The present study examines the development of a measure tapping students’ perceptions of (pre-service) teachers’ teaching behaviour to explore the practical value of such a measure in teacher education and teacher professional development programs. From a sample of 1,635 students of 91 pre-service teachers teaching in secondary education in The Netherlands, random subsamples of 809 students of 45 teachers and of 826 students of 46 teachers were used for analyses. Classical test analyses were used as a preliminary approach prior to utilizing Rasch modelling to the data. Additionally, multilevel analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of the measure on student academic engagement as an external criterion. Results revealed that a shortened and representative measure of teachers’ behaviour meets the requirements of the Rasch model sufficiently. In addition, the predictive quality of the shortened measure was confirmed. Implications of findings for research and educational practices were discussed.

This study was designed to investigate the distribution of interpersonal profiles based on students' and teachers' perceptions and to examine the associations between students' perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour and learning motivation in Indonesia. Participants were 1900 secondary school students (grades 7 to 9) across 66 (Mathematics and EFL) classes from 11 public schools in Indonesia. The results show that a variety of interpersonal profiles could be distinguished, that teachers perceive themselves more favourably than their students do, and that students' perceptions of teacher interpersonal behaviour and their learning motivation are associated. Influence and Proximity were found to be important determinants of student motivation; both dimensions are related to a more autonomous motivation, while Influence is also associated with a more controlled motivation. Contrary to the existing knowledge base, this study reveals that the relationship between teacher interpersonal behaviour and student motivation is more strongly connected to Influence than to Proximity.

Observations and student perceptions are recognised as important tools for examining teaching behaviour, but little is known about whether both perspectives share similar construct representations and how both perspectives link with student academic outcomes. The present study compared the construct representation of preservice teachers’ teaching behaviour as perceived by trained teacher observers and students. It also examined the predictive power of both measures of teaching behaviour for student academic engagement. The theoretical framework of teaching behaviour used in this study is based on evidence-based research derived from empirical teacher effectiveness research. The study was part of a national project that included 2164 students and 108 teachers in The Netherlands. Results suggest that, although observations and student perceptions of teaching behaviour shared similar theoretical considerations, the construct representations seemed to differ to some extent. Furthermore, although both perspectives are significant predictors of student academic engagement, student perceptions appeared to be more predictive of their perceived academic engagement than observations. Implications for research on learning environments and teacher education are discussed.

Self-determination theory (SDT) posits that teacher autonomy, competence, and relatedness support are crucial universal promotors for students’ interest in learning, which is in line with the general aims of positive education. This study examines the relationship between the three dimensions of students’ perception of Indonesian teachers´ autonomy, competence, and relatedness support and students’ perceived autonomous motivation in secondary education (Grades 10–12). Particularly the relative importance of the three dimensions of teacher support on two types of autonomous motivation (identified versus intrinsic) were explored. The three dimensions of teacher support (N teacher = 202) were measured with the Teacher as Social Context questionnaire, and the Questionnaire on Motivational Dimension was used to measure the students’ autonomous motivation (N students = 4396). Results show that teacher autonomy, competence, and relatedness support are all related to the Indonesian students’ autonomous motivation. Compared to findings from the Western context, the relative importance of autonomy support was shown to be less salient. This is in line with some other Asian studies. The relative importance of autonomy support seems to vary amongst different countries within Asia. We conclude that the three teaching support dimensions are relevant for autonomous motivation of Indonesian students, which confirms the applicability of SDT for the Indonesian context.