Exploring the direction of developing a teacher-student relationship scale for teachers through focus group interviews

Objectives This study seeks to explore the direction of developing a teacher-student relationship scale as perceived by teachers. Methods For this purpose, focus group interviews were conducted with six elementary and middle school teachers who are field education experts. FGI was conducted in four stages: planning, recruitment, progress, analysis, and reporting. In the planning stage, an interview questionnaire, which was a research tool, was constructed. At the research participant recruitment stage, six people were selected as research subjects according to the selection criteria. Interviews were conducted at the proceeding stage. In the analysis and reporting stage, the collected data were analyzed. Results The results derived through FGI are as follows. First, the teacher-student relationship is one of positive interaction based on trust. And it was said that among the many relationships a teacher has, the relationship with students is the most important. Second, components such as listening, intimacy, immediate feedback, accessibility, respect and acceptance, and trust were extracted. In addition, the teacher's professional and human areas were divided into evaluation items. Third, matters to be considered when developing a teacher-student relationship scale were presented in terms of content and method. It was also reported that it can be used as basic data for teachers' self-understanding and self-inspection. Conclusions The significance of this study is to explore the direction of developing a teacher-student relationship scale as perceived by teachers in the future based on an in-depth analysis of FGI.