Application of a Questionnaire to Describe Teacher-Students Communication Behaviour in a University in Turkey

Teachers contribute enormously to a positive social climate in science classes, particularly through their
communication with students. In the study described in this article, a questionnaire (The Teacher Communication
Behaviour Questionnaire (TCBQ)) developed by She and Fisher (2000) was used. TCBQ can be used to assess
students' perceptions of science teachers' interpersonal communication behaviours in their classroom learning
environments. TCBQ has five scales: Challenging, Encouragement and Praise, Non-Verbal Support, Understanding
and Friendly, and Controlling. The TCBQ was used with a large sample of a university’ students in Turkey. Girl
students perceived more of these communication behaviours in their teachers than did the boy students. There were
statistically significant differences (p<0.0001) on four of the five scales of the TCBQ between teachers’ gender.
Statistically significant differences were not found among different grade classes. Teachers in biological and
chemistry science classrooms exhibited more favourable behaviour toward their students than did those in physical
science classrooms.