Development of the Competence Measure of Individual Teacher-Student Relationships (COMMIT): Insight Into the Attitudes, Knowledge, and Self-Efficacy of Pre-service Teachers

Liedewij F. N. Borremans,Jantine L. Spilt

doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.831468

Abstract

The importance of dyadic teacher-student relationships for both teachers and students is widely acknowledged. However, only limited research has explored how competent teachers feel in building these relationships. The current study aimed, first, to deepen the knowledge on relational competence by targeting teachers’ competence in building dyadic teacher-student relationships specifically. To this end, the Competence Measure of Individual Teacher-student relationships (COMMIT) was developed. This questionnaire is explicitly based on theories used in research on affective teacher-student relationships and addresses multiple aspects of competence (attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy). Second, as teacher education programs have been repeatedly criticized for not sufficiently targeting relational competencies, the current study focused on pre-service teachers’ perceived competence and aimed to explore differences in this competence across pre-service teachers in subsequent years of their teacher training. Criterion validity of the newly developed COMMIT was examined in a sample of pre-service teachers in pre-primary and primary teacher education programs (N = 535). Six subscales were created, addressing pre-service teachers’ attitude toward teacher-student relationships (1 scale), their knowledge of teacher-student relationships and coping (2 scales), and their self-efficacy beliefs with regard to building closeness, coping with conflict, and reflective functioning (3 scales). Results showed that pre-service teachers had a rather positive attitude toward teacher-student relationships, and felt quite knowledgeable and self-efficacious, yet not in all aspects of dyadic relationship-building. Results further revealed that pre-service teachers in the final year of teacher training felt more competent, yet, again, not for all aspects of dyadic relationship-building. Notably, differences between pre-service teachers in subsequent years of teacher education were less pronounced in primary compared to pre- primary teacher education programs. Suggestions for future research and implications for initial teacher training are discussed.

Highlights

The importance of the affective qualities of dyadic teacherstudent relationships, both for child development and teacher well-being, has repeatedly been demonstrated (e.g., McGrath and Van Bergen, 2015; Corbin et al, 2019)
Seeking a more profound understanding of teachers’ perceived competence in dyadic relationship-building and to explore differences between pre-service teachers in different phases of their teacher education in this competence, we developed a measure explicitly based on theories used in research on dyadic teacher-student relationships, which addresses multiple aspects of competence and includes both student-oriented competencies and teacheroriented competencies [e.g.,adaptive coping]
As pre-service teachers were found to often rely on maladaptive coping strategies (Gustems-Carnicer et al, 2019) and our results showed that almost half of pre-service teachers do not feel competent in coping with conflicts with students, we argue that teacher education curricula should focus more on teacher well-being in teacher-student relationships and address selfawareness, adaptive coping skills, and self-care

Summary

Introduction

The importance of the affective qualities of dyadic teacherstudent relationships, both for child development and teacher well-being, has repeatedly been demonstrated (e.g., McGrath and Van Bergen, 2015; Corbin et al, 2019). Close teacher-student relationships contribute to teachers’ self-efficacy, sense of personal accomplishment, job satisfaction, and professional motivation (Hagenauer et al, 2015; Zee et al, 2017; Corbin et al, 2019; Evans et al, 2019; Aboagye et al, 2020), whereas conflictual relationships are an important source of teacher stress and are predictive of burnout symptoms such as emotional exhaustion (Milatz et al, 2015; Corbin et al, 2019; Ansari et al, 2020b). Both teachers and students profit from close relationships, while both suffer from conflictual relationships. This study aimed to fill this gap and focused on teachers’ perceived competence in dyadic relationship-building, targeting pre-service teachers in (pre-) primary education programs

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion