Student-Teacher Relationships

Czech and Slovak educational systems stand at the doorstep of the fundamental reforms, accentuating the development of psychosocial qualities of all stakeholders engaged in education as determinants of a successful educational process. The narrative review focuses on research studies conducted since 2001, based on the paradigm of attachment and motivational theories of self-determination. Paper provides an overview of how the concept of school achievement and the individual key constructs of the teacher-student relationship are operationalized (closeness, conflict, relatedness, autonomy support, structure). It discusses main conclusions of the most significant studies in this area, as well as some inconsistent results and methodological problems. After rigorous impact and content selection, the review includes 17 empirical studies. Finally, specific current research challenges in the field are considered.

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article's first paragraph: Western philosophers have enthusiastically praised friendship. A few intellectuals have raised doubts about it, such as Thomas Hobbes and Søren Kierkegaard, but friendship has inspired many others, including Aristotle, Francis Bacon, C.S. Lewis, and Mary E. Hunt, who have esteemed its benefits, especially the reciprocal commitment to nurture each friend's 'best self'.

It is not possible for a teacher to achieve the educational target without his/ her professional qualities, and the relationship to the students and to the work he/ she performs. The teacher has a dominant role in the education. He/ she is a personality who has got the own style of work - the own style of teaching the students.
This is the main topic of the article. It looks at the teaching styles of a teacher as per the various authors who are the experts in this area. The article also describes the analysis of the personality characteristics of a teacher that have an important role in the teachers‘ profession.
Key words: teacher, educational process, educational style of a teacher, relationship teacher – student

Bez profesijných kvalít učiteľa, jeho vzťahu k žiakom a k práci, ktorú vykonáva, nie je možné dosiahnuť výchovno-vzdelávacie ciele. Učiteľ vo vzdelávaní má dominantné postavenie. Je svojím spôsobom osobnosť a má svoj štýl práce, teda svoj štýl učenia žiakov.
Príspevok sa danou problematikou zaoberá. Je v ňom uvedené prehodnotenie vyučovacích štýlov učiteľa podľa rôznych autorov, ktorí sa danou problematikou zaoberajú a analýza osobnostných charakteristík učiteľa, ktoré majú v učiteľskej profesii významnú úlohu.
Kľúčové slová: učiteľ, vyučovací proces, vyučovací štýl učiteľa, vzťah učiteľ - žiak

This study examined the behaviors that teachers in eight large urban high schools in a Northeastern state considered important for good teacher-student relationships. A factor analysis of teacher (N = 103) survey responses revealed three factors related to student behaviors: (a) demonstrating engagement and interest in schoolwork; (b) being respectful, rule-abiding, and cooperative; and (c) demonstrating positive social behaviors. Interviews with five teachers indicated teachers’ preferences for students who tried hard in class, had a sense of humor, were respectful, and talked to teachers. Contrary to previous research findings, good teacher-student relationships were desired by teachers and easily established in these large urban high schools. Pseudonyms are used throughout this article to conceal the identity of teachers, schools, and the school district.

This article provides vignettes from teaching practice site visits in linguistically diverse South African Foundation Phase classrooms. The purpose is to point to the complexity of encounters between student teachers and learners when neither are first language speakers of English, the instructional language. The vignettes presented here suggest the potential negative social and pedagogical consequences for learners, in part due to teachers’ lack of awareness that language can create a barrier to learning. In noting instances of instructional dissonance, the article concludes by underlining the need for teacher education to include more content relating to the critical role of language in learning as well as to the importance of recognising the rich linguistic and cultural repertoire that learners bring to the multilingual classroom. In addition, teacher graduates’ proficiency in the language of instruction cannot be assumed to be adequate; this requires focused attention in policy documents and in teacher education programmes.

This paper draws on the dissemination of yoga training as a case study examining dialogue education versus anti-dialogical or didactic education. I suggest that the Guru-Disciple or teacher-student relationship is a reciprocal one in so far as a dialogical approach is at the foundation of learning. Reciprocity, in this context, can be understood as an exchange that is mutually beneficial and interdependent. The space of learning is co-created, as a third space, between the teacher and student where generative themes emerge and form the basis of praxis and reflection. The learning and knowledge production in dialogue has the potential for transfer and impact in one’s life both personally and socially. I propose that it is dialogue which plays a major role in the liberatory function of education.

