Teacher Student Relationship

Benefits of Positive TSR

Students feel a sense of school affiliation and connectedness
Allows students to open up and have a mentor in their life
- Character development
- Social and emotional competence and wellbeing
Academic competence and outcomes

Conceptual Model of TSR

Hamre & Pianta, 2006

Features of Individuals

Biological facts: gender
Biological processes: temperament, genetics, responsiveness to stressors
Developed features: personality, self-esteem, social skills
Perceptions each individual holds of their relational partner and the relationship itself

Perceptions and Beliefs

When teachers hold high generalised expectations for student achievement, students tend to:

achieve more
experience greater sense of self-esteem and competence as learners
resist involvement in problem behaviours during both childhood and adolescence

Information Exchange Processes

Communication:

spoken words (7%)
tone of voice (38%)
non verbal (55%)

Reciprocal association between teacher and student behaviour

Teacher involvement fostered students' classroom engagement, led teachers to become more involved
Students who are able to form strong relationships with teachers are at advantage that may grow exponentially

External Influences

Teachers and students do not interact in isolation
Part of larger school community that may support or constrain development of positive relationships
School climate and quality of TSR share reciprocal association

Key Teacher Traits to Build Positive TSR

Acknowledging students
Communicating values
Respect
Fairness
Realness
Humour and fun
Modelling what you teach

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Teachers play a very important role in creating a safe environment where students' need for belongingness and esteem needs are met.
In such an environment, students are willing to take cognitive risks.
When teachers meet students' needs:
- they connect positively, building positive TSR
- they contribute to students' holistic needs and address higher needs

Ladder of Inference

Active Constructive Responding

When teachers give a bored or disinterested look, it discourages students from sharing!

We can strengthen TSR by responding actively and constructively to our students' positive experiences.

Learning more about your students

If using a rectangular/squarish table, it is best to take the seats at the corner
This ensures you do not face the student directly. Neither do you face away from the student, allowing him or her personal space.

Non-verbal communication: SOLER

Sit facing student

Adopt Open posture

Lean forward

Maintain good Eye contact

Be Relaxed

DID YOU KNOW...

Before any presentation/talk...

You can do the following power poses to boost your confidence
The lower three poses may come in naturally when you are trying to bring a point across strongly to the class

Lastly...

Make sure you do not invade the personal space of students!!!

Attending and questioning skills

Refer to student by name
Express empathy
Communicate interest by using intermittent one-word vocalisation
State your desire to understand what the student is saying
Use open-ended questions

Reflecting content and feelings

Summarise what the student has shared with you
Seek to understand what the student is feeling
Pursue the issues introduced by the student

Worthy of trust

When our students share their personal problems with us, we must:

Listen empathetically (put ourselves in their shoes)
Withhold judgement of the student of their families
Maintain confidentiality unless there is a concern that the student's life or another life is at risk. In such a situation, we MUST refer the situation to the relevant school personnel.

Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory of Development

Teachers are in the microsystem where school is the mesosystem. Teachers who foster positive TSR create classroom environments more conducive to learning and meet students' developmental, emotional and academic needs.

Observational Skills

It is important that you document your observations systematically and chronologically so that you could draw them out when need arises.

Qualities of Caring Teacher

Genuineness
Respect
Unconditional acceptance
Empathy
Warmth
Trustworthiness
Openness
Has knowledge and understanding
Self-awareness

Ways to show care

Listen to students and help them express who they are and how they want to be treated
Help students show others what they want them to know about themselves
Teach students ways to show they care about another person who serves the community or country - like a fireman, policeman or soldier
Work with parents to show interest and concern for their children
Improve your practice by learning something new, including getting feedback from students

Role of positive TSR

Positive TSR yield benefits for our students in the following areas which also contribute to developing a strong sense of identity in them:

Social and emotional competence and wellbeing
Academic competence and outcomes
Behaviourial competence

Students with a strong sense of identity would work more effectively with their teachers to achieve holistic development.

Restorative Practices

Restorative practices is a social science that studies how to build social capital and achieve social discipline through participatory learning and decision making.

