A Study of Primary School Students in Johor: The Role of Temperament and Teacher-Student Relationships in Student Engagement

Abstract

As students' engagement is a crucial component of their learning process, it is important to understand the factors that influence it. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged school closures and a shift to online learning, leading to learning loss. Student temperament and teacher-student relationships have been identified as two key factors that affect the quality of student engagement. This research aimed to examine the relationship between student temperament, teacher-student relationships, and student engagement in primary schools. The study employed a quantitative approach, using three questionnaires to collect data from 351 lower primary students selected through random sampling techniques. The analysis results showed that the respondents demonstrated moderate level of overall student temperament and high level of teacher-student relationship. The study results showed a weak positive correlation between student temperament and student engagement (r = 0.243, p < 0.01). Meanwhile, the study found a strong positive correlation between teacher-student relationship and student engagement (r = 0.740, p < 0.01). The findings indicate that teacher-student relationship is a much stronger predictor of student engagement in primary school, as compared to student temperament. One of the key implications of this study is that teachers can now better understand the significance of building positive teacher-student relationship in increasing the level of quality student engagement in schools.