Key Words: Positive relationships, student behaviour,Why positive relationships are essential for productive student behaviour
TITLE: Why positive relationships are essential for productive student behaviour
Kids work harder when they know teachers like and respect them.
Positive relationships between the teacher and student improve student behaviour and increase learning. The critical elements of learning, student behaviour, engagement and achievement are impacted by the positive relationships you have with your students.
The beginning of a new school year is a useful time to reflect upon and implement the strategies that promote positive relationships and enhance productive student behaviour and student engagement. However, it may not always be obvious that positive relationships between teacher and student play a major role in education.
The beginning of the year can be a time when the education department and your principal put pressure on you to cover more curriculum content and improve academic results by working harder and making sure students work harder.
Sometimes the benefits of positive relationships with students are seen as ‘a good or nice to have’ but overlooked as a means to promote students’ social, emotional and academic success.
There are many reasons why positive relationships are not just ‘nice’, but essential to improved student behaviour and the academic success of your students.
- Kids will behave better. Relationships are an enduring behaviour management tool. Students behave better when they feel the teacher likes and respects them and there are Strong links between student behaviour, student engagement and student success. Kids who behave better, are more on task, more engaged and learn more. Not only does appropriate behaviour make your work enjoyable, student learning is increased dramatically.
- Kids will learn better. A relationship with a teacher means students will be more interested in the content because they feel the teacher is interested in them. Students with very little initial interest in a subject can be ‘switched on’ when they have rapport with a teacher.
- Kids will work harder. Students will achieve better results when they work hard for someone they feel cares about them.
- Kids will treat each other better. Students will take their cue from you and treat each other the way you treat them. Because peer relationships affect how safe students feel in the classroom, this has a direct impact on their ability to learn and achieve.
- Kids will feel safe to make mistakes. When students trust the teacher, they will take more risks with their learning making it almost inevitable that they will achieve more.
- Kids will have someone they trust when they need adult support. Teachers can be the only stable influence in the life of a student with a chaotic background and research shows that teachers are often the person kids feel safe to go to when they need help.
- Kids will feel safe to ask for help. When a student knows that the teacher understands them and how they learn, they trust that they will not be asked to do something they cannot do, they will not be humiliated or shamed and that if a task is difficult they can access support and encouragement.
- Kids will live up to high expectations. A positive relationship with a teacher can help a student develop a growth mindset whereby they know that sustained effort is the key to achievement.
When you invest time and energy into building positive relationships with your students you are laying the groundwork for productive and successful learning.
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- Students can be ‘switched on’ to a subject when they have rapport with a teacher.
- When students trust a teacher, they will take more risks with their learning.
