Teacher-Student Relationships and Classroom Management

• In Event: Recent Research on Classroom Management: Toward a New Edition of the Handbook of Classroom Management

Abstract

In this paper we reconceptualize classroom management in terms of the relationships between teachers and students and focus on a relational approach to classroom management. We define classroom management as all teacher actions and associated cognitions and attitudes involved in creating the social emotional aspect of the learning environment. This approach emphasizes the socio-emotional aspects of teacher actions rather than the academic aspects and is primarily interested in how teacher student relationships and classroom management relate to each other. A literature search with the keywords “Classroom management” and “Teacher Student Relationships” returned over 1500 hits since the publication of the first edition of the Handbook on Classroom Management. However, the amount of research that explicitly goes into the association of these two constructs was not very large and a broader search, including key terms as teacher student interaction, teacher beliefs and teacher cognitions on classroom management and teacher student relationships formed the basis of this paper.
Student outcomes, affective and cognitive, have been proven to depend on the quality of teacher student relationships. Similarly these relationships influence teacher burnout and job satisfaction. How exactly these outcomes are produced in socially-mediated interactions between teachers and students is not clear. In order to shed light on these relationships we took dynamic systems theory as a starting point for understanding. We distinguished between relationships of teachers with individual students and their collective as a class and employed two languages to describe the relationships, one based on an attachment framework and another grounded in interpersonal theory.
Our paper reviews several methodologies employed in studies on teacher-student relationships, such as observations, teacher and student perception questionnaires and teacher and student interviews. After developing a conceptual framework for the variables involved in the study of classroom management and teacher student relationships we review the contribution of the teacher cognitions, attitudes and actions on creating positive teacher student relationships including such actions as reinforcing, coercing, non verbal behaviors etc. and the reciprocal associations between such actions and teacher student relationships. Several predictors of the quality of teacher student relationships are reviewed, e.g for the teacher such variables as self efficacy, burn out, satisfaction, and control beliefs and at the student level variables such as first impressions, gender, age, and bullying role. Finally research on the improvement of teacher student relationships through teacher actions is reviewed with implications for teaching practice.
One of the most interesting topics studied at the moment appeared to be the two time scales distinguished in dynamic system theories: the micro-level of teacher-student interactions (often seen as an important ingredient for classroom management strategies) and the macro level of classroom climate, reflected in the quality of teacher student relationships. It is intriguing how classroom climates are grounded in real-time classroom interactions and how teachers can create such positive climates.

Authors

• Theo Wubbels, Utrecht University

• Mieke Brekelmans, Utrecht University

• Tim Mainhard, Utrecht University - Dept of Education

• Jan Van Tartwijk, Utrecht University

• Perry den Brok, Eindhoven University of Technology