An Analysis of Sex Differences in Teacher-Student Interaction as Manifest in Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior Cues

Purpose

The purpose of this investigation was to analyze sex differences in teacher-student interaction as manifest in verbal and nonverbal behavior cues.

Procedure

Four female fifth and sixth-grade teachers and 105 gifted students (53 males and 52 females) were the subjects whose verbal and nonverbal behavior was recorded on 16 videotapes during 16 forty-minute class sessions. Following randomization, 8,648 behavior cues were coded on a matrix designed to accommodate a modified version of the French and Galloway IDER system of behavior analysis. Special reference was made to the sex differential as identified in the two categories of the system which specify teacher-initiated and student-initiated student talk. Thirteen null hypotheses were subjected to chi square tests for significance of difference.

Findings

Ten of the 13 null hypotheses were rejected. Although the percentages and ratios of the three exceptions indicated a tendency to differentiate, the differences were not statistically significant. In summary, the results were as follows: The female teachers of the fifth and sixth-grade gifted students initiated significantly more talk with male students than with female students; discriminated significantly between male and female students in favor of the male; tended to exhibit more restricting behavior toward female than toward male students; and exhibited more indirectness than directness and encouraging than restricting behavior toward both male and female students. Male students initiated talk with the female teacher significantly, more often than did female students.

Conclusions

Within its scope and limitations, the analysis derived the following conclusions:

1. There were manifest sex differences in teacher-student interaction in the classroom.

2. There was an apparent relationship between teacher-student sex differential and student docility.

3. There was an apparent relationship between sex differential in teacher-student interaction and teacher effectiveness.

4. There was an apparent relationship between sex differential in teacher-student interaction and student participation.

5. Students of the same sex as the teacher demonstrated more passivity in teacher-student verbal and nonverbal interaction than students of the opposite sex.

6. Opposite sex teachers manifested greater flexibility in teacher-student verbal and nonverbal behavior than teachers of the same sex as the student.

7. Opposite sex students responded more often to the teacher than students of the same sex as the teacher.

8. Opposite sex students initiated responses with the teacher more often than did same sex students.

9. Teachers tended to exhibit restricting behavior more often toward same sex students than toward opposite sex students.