Investigating Tertiary Level Teacher-Student Interactions in Fiji using the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)

The research reported in this inquiry consists of the application of a previously validated learning environment questionnaire developed in a western context to a culturally diverse context, namely, the Pacific Islands. The Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) instrument was administered to intact classes of first and second year science students (n=257) at a regional university in the Pacific Islands, catering for a total of 12 ethnicities. The data reveal that the QTI instrument holds good reliability for all scales, and this may be due to the simple nature of the questions on the QTI. Surprisingly, there were few differences in perceptions of teacher-student interaction based on ethnicity, but substantial differences based on gender; females perceived their environment more favourably than males. The data for the QTI reveal that the students perceive their classrooms to be highly teacher dominated, consistent with previous naturalistic studies of secondary schools and exploratory studies at the tertiary level in Fiji. Since almost all the graduates from this institution become science teachers, a cycle is completed.