Teachers' Interest in Students' Personal Development: The Creation of a New Survey Scale

• In Event: 31.091 - Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: 31.091-20 - Social and Emotional Learning Assessments

Abstract

Relationships between teachers and their students are paramount to student motivation and achievement (Martin & Dowson 2009). Despite this association, less is known regarding which aspects of teacher-student relationships have the most impact on students. In this paper, we describe the development of a survey scale to measure 6th-12th grade students’ perception of their teachers’ interest and investment in students’ personal development. Using Gehlbach and Brinkworth’s (2011) rigorous six-step process for survey development we improved measurement precision. Results from a study of 2,665 students from the state of North Carolina provide evidence that researchers and educators can now confidently use this tool to better understand this important aspect of teacher-student relationships.

Authors

• Julianne Viola, The University of Oxford

• Beth Schueler, Harvard University

• Joe McIntyre, Harvard University

• Hunter Gehlbach, University of California - Santa Barbara