Behaviour management is the beating heart of effective teaching. Wilson and Thomas (2014). It goes without saying that teaching as a professional vocation is much more than a mere behaviour management practice, however, through my continuous involvement in teaching a variety of classrooms in different schools and colleges so far I can justifiably reflect that: classroom management is a teaching skill in its own right and acquiring this skill is crucial in setting the learning standards and expectations of a given cohort. Not having a firm and consistent behaviour management model in place could and will lead to disruptive behaviour in the classroom.

Students' feelings of relatedness (i.e., feeling connected to others) are crucial for success in any learning environment; however, online courses often limit relatedness development, either by removing spontaneous interaction (e.g., asynchronous delivery) or by introducing seemingly incompatible online and on-campus factions (e.g., synchronous hybrid delivery). It was hypothesized that the strengths of one delivery mode could offset the weaknesses of the other. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate an online discussion board intervention designed to scaffold relatedness development. Deci and Ryan's (1985) self-determination theory was adopted as the theoretical framework. Participants were 83 graduate students enrolled in synchronous hybrid Masters of Business Administration (MBA), Masters of Public Administration (MPA), and Masters of Aviation (MS-Avit) programs offered at a large midwestern research university. This study used a convergent parallel mixed methods approach (QUAN þ qual ¼ triangulation). The methods involved a pretest-posttest experimental design in which students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group, wherein they participated in the intervention, or the control group, wherein they attended classes without any auxiliary interactions. The results indicated that students who participated in the intervention improved their self-efficacy for developing relatedness with individuals who attended online. The qualitative analysis generated three key themes: relatedness beliefs, program delivery, and student-interface interaction. This study holds practical implications for online learning in that it explicated how a threaded discussion can be used to scaffold relatedness development. The theoretical implications of this study involved the substantiation of three key elements of SDT: the basic needs, the types of motivation, and the importance of contextual support.

The purposes of this study were to (a) test the hypothesized factor structure of the Student–Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS; Pianta, 2001) for 308 African American (AA) and European American (EA) children using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and (b) examine the measurement invariance of the factor structure across AA and EA children. CFA of the hypothesized three-factor model with correlated latent factors did not yield an optimal model fit. Parameter estimates obtained from CFA identified items with low factor loadings and R2 values, suggesting that content revision is required for those items on the STRS. Deletion of two items from the scale yielded a good model fit, suggesting that the remaining 26 items reliably and validly measure the constructs for the whole sample. Tests for configural invariance, however, revealed that the underlying constructs may differ for AA and EA groups. Subsequent exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) for AA and EA children were carried out to investigate the comparability of the measurement model of the STRS across the groups. The results of EFAs provided evidence suggesting differential factor models of the STRS across AA and EA groups. This study provides implications for construct validity research and substantive research using the STRS given that the STRS is extensively used in intervention and research in early childhood education.

Five decades of rhetoric and reform in teacher education underscore the importance of multicultural education in preparing teachers to meet the needs of all students. State and national policy initiatives targeting multicultural education build on two assumptions: first, that preservice teachers lack the multicultural awareness to function as culturally responsive educators, and second, that higher levels of multicultural awareness correspond with increased pedagogical proficiency. Few studies have examined variation in multicultural awareness across preservice candidates, or the link between multicultural awareness and prospective teachers’ measured competencies. Using a novel dataset of 2,500 preservice teachers’ beliefs and student teacher performance  assessments,  we  find  that  Black  and  Latino  candidates  report  greater  multicultural  awareness,  while  Asian  Americans report less, compared with their White counterparts. Prior experience working with nondominant populations is linked with higher levels of awareness, particularly for minority respondents. Propensity score matching analyses reveal that multicultural awareness is tied to candidates’ competence in creating nurturing classroom environments.