Usage helps to

reduce crime, violence and bullying
improve human behaviour
strengthen civil society
provide effective leadership
restore relationships
repair harm

In education

Takes incidents that might otherwise result in punishment and create opportunities for students to:

Become aware of the impact of their behaviour
Understand the obligation to take responsibilities for their actions
Take steps towards making things right

Social Discipline Window

Restorative Practices Continuum

5 Themes

Everyone has unique and equally valued perspectives
Thought influence emotions, and emotions influence subsequent actions
Empathy and consideration for others
Identify needs before identifying strategies to meet those needs
Trust and empowerment

In conflict, people need

tell their side of their story
express their feelings
feel understood by those involved
have the harm acknowledged, if not an apology
understand better how the situation happened
understand how it can be avoided in future
find a way to move on and feel better about themselves

Focus on relationships – not just the victim, but all involved
Space is allowed to express feelings. Sometimes a waiting period is necessary
When an apology is given or requested, the person making the apology:
- Identifies the behaviour for which they are apologizing
- Identifies why it was wrong and how it affected others
- Ask the person harmed how the harm can be repaired and offers ways to repair it
- Make a commitment to change the behaviour so that it does not happen again

Golden rules

Listen first-be quiet, what’s the story behind the story?
Don’t tell what you can ask
Think about outcomes before deciding on strategy - consequence should teach what we want the child to learn, must be designed to build social capital
Develop empathy by helping them to understand what harm has been done
Work on making things right rather than punishment
Contact parents early and ask for their support, i.e. what they want for their child
Kids brains are a work in progress
Don’t assume all children come to school with the ability to de code value systems
Never make home wrong

Questions

Response to challenging behaviour...

What happened?
What were you thinking of at the time?
What have you thought about since?
Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
What do you think you need to do to make things right?

Help those who have been harmed...

What did you think when you realized what had happened?
What impact has this incident had on you and others?
What has been the hardest thing for you?
What do you think needs to happen to make things right?

Obstacles to listening

Evaluative listening
Filtered listening
Fact-centred listening
Interrupting

Teachers' Social Emotional Competencies

Influence on students

Teachers’ SE competencies influence the quality of TSR
Teachers model SE skills for students – intentionally or not
Teachers’ SE competencies likely influence their classroom organization and management

Emotional processes

Social/interpersonal skills

Cognitive processes

Understanding and labeling feelings accurately
Regulation emotions and behaviour of situation (e.g. calming rather than storming)
Taking another’s perspective
Displaying empathy

Understanding social cues (such as body languages ad tone of voice)
Correctly attributing the intent of other’s behaviours (e.g., understanding a student’s defiance as a desire for independence rather than a personal insult)
Interacting positively with students and other adults, and acting in prosocial ways (e.g., helping others and kind words)

Maintaining attention and focus
Engaging working memory, inhibiting impulses that are not appropriate to the situations (e.g., not yelling at a student or using sarcasm out of frustration)
Flexibly shifting gears when needed (e.g., trying new approach when an instructional strategy is not working)

Teachers need to recognise emotional nature of our work

identify and reflect on their emotions
identify the causes of them
cope with difficult emotions through reframing, problem-solving and emotional management.

Application of SEL in daily routines

structured activities (eg. on calming)
specific language (e.g. “I messages”)
wall posters as reminders to use these skills

Do's and Don'ts

Do's

Make an effort to get to know and connect with each student in your classroom. Always call them by their names, find out information about their interests and strive to understand what they need to succeed in school.
Make an effort to spend time individually with each student, especially those who are difficult or shy. This will help you create a more positive relationship with them.
Be aware of the explicit and implicit messages you are giving to your students. Be careful to show your students that you want them to do well in school through both actions and words.
Create a positive climate in your classroom by focusing not only on improving your relationships with your students, but also on enhancing the relationships among your students.
Be aware that you are modeling behavior for your students, whether intentional or not.
Students notice your interaction style. They notice whether you show warmth and respect towards them, to other students and to adults at your school. Often, they will model their own behavior after your behavior.
Students notice the methods you use to manage strong emotions. They notice positive strategies, such as taking a deep breath or talking about your frustrations. Likewise, they notice negative strategies, too, such as yelling at students or making mean or disrespectful jokes about colleagues

Don'ts

Don't assume that being kind and respectful to students is enough to bolster achievement. Ideal classrooms have more than a single goal: teachers hold students to appropriately high standards of academic performance and offer students an opportunity for an emotional connection to their teachers, their fellow students and the school.
Don't give up too quickly on your efforts to develop positive relationships with difficult students. These students will benefit from a good teacher-student relationship as much or more than their easier-to-get-along-with peers.
Don't assume that respectful and sensitive interactions are only important to elementary school students. Middle and high school students benefit from such relationships as well.
Don't assume that relationships are inconsequential. Some research suggests that preschool children who have a lot of conflict with their teachers show increases in stress hormones when they interact with these teachers.
Don't wait for negative behaviours and interactions to occur in the classroom. Instead, take a proactive stance on promoting a positive social experience by including students in discussions about prosocial interactions and consistently modeling those positive interactions for them.

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