Teacher Attunement to Peer Victimization and Beliefs about Peer Relationships and Their Decisions about Classroom Seating

• In Event: Peers and Academic Settings

Abstract

Intro
Changes in classroom seating could reflect teachers’ interest in promoting positive peer relationships (Gest & Rodkin, 2011). Recent work suggests relationship-focused changes in classroom seating have potential to improve children’s peer relationships (Braun et al., 2020), although most teachers base these decisions on academic or behavioral concerns (Wannarka & Ruhl, 2008). We asked teachers how frequently they made classroom seating changes, distinguishing between major (i.e., those involving half or more of all students) and minor (i.e., those involving 2-3 students). We examined whether frequency in making classroom seating changes was linked to teachers’ beliefs about promoting students’ peer relationships. We also assessed teachers’ attunement to peer victimization and their level of concern about bullying at school. Drawing from Gest and Rodkin (2011), we hypothesized that teachers who held network-related beliefs (i.e., teachers who believe they can play an important role in improving peer dynamics in the classroom) about classroom seating would make more minor changes than those whose beliefs were less network related. We reasoned that network-related teachers would use seating changes to support specific students. We expected this relation would be stronger for teachers who were more attuned to students’ peer victimization experiences.

Method
Participants were 37 fourth-grade teachers and students (N = 677). Peer-focused classroom seating beliefs (PFCS) were measured using an 11-item scale developed by Gest and Rodkin (2011). Attunement to peer victimization was measured by calculating concordance between teacher-reports of peer victimization (SEQ-T; Elledge et al., 2010) and both self- (SEQ; Kochenderfer-Ladd, 2004) or peer-reports (RCP; Masten et al., 1985). Teachers used a 7-point scale to rate whether bullying was a concern at their school and to indicate the frequency of making major and minor seating changes.

Results
Teacher attunement to peer victimization significantly moderated the link between PFCS beliefs and frequency of major changes, such that teachers with high PFCS beliefs and high attunement to victimization made fewer major seating changes, but teachers with high PFCS beliefs and low attunement made more major seating changes (Figure 1). Teachers with high PFCS beliefs made more minor changes when attunement was low or average; however, there was no link between PFCS beliefs and minor seating changes for teachers with high attunement (Figure 2).

Discussion
As expected, teachers made more minor seating changes when they held higher peer-focused beliefs, although this trend was limited to teachers with low or average attunement to students’ peer victimization. Presumably, highly attuned teachers use strategies other than classroom seating changes to manage peer victimization in the classroom. Our findings suggest network-related teachers are intentional about making seating changes that have the potential to influence peer dynamics.

Authors

• Jake Steggerda, University of Arkansas
  Presenting Author

• Samantha Gregus Slade, Wichita State University

• James T Craig, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine

• Tim A. Cavell, University of Arkansas