EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS AND INTERACTION STYLE OF IN-SERVICE TEACHERS (PILOT STUDY)

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to examine the executive functions and interaction style of in-service teachers in Slovakia. A total of 114 in-service teachers aged 23 – 63 (M = 43.11; SD = 8.91) and practice from 0 to 40 years (M = 17.65; SD = 9.49) participated in the study. Executive skills (plan management, time management, organization, emotional regulation, and behavioural regulation) were measured by The Executive Skills Questionnaire-Revised (Strait et al., 2020). Preferred interaction style (leadership, helpful, understanding, student-teacher responsibility, uncertain, dissatisfied, objecting, and strict) was measured by a revised self-reported version of Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (Wubbels & Levy, 2005). The most strongly developed executive functions were plan management and organization. The most preferred interaction styles were helpful, understanding, student-teacher responsibility and leadership. There was no correlation between behavioural regulation and executive skills, nor between strict interaction style and executive skills. Other executive skills correlated positively with interaction style leadership and helpful (r = .214 – .476) and negatively with understanding interaction style (r = .299 – .447). Plan management, organization and emotional regulation skills were negatively associated with dissatisfied (r = .282 – .318) and objecting (r = .250 – .418) interaction style. Finally, understanding interaction styles related positively to plan management (r = .200) and emotional regulation (r = .298), and student-teacher responsibility related to time management (r = .204). The connection of weak executive skills and dissatisfied and objecting interaction styles should be an incentive to support executive skills development already during pre-graduate training of teachers.