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In studying development of teachers in secondary education we specifically address teacher interpersonal expertise, the ability of teachers to create, foster, and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships in classrooms. Focus in the present project is on teacherstudent relationships. The teacher-student relationship is an important factor in explaining the effectiveness of classrooms for student learning (Den Brok, Brekelmans, & Wubbels, 2004; Cornelius-White, 2007; Davis, 2003; Pace & Hemmings, 2007; Pianta, 2006). For teachers, positive relationships with students are central to teachers’ self-efficacy and ability to teach well in all phases of the teaching professional career (Day, Stobart, G., Sammons, P., Kington, A., Qing, G., Smees, R., et al. 2006).

Ericsson, Charness, Feltovich, and Hoffman (2006) described expertise as an adaptation to task demands and an expert as someone with highly superior …