THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE RELEVANT AND IRRELEVANT TEACHER’S SELFDISCLOSURE: STUDENTS’ AND THEIR TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES

Abstract

Teacher self-disclosure (TSD) is called to be one of the most important elements of teacher-student communication in the classroom which has an impact on students learning, motivation and classroom atmosphere. Yet, it is still little known what kind of teacher’s disclosure is appropriate in the classroom. According to this, the aim of this study was to analyse the teachers’ and students’ attitudes on the appropriateness of the relevance of TSD. Study design – experiment in which 226 (124 female and 102 male) 10th-11th grade students and 51 (41 female and 10 male) teachers have participated. The results of the study have shown that, according to students and teachers, relevant TSD is more appropriate than irrelevant; teacher’s gender isn’t related to the appropriateness of his or her disclosure; male students who experience teacher’s disclosure more often, rate it as more appropriate; more disclosing teachers rate TSD as more appropriate than less disclosing teachers.