Bridging Perspectives: The Impact of Teacher and Student Ratings of Social-Emotional and Instructional Characteristics on Student Outcomes

Teachers' social-emotional and instructional (SEI) characteristics shape classroom functioning and student outcomes, yet most research relies exclusively on teacher self-reports, potentially overlooking discrepancies between teachers' self-perceptions and students' lived experiences. This study addresses this gap by examining: (1) agreement between teacher self-ratings and student evaluations across 16 SEI characteristics, (2) associations between student-rated teacher characteristics and student well-being, and (3) optimal levels of teacher behaviors using Too Little/Too Much (TLTM) scaling methodology. Data were collected from 143 secondary school teachers and 1,993 students (ages 11-20) in Flanders, Belgium. Teachers completed self-evaluations of their SEI characteristics, while students rated their teachers using identical items and reported on their own well-being. Results revealed weak to moderate agreement between teacher and student ratings (ICCs: -.02 to .19), with teachers and students differing significantly in their latent mean ratings. Multilevel analyses showed that 9% of variance in student well-being was attributable to teacher-level factors. Four student-rated teacher characteristics showed significant curvilinear associations with student well-being: emotional self-regulation, teaching tempo, trust in students, and growth mindset beliefs. These inverted U-shaped relationships suggest that moderate levels optimize student well-being, while both deficits and excesses relate to poorer outcomes. Notably, teacher self-ratings did not predict student outcomes. These findings underscore the value of student perspectives in evaluating teaching quality and suggest that effective teaching requires balancing rather than maximizing certain behaviors.