Positive Teacher-Student Relationships For Secondary Gifted And Students With Emotional Or Behavioral Disorders

Importance of positive teacher-student relationships

Question:

Discuss about the Cooperative Learning Strategy to Improve.

The article by Capern and Hammond (2014) presents a discussion about creating relationships that are positive for teachers and students that are secondary gifted and those with emotional or behavioral disorders. The article outlines ways of giving these two groups of students what they need. Capern and Hammond (2014), assert that associations between students and their teachers are often very vital in establishing conducive learning environments.  

However, positive relationships between teachers and learners are more vital in gifted students in secondary schools and among those with emotional or behavioral disorders. The findings show that secondary gifted students valued teacher behaviors that promote friendly and cordial interactions between students and teachers that supported their learning and academic management. On the other hand, secondary students with emotional or behavioral disorders cherished their teacher who showed them considerable understanding, warmth, and patience. According to Hussain (2017) these qualities are the precursors of teachers’ support in their learning process.

Similarly, comparisons are made in this article between the behaviors identified by students with EBD and gifted students. It is indicated that there are teacher behaviors that are essential for both groups. Nevertheless, each group of students specified a set of teacher behaviors that addressed their unique needs. By having positive relationships between students and teachers, the former are more likely to be motivated and encouraged in the process of learning (Luz, 2015). Additionally, as mentioned in the article, students understand that a positive relationship with their teachers has a positive impact on their motivation and interest which enhances the learning process.

The findings in this article are important because they may be applied to enhance relationships between different groups of students and increase the effectiveness of the learning process. The findings could be useful in bridging the gap that exists between practice and educational theory. The established frameworks in this study for creating positive relationships with these two types of students could be used to enhance academic and social outcomes for students. They also help develop learning environments that are positive, and thus are crucial, and ought to be implemented in my key learning area which is mathematics (Gehlbach et al., 2015). It is important to give enough time to students to prepare for tests or complete assignments. This also implies letting students work at their own pace to complete tasks.

Teacher behaviors that impact the learning process

In addition, it is considerably important for the teachers to be easily approachable and always accessible for them to provide necessary assistance for the students to catch up on assignments and prepare for exams. It is also advisable to interests of students in the subject area and encourages the students based on their interest. Typically, learners who are identified as at high risk of dropping out of school are disproportionately in low ability mathematics classes (Muller, 2014). These students usually have educational expectations that are lower, attain low grades, and view their teachers to be less caring. Their teachers also perceive them as not making enough effort at school, and they do not perform well on mathematics tests management. This is the reason why it is important to implement the issue in my key learning area (Muller, 2014).

Many research findings have indicated that positive interactions between students and their teachers are pivotal in establishing healthy learning environments. Some of these studies have also examined how student-teacher relationships are formed. However, this article suggests that there is inadequate comparative research on how to develop positive relationships differently with a different group of students. The positive relationship between students and their teachers is important for all students. However, it is more critical for students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders (EBD) and gifted students (GS). In order for teachers and all education stakeholders to fully understand what can be done for teachers to form positive relations with these two groups of students, this study sought to understand the academic needs of different students. The study examined the views of 58 gifted students and 40 students with EBD from 6 secondary schools in Western Australia. It also identifies the specific behavior of teachers that lead to the formation of quality relationships with each set of students (Capern & Hammond, 2014).

Capern and Hammond (2014), are of the opinion that constant interaction between teachers and students have an impact on the students’ emotional, social, and academic wellbeing. Quality teacher-student relationships have been found to raise the achievement of students and their attitudes towards learning and school. Other researchers have also found that strong positive teacher-student relationships between gifted students may help to create a link between the potential of the students and their accomplishment. It is worth mentioning that constructive teacher-student relationships may equally assist in redressing the academic difficulties that EBD students usually go through. In comparison to their peers, EBD students in many instances have lower grades, are likely to be diagnosed with learning disability, and fail at school more often. These students also have dropout rate which is higher than their peers.

Unique needs of secondary gifted students and those with EBD

As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, positive teacher-student relationships are important to all students. However, this research has a particular interest in the gifted students and students with EBD as they have a high academic risk (Knoell, 2013). The study equally attempted to look into the Woolfolk and Weinstein’s appeal by asking students to name behaviors o teachers that contribute strongly to the formation of positive quality relationships. This study fills a gap in corpus of literature by identifying the behavior of teachers that contributes to positive teacher-student relationships with GS and students with EBD and by comparing and contrasting the behaviors that were most effective with each set of students.

The research study involved Western Australian secondary school students who were recognized as having EBD or gifted. The findings of the research indicated that students who are gifted and those with EBD had varied perspectives as to which teacher behaviors were most crucial for creating constructive relationships with their instructors. GS placed more emphasis on teacher behaviors that would enable them to perform better academically (Capern & Hammond, 2014). On the other hand, students with EBD held the view that it is crucial for their teachers to behave in ways that showed understanding, care, patience, as well as support for their academic activities.

