Ask a primary school-age child about school and what do you expect to hear? Unlike their older siblings, these bright-eyed cherubs love to talk about school and they talk and talk and talk. Their most common response falls into two types: I like/don’t like school and I like/don’t like my teacher. For most children, if they like their teacher they like school and if they don’t like their teacher they don’t like school. Their conception of school is formed by the teacher/student relationship their teacher can create. It is interesting to track the “I like school/I like my teacher” responses through the years of a K-12 education. Perhaps the most significant contributor to school success returns to the youngest child’s response – I like my teacher.
We measure many things in the name of educational accountability. An accountability measurement requires the use of a metric – some reliable gauge that indicates the degree and consistency to which the variable of interest is being attained. Standardized test scores come to mind. “I like my teacher” may seem like a soft subject for measurement or one that is too whimsical to provide meaningful results. “Ask again tomorrow and the little kid will give you a different answer,” a skeptic may say. But that would be a wrong impression and conclusion and cause us to avoid seeing that the bond between teacher and student is the highly significant contributor to school success that it is.
The American Psychological Association gives us several things, derived from academic studies, to consider.
• Students with close, positive and supportive relationships with their teacher will attain higher academic achievement than students who do not. They have higher school attendance, are more willing to engage in new learning, and to persist through difficulty.
• Students without close, positive and supportive relationships with their teacher seldom attain higher academic achievement, have higher rates of school absenteeism, are less willing to participate in new learning, and tend to shut down when frustrated.
• Attempts to manipulate aspects of a neutral or negative teacher and student relationship will not reliably cause improvements in academic achievement.
http://www.apa.org/education/k12/relationships.asp
The conclusion I reach is this and it is one that every little kid knows down deep: “I know if my teacher likes me and I really like it when my teacher likes me.” Try as one might, this “liking” can’t be faked. Kids know it. Interestingly, “liking” does not look the same teacher to teacher, because it is part and parcel of the character of each teacher. As unique and different as they might be, every time I have observed a close, positive and supportive relationship between a teacher and student, the outcomes are the same. Kids are demonstrably engaged in their learning, kids are demonstrably achieving their curricular goals, and kids are demonstrably developing an enthusiasm for future learning. Teachers who can cause these relationships are worth their weight in gold.
A kindergarten teacher I observed was a “kid magnet.” She bubbled with affect everyday. Her classroom was activity-rich and she was a cheerleader for everything a student tried. She celebrated loudly and happily when any child was successful and when a child missed the mark, she was constant with “let’s try that again, together”. While building learning self-esteem, she also created a consistent record for causing every child to be ready for first grade reading and arithmetic and many performed well beyond first grade. She was no faker of “I like kids” and all her kids knew she liked them for who they were. It was easy to track her K-graduates throughout elementary school because of their “I like school” behaviors.
Another teacher, in first grade, was a teacher’s teacher. She attacked teaching for learning everyday. She came to school early and stayed late and her classroom was purposeful. When she sat with a child, she listened and watched first and taught second and her teaching always was spot-on for what the child needed to know or do or consider to be successful in that activity. Kids did not bask in her smile because she did not smile a lot; they basked in her attentive presence and praise. When she said “good job” it meant “success achieved.” She was no faker either. Kids knew that she gave them her best everyday to help them be successful and liked her for it. It was easy to track her first graders throughout elementary school because their “I like school” behaviors were ingrained.
Caring, positive and supporting teachers don’t just live in the elementary school. A high school chemistry and physics teacher, the only teacher of these subjects in the school, gave her students a rigorous, college-preparatory instruction and kindled a “my teacher cares about me/I like my teacher/I can learn chemistry and physics” attitude in her students. She was firm as a rock in demanding that students did every homework and lab assignment. “Miss one and fail the course” was her rule. Yet, they knew she was in her classroom every morning before school and every afternoon after school to help them not just do the assignment but learn from the assignment. Some of her personal mannerisms caused teenagers to snicker, but when asked “Who is your favorite high school teacher?”, she topped most lists. She did not teach fluff and did not tolerate bad behaviors and students respected and venerated her for it.
In contrast, an intermediate grade teacher taught reading and arithmetic and science not children and her kids knew it. Lessons were planned and executed and children received instruction but there was no real “I care about you” or “I will do everything in my power to help you” in present I her classroom. When kids said “I don’t get it” they heard from the teacher’s desk “Well, try it again.” It may have been that long division and fractions were more difficult to learn than addition and subtraction and that reading science was not like reading to learn sight words, but the absence of a caring, positive and supportive relationship only made learning her grade level curriculum even more difficult. She created distance, not closeness. And, kids knew it. It also was easy to track her former students through their pre-Algebra and beyond math courses. Too many of her students had a skills and concepts deficit that would take a significant teacher and student recommitment to learn what should have been learned to overcome their lack of grade level achievement.
Theories of psychology help to explain the connection between “I like my teacher/I like school” and school success. Psychologists tell us that “attachment” between a student and teacher causes a child to want to please the teacher and that success in pleasing extends itself to subsequent school activities. They tell us that students learn school success through social cognitive modeling and that success in watching and following others who are successful, especially teachers, causes a positive bonding. And, that self-esteem theories, the “when I feel good because I have…”, are strong factors in developing positive and supportive relationships between teachers and students.
Whatever the reason, the outcome of an “I like my teacher” attitude is inarguable. Teachers who elicit an “I like my teacher/I like school” response from children cause these children to be successful students.