relationships are not
very strong, indicating that attitudes to school and teachers are also influenced
by factors other than recent teacher-student interaction.
Analyses of the student cohort at junior cycle level indicated the strong
interrelationship between negative teacher-student interaction and student
misbehaviour, with a cycle of students ‘acting up’ and teachers ‘giving