Turkish University Students’ Perceptions of Their Lecturers’ Interpersonal Behaviour

The purpose of this study was to adapt an existing instrument for measuring teacher interpersonal behaviour, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), to the Turkish higher education context. The questionnaire maps behaviour in terms of two dimensions: Influence (dominance/submission) and Proximity (cooperation/opposition). These two dimensions structure interpersonal teacher behaviour into eight behavioural sectors or domains: leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, freedom, uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing behaviour and strictness. The instrument was constructed in two pilot rounds. A sample of 624 higher education students in 22 classes, together with their nine instructors, participated in the first round of the study; 250 students in 9 classes with their four instructors participated in the second round. Factor and consistency analyses supported reliability and validity of the instrument: Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scales were mostly above .70. Variance analyses showed that the scales were able to distinguish between classes and lecturers. Factor analyses indicated that two dimensions could be found in the data and that scales
were ordered in terms of the hypothesized model. Turkish lecturers were perceived by their students as very cooperative and somewhat dominant. Thus, the instrument can be used for future research in Turkish higher education.