Every day, a certain amount of time is allocated to the classes we teach. After we subtract transitions and other interruptions, we hope the rest will be academic engagement time (AET)—when the air crackles with the productivity of alert students connecting with our well-planned, well-taught lessons. Building student relationships may not be the first thing that comes to mind when looking for ways to maximize AET, but perhaps it should be.
It makes sense that anyone will invest more time working at something if there's a valued relationship involved. Numerous studies have proven that children's social-emotional well-being is linked to higher grades and standardized test scores (Davis, 2003; Bergin 2009). Emotion is important to education because it drives attention, which drives learning and memory (Sylwester, 1995).
We can't control what happens in the home, but in-school focus and learning grow from teachers building healthy relationships with their students. In a 2008 study of preschoolers, teacher–student interaction was a better predictor of academic, language, and social skill development than any other preschool teacher behaviors (Mashburn, 2008).
In her 2005 book The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education, Nel Noddings argues that the first job of schools is to care for children and that it is practically and morally wrong to focus only on academics. Putting academics at the forefront is actually counterproductive because children won't learn academics if they don't feel cared for. Our students who arrive at the bottom of the achievement gap are the ones who benefit the most from these positive teacher–student relationships (Bergin, 2009).
Teachers and parents are familiar with the increasing negativity the average student displays as he moves from elementary to middle to high school. Instead of shrugging this off as a by-product of surging hormones, consider that the true cause is a shift toward more teacher control and discipline and less student choice and self-regulation, as students progress through school. Students begin to see teachers as barriers to the autonomy they crave, teachers see students as untrustworthy, and positive relationships suffer (Eccles et al.).
A classroom in which a teacher has built relationships will be a classroom in which the most time is spent on learning. You'll recognize those classrooms because you'll see a teacher who
- Interacts with students in a warm, sensitive way. Teachers who know the most about the stages of development for the students with whom they work are the most effective at providing the appropriate responses.
- Is well-prepared with engaging lessons and has high expectations for every student. It's often called "rigor" these days, but the classrooms that make maximum use of time are those in which every student is working hard and on task because the teacher has communicated that every student can and will achieve a reasonably set goal. There's no need to "goof off" because everyone knows the teacher will make sure that all students arrive at the destination, even if it isn't at the same time—no exceptions.
- Supports student autonomy. Students feel valued as individuals who can make decisions and participate in the classroom's decision-making process. Students feel they have received valuable freedom in the classroom when teachers allow them to work their own way, offer them encouragement, and do not speak to them with "should" or "ought" statements (Reeve, 2006).
- Promotes prosocial behavior among students. The classroom is a community. The value the teacher has for each student is reflected among the students.
- Disciplines noncoercively. Sticks and carrots aren't the basis of discipline; consistency and reason guide rules and consequences.
- Bases interventions on the specific relationship held with the student.Fair means giving each child what he needs, not giving each child the same thing. When I asked how to explain that concept to student, an instructor once answered, "If one person has a heart attack, that one person gets CPR. We're not going to be ‘fair’ and give it to everyone."
It's refreshing for teachers to be reminded that fostering relationships with our students meets our goals and objectives just as much as crafting engaging lessons. That basic human element has been too often pushed aside in recent years, under the steamroller of meeting accreditation, improving our "education speak" while writing aligned curriculum, and checking off increasingly exhaustive requirements. We sometimes forget that teachers are humans teaching other developing humans because it isn't a category on the teacher evaluation form.
Perhaps it should be.