This paper examines the impact of participating in youth participatory action research (YPAR) for students, teachers, and schools. The primary data are drawn from focus groups and interviews with a total of 150 individuals involved in the YPAR program. Our findings suggest that YPAR democratizes schools and schooling experiences. Specifically, we find that participation in YPAR fosters a collaborative relationship between students and teachers that helps students see themselves more powerfully as knowledge creators, provides students with opportunities that promote their sense of agency and efficacy, influences teachers’ practices and pedagogy to be more student-centered, and changes the nature of conversations happening at schools. Taken together, these findings suggest that YPAR can be a powerful way to democratize schools for improvement.

The authors examine the effects of school bonding on academic achievement (measured by math achievement scores) in a sample of 12th graders from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (Ingels, Pratt, Rogers, Siegel, & Stutts, 2005). Components of school bonding have proximal and distal effects on academic achievement. Attachment to school and school involvement had direct effects on achievement; attachment to teachers and school commitment behaviors had indirect effects on achievement through school-related delinquency and prior achievement. Implications for counselors are discussed.

This study examined the association between two characteristics of school climate (sense of community and teacher support, measured both at the individual and at the school level) and students' feelings of being unsafe at school. The study involved a sample of 49,638 students aged 10-18 years who participated in the 2010-2012 California Healthy Kids Survey. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), our findings revealed that, at the individual level, students perceiving higher levels of sense of community and teacher support at school were less likely to feel unsafe within the school environment. At the school level, sense of community was negatively associated with unsafe feelings, whereas there was no association between school-level teacher support and feelings of being unsafe at school.

This article presents a review of 29 empirical studies to identify the main foci of research on student teachers’ identity, the methodologies used and their major findings. The reviewed studies were found to investigate four broad factors: the contribution of: (1) reflective activities, (2) learning communities, (3) context and (4) (prior) experiences. Reflective practices and interviews were found to be mainly used by researchers as data collection tools and the findings were mainly reported to be changes in components of student teachers’ identity, including their cognitive knowledge, sense of agency and voice. Questions raised in this review and suggestions for further research are discussed.

This is the re-edited version of published work which allows it to be more accessible to a broader audience.

Fostering positive relationships with students and families is vital for the students’ academic lives to be fruitful, meaningful and successful. Teachers need to work on establishing these positive relationships. In the following I address to parents and staff how to produce positive relationships between teachers and students: and teachers with students’ parents. I delve into my personal engagement and feedback practices. Finally, Real-life examples and problem-solving strategies.

The purpose of this study was to examine kindergarten teachers’ and children’s perceptions of their relationships following a person-centred approach, and to describe patterns of relationships between them. 67 Kindergarten teachers and
403 children completed two measures designed to explore their perceptions of their relations. Four patterns of kindergarten teacher–child relationships were identified both from teachers and children reports. Results showed that three of the reported patterns resembled patterns reported by other researchers for teacher–child relationships. An interesting finding was that the notion of dependency and its relation with closeness and conflict had a different interpretation from teachers in the Greek educational context. Practical and
theoretical implications are discussed.

The Student–Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) is one of the most
extensively used instruments that evaluate the quality of teacher–
child relationships. The STRS has a strong theoretical background
based on attachment theory and research on parent–child and
teacher–child relationships. The purpose of this study was to examine
the dimensional structure of the adapted STRS proposed by Koomen
et al. (2012) in the Greek educational settings. Another purpose was
to examine the intercorrelations of the Dependency subscale with
the Closeness and Conflict subscales of the adapted version of STRS,
when applied in a cultural context different from the context, where
it was developed originally. We applied confirmatory factor analyses
with item parcelling in two independent samples (N1 = 118 teachers,
921 students and N2 = 118 teachers, 925 students). Findings provided
evidence for the dimensional structure of the adapted STRS subscales
and its validity. Results also showed that the Dependency subscale
is positively correlated with Closeness in Greece as a background
with more collectivistic characteristics. This finding suggests that the
cultural universality of dependency can be challenged and that the
possible socio-cultural influences in the nature and interpretation of
dependent relationships needs to be further examined