Teacher and student relationship
Teachers hold the highest regard for students; ideally, students are encouraged to respect their teachers and emulate them. Teachers play important roles in molding student’s personality and the type of relationship teacher develop with students will determine the student’s academic and personal growth in the future. Developing a positive teacher-student relationship means creating an encouraging learning environment where students are free to interact with both teachers and their peers. Effective communication alone does not offer effective building blocks to a strong teacher-student relationship; the learning environment plays a key role nurturing student’s abilities.
One of the most challenging aspects of nurturing a good teacher-student relationship is the different personality traits of students. Some students are hardworking but are introverts, while other students are naturally aggressive, hence distracting others affecting the learning environment. Students have varied abilities; other students might not fit in a highly competitive learning environment. Teachers need to address such challenges by not only being extremely patient. Teachers need to be lenient at the same time be strict, any excess of any of the two might hinder students from learning effectively.
The effective teacher-student relationship evolves and needs time, teacher act as mothers for students during their early years in school. They guide them and encourage them to be positive about life. As students progress to secondary level, teachers focus more on academic achievement forgetting about the life values. Concentrating on academic achievements alone and not instilling moral values might affect student personality. There is the need for teachers to make adjusted in their teaching approaches to accommodate student varied need. Students come from mixed cultural and social backgrounds; therefore, teachers need incorporate the different values to make students feel part of the learning process.
Giving individualized student attention means allocating appropriate time to address different needs of students. Having a better understanding of students means understanding their values, their weak areas, and challenges and addressing them individually. Being able to develop a level of understanding with every student, they will feel valued, and this would boost their self-esteem. All these positive behavior will be reflected in their grades and their general behavior.
Teachers need to make students feel accepted by being warm and nurturing, and teachers need to be aware of student’s thoughts and feelings and make them feel important. All these require being present within them throughout the day. The size of the class and the number of students in a class is vital in enhancing good student’s teacher relationship. A larger class would mean spending more time with many students that can be difficult .Teachers need to provide individualized attention to each student; therefore, a small class would be a better environment for both teachers and students.
Building a positive relationship with students makes students positive about school in general. Students become free to make mistakes and seek help whenever necessary. It is not surprising that research studies reveal that constructive teacher student relationship has positively affected student academic performance. The natures of relationship teachers have with their students have largely affected student’s socioeconomic status and their professional development. Teacher’s relationship with students matters more. Any teacher who wants to make a real and lasting difference among his students need to put more effort in building high-performance students through effective interaction and creating a conducive learning environment for all his students.
