Does teacher behaviour matter? The relation between perceived teacher behaviour and students' adaptive error responses

Abstract

Teachers serve as role models in dealing with errors. They play a crucial role in creating a positive error climate in the classroom. Students with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) make more errors during learning activity, tend to dysregulate error-specific emotions, and are more likely to receive negative teacher feedback. In particular, externalizing behaviour problems are a risk factor for maladaptive individual error processing. Consequently, it is of significant interest to examine the students' perception of teacher behaviours in addressing errors, particularly in terms of the degree of adaptivity of individual error responses. For the first time, students with EBD attending German special schools were asked to provide their perceptions of error handling in the classroom. A total of 279 adolescents completed a questionnaire. The results of a path analysis indicate that the absence of negative teacher reactions and teacher support following errors have a significant direct effect on the adaptivity of individual error responses. The study recommends that teachers adopt positive responses and teacher support to promote students' adaptive individual error responses. In order to acquire professional error competence, teachers must develop an understanding of social–emotional competencies in children and adolescents related to error management in students with EBD.