Even though the perspectives of these sets of students were different, there was agreement concerning teacher behaviors that formed the basis of positive student-teacher relationships. Both sets of students were in agreement on primary teacher behaviors that were efficient for developing positive relationships. However, they differed on secondary essential behaviors. The secondary essential teacher behaviors indicated that GS had a preference for teacher behaviors that lead to academic excellence and cordial interaction with their teachers.

On the contrary, students with EBD preferred their teachers to behave in ways that displayed patience, understanding, and many learning opportunities (Capern & Hammond, 2014). Students with EBD were of the view that it is important for their teachers to behave in an emotionally supportive manner than the gifted students. This shows that the students had the desire to have cordial relationship with their teachers and had the feeling that their teachers were mindful of their circumstances and emotional states. Gifted students emphasized on behaviors that are supportive academically. They considered academic support as the basis for helpful relationships because they felt that this would allow their teachers to fulfill their basic role of facilitators of education. It is important to note that both sets of students underscored the significance of teachers to treat them with respect, being friendly and warm, and helping them with their school work.

Bridging the gap between practice and educational theory

The behaviors of teachers that lead to good relationships between teachers and secondary students with EBD and gifted students were investigated by applying mixed-methods approach. The research study was carried out in Western Australian secondary schools that provide academic programs to gifted students as well as those with EBD. The mixed-method approach involves incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research to analyze, gather, and interpret data (Verloop, 2017).

Quantitative data in this study was collected using surveys, while qualitative data were collected using focus groups. Data collection process was carried over 18 months. Students were asked whether they would be able to take part in the study in discussion to give their views on relationships with their teachers. Six students who were willing to participate were selected randomly to take part in a focus group. The process of collecting data for the students with EBD was organized in a similar manner with a sample of 40 students taking part. 12 students who were willing to participate were selected randomly to participate in a focus group. The student-teacher relationship survey was used as the primary instrument for collecting quantitative data. Test of reliability of the student version was conducted by using the Cronbach’s alpha. Cronbach’s alpha for both students with EBD and gifted students was 0.96 showing high reliability (Capern & Hammond, 2014).

Teacher behavior was represented by 70 items on the survey in which each of the item therein was used to represent the teacher’s behavior. Likert scale format was used to score the items (6 = very strongly agree to 1 = very strongly disagree). This showed how critical each behavior was for forming a positive teacher-student relationship. The study also made use of open-ended questions to determine behaviors of teachers that may not have been in the 70 item list. On the other hand, the purpose of focus groups was to ascertain the findings of the conducted surveys (Capern & Hammond, 2014). There were two programs with each focus group consisting of 6 students from every program except one of the gifted programs. Survey data was analyzed before carrying out the focus groups to allow the participants to have an opportunity to offer reflections on the outcomes from the study. The resulting data was triangulated to ensure dependability. The participating students were also asked to provide their reflections and make comparisons on how certain teachers are good at developing relationships. The discussions in the focus groups were recorded and properly transcribed to ensure accuracy of data gathered. A coding system was used to come up with codes (Liberante, 2015).

Conclusion

This paper provided a critical evaluation of the article by Capern and Hammond (2014). It consisted of the introduction and the key talking points of the article. The participants of the research study comprised of Western Australian secondary school students who were recognized as having EBD or gifted. The findings of the research indicated that students who are gifted and those with EBD had varied perspectives in regards to which teacher behaviors were most crucial for establishing a constructive relationship. The article outlines ways of giving gifted students and the students with EBD what they need. Capern and Hammond (2014), assert that interactions between students and teachers are fundamental in developing a healthy and fruitful learning environment that will have positive outcomes for students in general.

References

Capern, T., & Hammond, L. (2014). Establishing Positive Relationships with Secondary Gifted Students and Students with Emotional/ Behavioural Disorders: Giving These Diverse Learners What They Need. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2-18.

Gehlbach, H., Brinkworth, M. E., & Harris, A. D. (2015). Changes in teacher-student relationships . Educational Psychology, 6-18.  

Hussain, N. (2017). Positive Teacher-Student Relationship and Teachers Experience-A Teacher’s Perspective . Global Journal of Management and Business Research Interdisciplinary , 3-21.

Knoell, C. M. (2013). The Role of the Student-Teacher Relationship in the Lives of Fifth Graders: A Mixed Methods Analysis. Education and Human Sciences, 21-45.

Liberante, L. (2015). The importance of teacher–student relationships, as explored through the lens of the NSW Quality Teaching Model. Journal of Student engagement: Education Matters, 6-19.

Luz, F. S. (2015). The Relationship between Teachers and Students in the classroom: Communicative Language teaching Approach and Cooperative Learning Strategy to Improve Learning. Journal of Education, 5-7.

Muller, C. (2014). The Role of Caring in the Teacher-Student Relationship for At-Risk Students . Journal of Education, 5-16.

Verloop, N. (2017). Positive teacher–student relationships go beyond the classroom, problematic ones stay inside. Journal of Educational Research, 32-98.