ABSTRACT
Poor student-teacher interaction can decrease or destroy motivation to learn, increase student resistance and misbehavior, and intensify faculty frustration, continuing a negative cycle. But poor student-teacher interaction and lack of instructor motivation can also be the result of past negative experiences for both students and instructor. It aims to disentangle the relationships among learning, motivation, interaction, and student resistance and suggests solutions for improving student-teacher interactions, enhancing motivation to learn, and reducing student resistance. Students who report negative classroom experiences and a lack of motivation may have experienced little interaction or negative interactions with the instructor, including personal issues or teaching-related issues. More problematic are negative classroom experiences created by teacher misbehavior and teacher nonimmediacy. Negative experiences in class also carry forward in the shape of instructor attitudes or behaviors that can negatively affect future courses and students and may lead some instructors to reduce their emotional investment in teaching, faculty development, and mentoring.
