Descriptive Study on Grade 2 Pupils Relationship Behavior and School Adjustment As Perceived By Their Teachers: The Case of Jimma Zone, Oromia

Fisseha Mikre Weldmeskel, Nasser Aba-Milki

Abstract


The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ relationship behaviors as correlates of school adjustment; where relationship behavior denotes to closeness, dependency or conflicting interaction of a child as perceived by the classroom teacher and school adjustment refers to good academic performance, more positive attitude towards school and active involvement of the child with the school environment as perceived and reported by the teacher. Quantitative data on the teachers’ perceptions of the pupils’ relationship and school adjustment behaviors was collected from 26 self-contained classes for 446 grade two sampled students using standardized measures. The Ward’s method of cluster analysis resulted in the description of three distinct pupil relationship behaviors. These are the positively involved, functional average and negatively involved. Likewise, the one way analysis of variance computed for the three relationship behavior scores showed statistically significant variation among the three clusters that designates the presence of three distinct pupil’s relationship behaviors. In addition, the one way analysis of variance for the school adjustment scores among the three relationship types resulted in a statistically significant variation. The pupils whom the teachers reported to have positive relationship show close, warm and interactive relationship behaviors with their teachers. Moreover, they scored significantly higher in school adjustment measure than the pupils whom the teachers reported to have functional average and negative involvement in their relationship behavior. Furthermore, the Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis between pupil’s relationship behavior and school adjustment scores has revealed the presence of a strong positive and statistically significant association between the teacher-pupil relationship and the school adjustment measure.


Keywords


Relationship behavior; school adjustment; teacher perceptions; early relationships

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References


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