Does Positive Teacher-Student Relationships Promote Higher-Quality Instruction? A Perspective From Students

• In Event: The Consequences of Teacher-Student Relationships Across Academic Contexts

Abstract

Positive Teachers-student relationships (TSRs) are known important contributors to students’ academic achievement because students are more motivated to learn when they have positive TSRs. However, few studies have addressed a supplementary explanation that teachers provide higher-quality instruction when having positive TSRs, which is important because high-quality instruction is consistently identified as one of the largest school-based contributors to students’ achievement. Therefore, we collected student ratings of 844 teachers across two school years on TSRs and four advanced teaching practices from a teacher growth and evaluation system in Missouri, and examined the effects and their directionality using conditional direction dependence analysis. Teaching practices are shown affected by TSRs, except for teachers’ affective engagement which might drive students’ ratings of TSRs.

Authors

• Xintong Li, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Christi Crosby Bergin, University of Missouri

• Amanda Olsen, The University of Texas - Arlington