Friday 9 May 2014

What Are The Developmental Differences Associated With Teacher-Child Relationships?

Teacher-student relationships are as important to adolescents as they are to younger students. Feeling a connection and sense of relatedness to a teacher represents an essential need of all children and teens ( Gregory & Ripski,2008). How ever, it is worth nothing that the nature of positive teacher-student relationships changes depending on the age of child involved. In the other words, the precise behaviors that might be perceived by a kindergarten child as nurturing and caring (e.g ; a doting smile, a one-armed hug) might be perceived by a kindergarten child as nurturing and caring      

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Building Positive Teacher Student Relationship In Classroom.

When first grade teachers use practices that demonstrate caring toward students and practices that foster interpersonal skills among students, students are less likely to reject one another  ( Donahue et al, 2003). Also, aggressive students who have positive relationships with teachers are more likely to be accepted by peers than aggressive students who lack positive relationships with their teachers ( Hugesly, Cavell et al; 2001). Ultimately, constructive teacher student relationships have an important positive influence on the social skills of difficult as well as typical students ( Zins, Elias, Greenberg, and Weissberg, 2000). Such findings suggests that enhancing individual teacher-student relationships has beneficial and cumulative effects for other aspects of classroom life.
Improving teacher- student relationships in only the first step toward the meeting students' emotional and relational needs. A teacher should also work on producing a caring community of learners. such efforts improve the nature of interactions among the students and promote students ' engagements in school (Hamre & Pianta, 2005; McCombs, 2004; Meece,2003; Meece et al; 2003:
Studies have been conducted to examine the effectiveness of interventions designed to create more caring school and classroom communities , each has resulted in specific recommendations for improving teacher-student relationships as well as peer- relationships. One such intervention is the Child Development Project (CDP). It is focus on fostering caring peer relationships, including students in decision-making , and teaching students to better understand the feelings, needs, and perspectives of others. The goal of (CDP) is to promote positive development among children and build upon the strengths, Students exposed to the intervention feel more positive about school and are more motivated (e.g ; showed more task orientation and greater intrinsic motivation)  than their counterparts not receiving this intervention in elementary school (Solomon, Battistich, Watson, Schapes, and Lewis ,2000). Like wise, CDP appears to have some long- lasting effects. students enrolled in the CDP elementary schools were elementary schools were less antisocial and more prosocial in middle school as well (Battistich et al; 2004). Further, in a district that pressed for the high achievement, CDP was linked to positive effects on achievement outcomes as well as gains in socioemotional skills for more information, visit Developmental Studies Centers Child Development Project.
Another example is the Responsive Classroom (RC) approach. This is a classroom- based intervention  designed to integrate social and academic learning. When RC was examined to determine whether there were links between the use of its approach and the quality of teacher-students relationships, it was found that teachers using more (RC) practices had closer relationships with students in their classrooms (Rimm-Kaufman & Chiu, 2007). Visit Responsive Classroom to learn more.              
  

Monday 5 May 2014

Measure of teacher-student relationships.

One teacher report instrument, designed for  elementary  school teachers, is the Teacher Student Relationship Scale (STRS);painta,2001). This instrument measures a teacher's perception of conflict, closeness and dependency with a specific child. Another instrument, designed for teachers of middle and high school is the Teacher Student Relationship Inventory (TSRI)Ang, 2005. It measures teacher's satisfaction with their students , the help they perceive they are offering to their students, and their level of conflict with their students.The presence of supportive relationships can be measured in classroom using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (Pianta, Laparo & Hamre 2006). This system measures teachers' sensitivity as well as positive and negative climate in the classroom. Different forms of this instruments can be used for preschools through twelfth grade. Students reports of their relationships with teachers can be assessed in young children with the feelings about school instrument (Valeski & stipek,2001 ) or by having a child draw a picture of him/her self and his/her teacher at school and analyzing the picture for signs of negativity( Harrison , Clarke,& Ungerer, 2007). In elementary school , student can be assessed with the loneliness and social dissatisfaction Questionnaire for the youth children(Cassidy & Asher,1992); in middle school with the Teacher Treatment Inventory (Weinstein & Marshall,1984): and in high school students with an adapted measure of perceived social connection. Another set of validated in another set of validated  instrument designed for teachers and students are the Assessment of Learner-Centered (ALCP) survey.   These surveys, each designed for different age group ( grades K-3,4-8 and 9-12), provide teachers with tools for  self-assessment and reflection  (McCombs, 2004). The emphasis of this work has been to identify discrepancies between teacher and student perception in order to assist teachers as they reflect upon and change their practices (McCombs & Miller, 2006). The ALCP process focuses on student learning and motivational outcomes, as well as the classroom practices that contribute most to maximizing these outcomes.   

Sunday 4 May 2014

How to Create Positive Teacher Student Relationships?


Teacher vary in their ability to create positive teacher-student relationships. Some teachers simply have an easier time to developing positive relationships with students-personality ,feelings towards students, their own relationships histories may all play a role . A few personal characteristics of teachers have been identified as important predictors of positive teacher-student relationships in elementary schools. Research has found that preschool and kindergarten teachers are more likely to develop close relationships with students who share their same ethnic background like wise , it was found that Caucasian pre- service teachers working in their 10-weeks field placement sites perceived African American and Hispanic students as more dependent than the same teachers perceived white students. Asian American and Hispanic pre services teachers perceived African American students as more dependent upon them as compare to Asian American or Hispanic students(Kesner,2000). Pre- service teachers who recall their own upbringing as caring and nurturing were also more likely to experience closeness with the students in their field placement classrooms.(Kerner,2000). Teachers' beliefs and the types of practices that teachers prefer appear to also be important. Kindergarten teachers who use fewer didactic and more age- appropriate, student-centered teaching practices reported less conflictual relationships with their kindergarten students ( Manticopoulous, 2005). Much less known is about the teacher characteristics that contribute to positive teacher-student relationships at the middle and high school  level.