Throughout my educational career, I noticed that when I like a teacher as a person, I do not mind the course load, and I wind up getting better grades. I like teachers who are supportive towards my educational career. Oppositely, when I do not like the teacher because they are distant or unsupportive I dread the class and everything about it, even if its a subject I enjoy. Do platonic student-teacher relationships actually affect school performances?
A study was conducted by Gwen Dewar, Ph.D. in 2013. Dewar and a team of researchers experimented on 120, six year olds. Each child was given a test to measure how their teacher relationships affected their abilities. By doing so, before each question a picture of the student’s teacher would flash; the picture went too quickly for the eyes to recognize, but stayed long enough for the brain to connect with it. The results showed, “the kids who have close, affectionate teacher relationships – as opposed to distant ones — end up solving many problems faster” (Ahnert et al 2012). This begins to prove that when students have a friendly connection with their teacher, they are prone to do better.
In my experience, when I have a close relationship with a teacher, I work twice as hard in fear of disappointing them. Other reasons could be that when the student likes the teacher, they open their minds and allow the knowledge to enter their heads. Oppositely, when students dislike the teacher, they do not pay attention and barely learn in that class. When teachers connect with their students on a deeper level, and show that they care about their students, the students are willing to work harder to make their teachers proud.
Another study was conducted in 105 German students to explore how student-teacher relationships affect stress hormones. The group experimented on by the Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Vienna, Austria, were all first graders. In the experiment, “saliva was taken from students on Monday and again on Friday to display diurnal cortisol profiles“. The students who “had unsupportive classroom settings, teacher, had flatter cortisol profiles at the beginning and end of the week. Comparably, students with healthy student-teacher relationships showed optimal cortisol profiles.”
Not only is this relationship affecting the students grades and ability to learn, it is also affecting their mental health. This relationship is significant and can alter a child’s perspective on life. For instance, a child in a “bad” neighborhood may feel pressured into joining a gang or dealing drugs because that is what they were raised in. All it takes is one teacher to encourage and inspire you to fight for a better life. We have all heard those stories of people who achieve the impossible and go from troubled neighborhoods to becoming company CEO’s or doctors.
Additionally, another study was conducted with 657 at risk students showing that distance from one teacher, during a young age, has a lasting impression. This lasting impact proved to affect children’s development and academic achievement. On the other hand, students who were given support from their teachers had positive effects on their development.
We have all had that one teacher that changed our lives in some way; the teacher that inspired us to apply to our dream schools, become engineers or just accept who we are. I took a gamble on this relationship being science, but everything really is science.
We cannot ignore the facts and the studies that proves that student teacher relationships are beneficial.
Maybe if we all had supportive and better relationships with our science teachers, we may be science majors today, or actually like science.
I completely agree with this. Having a good teacher-student relationship definitely makes you want to work harder because the closer you are with your teacher the less you want to disappoint them. But that’s just me and I can’t help but wonder if some people do worse in class because they’re closer with their teacher because they feel as though they have more flexibility and can get away with more.
Hey , I agree with your post that having a good relationship with your teacher does increase your performance. I found an article here that’s basically saying when you have a teacher that you have a strong relationship with it makes you feel secure and confident because every time you go into the class theres a positive atmosphere because of that teacher bond. As a student you are more willing to hear what they have to say.
Hi Rana,
I completely agree with your post. If a student wants to succeed, they need a teacher who is supportive and believes in them. They need something that makes going to school more endurable and worthwhile. It is ultimately up to the student to do their best to be successful, but their is no doubt that the teachers have a direct impact on them.
Hi, Rana,
I like your post so much!!! And I couldn’t agree more!! The relationship between teacher and students really affect how we think of the course and how much effort we want to spend. Although a lot of teachers say that it’s not the teachers’ fault about the teaching style, sometimes it’s also about the teachers’ value, and the way they think. Thank for sharing with us this post. When teachers connect with their students on a deeper level, and show that they care about their students, the students are willing to work harder to make their teachers proud.