The Significance of the Teacher-Student Relationship: Building Bonds for Academic Success

A healthy relationship involves honesty, trust, respect, and open communication between two people. People make efforts to keep peace, harmony, and unity between them to maintain a good relationship. Respecting each other’s independence, making combined decisions without fear of retribution, and sharing decisions are all part of being in a healthy relationship.

It involves a connection, association, or involvement with a friend, a parent, a sibling, and even a teacher. People may have a connection between them, either by blood or emotionally, but today we will specifically focus on the relationship between teacher and student.

A good student-teacher relationship creates a thriving classroom environment, it is vital because it helps students develop self-worth and improves a student’s mental health. In the same manner, these positive relationships help to decrease behavioral problems and ultimately promote academic success.

The teacher and the student in the classroom maintain a positive relationship in efforts to gain trust and respect from each other. A student-teacher relationship is very respectful and sacred.  This relationship may consist of getting to know students better, providing choice and encouraging the students to become stronger learners.

Now that we know the impact of a relationship between teacher and student let us understand the dynamics better. The teacher and student relationship is merely the interaction between a teacher and their students, encompassing their interactions both inside and outside the classroom. This relationship is critical because it enhances the success of the learning process.

Positive teacher and student relationships help students meet their needs. Teachers who know their students’ interests and preferences actively offer additional feedback to support the students’ feelings of competence. They also show regard and respect for these individual differences, which enhances a student’s feelings of autonomy.

Student-teacher relationships have implications that are long-lasting for students’ development academically and socially, it contributes to higher achievement levels. When teachers choose to be guides instead of critics, students show trust, are more engaged in learning, and behave better in class.

Communication is the most important factor in the teacher and student relationship. Clear, effective, and consistent communication is a vital element that strengthens a teacher-student relationship. Educators use it to create a connection with the students.

Also Read: Importance of Teacher

Ways to build a good and positive relationship between teacher and students:

1. Always greet with a hello and bid a goodbye every single day.
2. Send in notes for good behavior more often than bad.
3. Believe they will do great things.
4. Be authentic and have fun.
5. Listen and validate their feelings.

Why is trust important in any relationship? Well, trust means that you rely on someone else to do the right thing. You believe in their integrity and strength. To an effective team trust is essential, because it gives a sense of safety and stability.

Trustworthy teachers tend to create an environment where students are more open, which helps with the lessons. Students place their trust in a teacher and do better. They also trust the information that a teacher imparts. Students often trust the teacher’s explanations of how this information or lesson will help them or make a difference later in life.

Here is how to build trust with students and create a healthy classroom environment for learning.

1. Talk about trust.
2. Give students responsibilities.
3. Develop an atmosphere of trust.
4. Be tolerant.
5. Be consistent.

Establishing trust must begin from the very moment students enter the classroom. Here some strategies to maintain a good relationship between teacher and students:

1. Providing Structure.
2. Enthusiasm and Passion.
3. Making Learning Fun.
4. Mutual Respect, Trust, and Feedback.
5. Going the Extra Mile.
6. Having a Positive Attitude.
7. Communication Consistency.
8. Show interest in a student’s lives outside the classroom.

Communication motivates the students to enhance their abilities. Motivation encourages students to work hard and to always do their best. Therefore, it is very important and necessary that the teachers should communicate with students in an effective manner.

Importance of student teacher relationships produces an environment that incorporates mutual respect. There is a lot to gain from a strong relationship between students and teachers. Students are often motivated to do better when they have positive relationships with their teachers because they are given the attention they need.

Students tend to be more motivated to learn and be engaged in the classroom when they know that their teacher likes and cares about them. Positive teacher and student relationships help to change a student’s behavior, and there are researches that found building those positive relationships actually lead to better teaching and learning.

There are several qualities that define a positive relationship and pave ways on how to create a powerful student teacher relationship. These qualities include a safe environment to learn, mutual respect for each other, student equality, good communication, a positive and patient attitude, and feedback that matters timely.

A confident teacher can stand in front of a classroom full of students to teach concepts that they may or may not have much interest in but are able to convey the message. Here are some common traits and qualities of a great teacher.

1. Innovative and is a great communicator.
2. Resilient but knows how to discipline.
3. A confident teacher possesses perception and shows fairness and respect.
4. Teachers are reflective and use real-world examples within learning.
5. A confident teacher is always humble and communicates expectations.
6. Is curious and develops positive relationships with students.
7. Teachers are inclusive and stay balanced and organized.

Mentioned below are qualities of effective teachers:

1. Ability to develop trusting, productive relationships.
2. Patient, caring, kind.
3. Knowledge of learners.
4. Dedication to teaching.
5. Subject matter knowledge.

So now that we know about the qualities of a good teacher let us have a look at the signs of a bad teacher. A toxic teacher may be known for degrading or publicly humiliating students. They may make some students feel that they are not good enough by doing things like shaming them during a presentation or calling them out for their grades in the middle of class.

There is lack of commitment and they do not challenge their students, students are often behind on grading. They often and typically make no connections with other faculty or staff members and there is no creativity in their teaching. A student usually behaves in a respectful manner toward teachers, staff, administrators and other students. However, disrespectful behavior is noticed such as walking away suddenly from a conversation, talking back and rudely, refusing to answer properly, rude and judgmental behavior and much more due to struggle with a toxic teacher.

Those were some bad qualities of a toxic teacher. Here are some common mistakes teachers must avoid making early on that can lead to trouble down the road.

1. Not Communicating Expectations Clearly.
2. Being Inconsistent.
3. Not Creating an Action Plan.
4. Waiting Too Long to Intervene.
5. Not Following Through.
6. Failing to Triage an Issue.
7. Not Establishing Relationships.

Also Read: Tips for how to encourage shy kids to participate in extracurricular activities

At EuroSchool, we emphasise on the teacher and student relationship, to build trust between teacher and student, because we know the importance of student teacher relationships. The relationship between teacher and student is sacred and respectful and we try to embrace the age-old theory of Guru because a teacher is a personal and a spiritual guide to kids.