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In the classroom environment, the interpersonal relationship between teacher and students is an important element contributing to the learning process of students. In this chapter, we explore the significance of the experience of the teacher in realising relationships with students, appropriate from the perspective of student outcomes. We use data from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study to analyse differences between teachers in degree of dominant and co-operative behaviour in different stages of their professional career.

The results show that teachers' ideals of the teacher–student relationship are rather stable during the teaching career; they consistently strive for a high degree of dominance and co-operativeness. The actual teacher–student relationship however changes during the career. On average, there is a significant increase in dominant behaviour of teachers during the first decade of their career: a …