HomePhilippine Journal of Counseling Psychologyvol. 18 no. 1 (2016)

The Relationship of Teacher Behavior with Student Engagement in School among High Ability Students

Dorothy Joann Lei O. Labrador

 

Abstract:

Literature is rich in explaining the link between teacher behaviors and student engagement although inconsistent in understanding dimensions of learning-relevant teacher behaviors as perceived by high ability students. To investigate on this, the present study conducted a non-experimental cross-sectional descriptive analysis on the responses of 353 high ability Filipino students from public high schools on the teacher behaviors that are optimal to their learning and their level of student engagement in three aspects – affective, behavioral, and cognitive. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a four-factor structure of learning-relevant teacher behaviors as perceived by Filipino high ability students – instrumental help, emotional support, positive reinforcement, and equitability. Standard regression analyses revealed that this four-factor model is statistically associated with student engagement with emotional support as the most consistent and biggest contributor to the relationship. Implications and cultural backdrop of students are also discussed.