How Teachers' Professional Attitudes Predict Students' Social and Emotional Learning and Academic Achievement

• In Event: 18.033 - This I Believe: Educators' Attitudes About Students and the Work

Abstract

Teachers’ attitudes towards their schools and the profession impact their students’ achievement. Yet, while many studies acknowledge the social nature of classrooms, there is no research to date examining how teachers’ professional attitudes might also influence students’ social and emotional learning (SEL). Therefore, this exploratory study investigated how teachers’ beginning-of-the-year professional attitudes predicted their students’ end-of-semester SEL and achievement. Significant associations between teacher attitudes and students’ perceived teacher-student relationships suggested (1) that supporting teachers’ development of positive classroom climates might mitigate some of the sources of teachers’ emotional exhaustion; and, (2) given the importance of teacher-student relationships for key student outcomes, future interventions that enhance teachers’ professional attitudes may also have other downstream benefits for student SEL, motivation, and achievement.

Authors

• Christine Calderon Vriesema, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Carly Dolan Robinson, Harvard University