Enhancing Student-teachers' Learning and Reflection on Their Interpersonal Classroom Behaviour

This project aimed at enhancing student-teachers’ interpersonal relationships in the classroom by arousing their awareness of these relationships from their own perspective and from their pupils’ perspective. Twenty-one student-teachers participated in two cycles of action learning to identify their patterns of interpersonal classroom behaviour. Each cycle involved completing the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), soliciting feedback from pupils and reflecting on the profiles constructed from the QTI. Results indicated that student-teachers were perceived as exhibiting more leadership, friendliness and understanding than uncertain, dissatisfied and admonishing behaviour. Some changes in student-teachers’ interpersonal behaviour were identified from cycle 1 to cycle 2 of action learning. Feedback solicited from student-teachers indicated that the project enhanced their professional development and contributed to their understanding of interpersonal classroom behaviour in classroom interactions.