Correlational Analysis of Verbal Interactions During the Consultative Interview and Consultees' Subsequent Perceptions

We examined the relation of consultants' and consultees' verbal behavior during the problem identification interview (PII) to consultees' perceptions. 20 teachers engaged with 1 of 2 consultants in 15-min PIIs about a classroom problem. Verbal interaction patterns of the consultant and the consultee during each PII were coded according to Bergan and Tombari's system. After the PII, teachers responded to a 35-item questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the interview. Correlational analyses showed that favorable ratings of the interview were related significantly to the numbers of consultees' inference statements, consultants' positive validation statements, and consultees' statements describing behavior followed by consultants' positive validation. Implications for consultants' behavior during the PII are discussed.