european journal of social sciences issn: 1450-2267 - EuroJournals

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 5, Number 3 (2007)
McCroskey, 1987; Richmond, McCroskey, Kearney, & Plax, 1987), the effectiveness of the teacher
(Anderson, 1979), interactions between the student and teacher (Andersen, Norton, & Nussbaum,
1981), and general student performance (Matsumoto, Garside, & Roberts, 1991). The current study
focuses on student perception 2 of a teacher and how that influences student module outcome (i.e., final
class grade).
While a vast generalisation, it is useful to categorise groups when studying behaviour based on
cultural boundaries (Geertz, 1973). According to Geertz, researchers should acknowledge that culture
may only be understood from the starting point of one’s own culture. For the purposes of this research,
culture is used to mean a set of cohesive behaviours (Holliday, 1999). A distinction is made in the
current research between Eastern (Confucian heritage culture) and Western (Socratic style) learning
environments. Certainly there are differences in Confucian teachings between China and Japan or
Korea, for instance, or Socratic in the USA vs. the Netherlands, but for the purposes of this study 3 , the
divide is made between Eastern and Western style education. This is not to claim that there is
homogeneity among Western or Eastern teaching behaviours; rather, it is that in this paper, ‘culture’
will be defined by Eastern (Confucian heritage culture) and Western (Socratic style) environments, as
described by the research reviewed below. These distinctions have been made by others as well (e.g.,
Watkins & Biggs, 2001; Watkins & Biggs, 1996).
Salili (2001) claims that while there has been a good deal of investigation into Western studentteacher
interaction, fairly little research has been conducted in Chinese schools. According to Biggs
and Watkins (2001), good teaching is viewed in the West as teaching using a repetitious, teacherdominated
room. This is not to say that nothing is known about the Chinese classroom, however, it
appears from a review of the literature that a good deal of knowledge is based on the ideals of
Confucius along with individual studies, as opposed to any meta-analytic ones (see for example
Watkins & Biggs, 2001; Watkins & Biggs, 1996).
Communication and final grades
Undoubtedly, students perceive and develop impressions of a teacher’s behaviours in part through the
teacher’s style of communication. That is, depending on the way a teacher communicates effects the
impression the student has of him/her. Van Tartwijk (1993), using a classroom-observation instrument,
found that 63% of behaviours in a classroom are accounted for by the students reported perceptions of
their teacher. If the way the teacher communicates is indeed related to student perception, it is
important to understand how varying communication patterns influence student outcome (e.g., grades).
Research indicates that teachers can make a valuable contribution towards creating a positive learning
environment in classes (Christophel, 1990; Richmond, 1990). This is done through teacher interaction
and/or communication with students (Wubbels & Levy, 1993). It logically follows then that the greater
the teacher-student interaction and the more positive that interaction is, than the better the learning
environment for the student and perhaps, the higher are the final grades. In fact, regardless of the
taxonomy of teacher behaviours, this was found to be the case in the four studies named above.
Understanding/Friendly
Studies conducted in three countries, the Netherlands, U.S., and Australia, have shown that friendly,
helpful, and understanding behaviour from teachers is related to both higher cognitive outcomes as
well as positive student attitudes (Fisher, Henderson, & Fraser, 1995; Fisher & Rickards, 1997;
Wubbels & Levy, 1993). Similarly, other researchers found that when lecturers created an open and
friendly atmosphere adult learners perceive the teachers as being more effective (Comadena, Semlak,
2 There are many ways to study perception (observation, interviews, qualitative techniques, etc.). In the current study, perception is measured by a
quantitative scale and is paired with gender and culture
3 This study is using London and South East Asian populations.
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