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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR
AND STUDENT SCHOOL ANXIETY LEVELS1
BARRY
J.
ZIMMERMAN
University
of
Arizm
Current trends in anxiety research have centered on the development of scales
designed to measure this phenomenon with reference to the specific situations in
which
it
occurs. Of particular interest to the educator are attempts to measure
anxiety connected with the school setting. In this regard, a recent study by Schelkun
and Dunn (1967) found
a
substantial negative correlation
(T
=
-
.47) between stu-
dent school anxiety (SSA) and achievement test scores. These investigators employed
the 105-item School Anxiety Questionnaire (SAQ) which was developed by Bergan
(1968) and Dunn (1968) to measure five situationally defined types of SSA: test
anxiety, report card anxiety, recitation anxiety, failure anxiety, and success anxiety.
There is evidence that one of these types
of
SSA is amenable to conditioning pro-
cedures (e.g. Mann, 1969; Suinn, in press). Mann (1969) reduced test anxiety and
correspondingly raised achievement test scores in children
as
a result of variants
of Wolpe’s (1958) systematic desensitization technique which is predicated on the
conditioning principle
of
reciprocal inhibition. Since the school anxiety response
has been shown to be
a
conditionable behavior which has the propensity to inhibit
academic performance, it was selected to be the dependent variable for this in-
vestigation.
The variable of teacher classroom behavior has been the subject
of
much
scientific study in recent years. Flanders (1960) developed
a
ten-category quanti-
tative model to analyze teacher-student verbal behavior with some degree
of
re-
liability. This model, termed Interaction Analysis
(IA),
has made the study of the
effects of various patterns of teacher behavior possible. With respect to this model,
there is some evidence that certain patterns of teacher behavior which Hough
(1967) characterized
as
rewarding tended to facilitate student achievement and
attitudinal development (Flanders, 1964). Similarly teacher behavior character-
ized
as
punishing has been shown to inhibit student achievement
(Soar,
1967).
The conclusion drawn from the above research is that since teacher behavior
exerts reinforcement effects upon student behavior, and since the ‘(anxiety” re-
sponse can be manipulated according to conditioning principles, that the net level
of
teacher reward would correlate inversely with classroom levels
of
SSA.
METHOD
Subjects
The teacher was the sampling unit for this study. Three male and fourteen female teacher
volunteers, drawn from three elementary schools
in
Tucson, Arizona, served
as
Ss.
Teachers ranged
from two to thirty-two years
in
classroom experience and were
all
assigned to grades three through
six.
The classes were, predominantly, middle socioeconomic level and were heterogeneously-grouped
in ability. The SSA results are based on the
443
children taught by the teachers studied.
Procedure
Eight classroom observers were instructed
in
the use
of
Flanders’ model and achieved an inter-
observer Scott
(1955)
reliability coefficient of
.83
during the training. Periodic reliability checks,
IT&
investigation was supported by.the Arizona Early Childhood Education Laboratory, Marie
M.
Hu
ha,
Diredm,
and
EPIC
Evaluation Center and
WBS
performed persuant to
a
contract with
the
U.
b.
Office of Education, Department
of
Health, Education, and Welfare.