Bitesize Research: Positive Student-Teacher Relationships

I hope everyone is well and wishing you all a Happy New Year! This first week back in T3, I wanted to share with you a meta-analysis focusing on the best strategies for positive student-teacher relationships.

Objectives:

In other studies, strong student-teacher relationships have shown to have a significant

impact on the development of cognitive, emotional and social skills.

This study looks at the best possible strategies in building these strong relationships.

This analysis was of both specific programmes, as well as more general strategies. 

Summary:  

• Two particular programmes known as Establish-Maintain-Restore, and BRIDGE, had

            significant effect sizes. 

• In terms of general practice, preventative strategies were found to be more impactful

            than reactive strategies to maintain and strengthen student-teacher relationships. 

• Moreover, direct (e.g. working with the student) rather than indirect (e.g. working with

            the parent) practice had a stronger impact. These include strategies such as praise,

            respect, spending time, and building personal connections. 

• Significant effect sizes were found to repair student-teacher relationships whereby

            teachers suggested a ‘fresh start’ e.g. ‘I know that yesterday’s lesson didn’t go so well,

            but I’m really looking forward to having you in my lesson today.’ 

How does this impact me and my practice?: Some reflection questions arising from this that

might be helpful to consider are: 

 

• What practices do you use to build and strength good student-teacher relationships? Which are the most impactful in your experience?

• How might you look to use some of these strategies going forward in T3?

• How and when might you use the repairing relationships strategy? What impact might it have?

If anyone would like to discuss this further with Jaya - please comment below!

I’d be delighted to open up these discussions and conversations.