Dilemma Commentary: Teacher Relationships with Students

Ashleigh Joseph

2096130

Relationships between teachers and students are continuously emphasised as imperative

to a harmonious classroom environment and healthy learning outcomes for students, in
pedagogical literature, yet some teachers dont see building relations as a priority. This essay aims
to take the real life instances of a student teachers Professional Experience with their mentor
teacher as examples of how a classroom dynamic changes due to lack of respect and
relationships. For the propose of anonymity the essay will use synonyms - referring to the mentor
teacher as Amanda Franelle, and to the school as Middleton Secondary School. Using direct
observations by the student teacher, the essay will then use a range of sources to discuss the
importance of relationships with students and how a lack of a respectful relationship can cause a
range of problems within the classroom. First looking at relationships in general and how they
impact the classroom and teaching, then discussing behaviour management and teacher feedback.
Lastly it will look at student motivation, then conclude with the importance of relationships.

I completed my Professional Experience in a high school of about one-thousand

students, teaching Visual Art and Design. My dilemma is based around the relationships
my mentor teacher had with the students that she taught. She was a single woman, in her
mid fifties, that had a great passion for art. However, it was extremely difficult for me to
work with a person whose teaching methods were so different from my own philosophy, but
knowing full well that I would not always like/get along with everybody I work with, I set
myself the challenge to make it through the next four weeks smiling and nodding in
agreement with everything she said. In some instances I felt truly sorry her students as she
would grill them about something theyd done wrong. She seemed quite jaded when it
came to maintaining meaningful relationships with her students and was critical of almost
everything about her job. The largest issue I had with her was that she had made the
classroom so uncomfortable for her students told me that only a few had decided to

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continue with Visual Art as a topic in the future. As an Arts student at university, Im aware
of the benefits that the topic offers (creativity, critical thinking, interpretation skills, and
divergent thinking for example, skills that students can take with them into most any work
force), and on a more personal note, I know how fun and enjoyable art can be. So of
course it botherd me that Amanda was unconsciously discouraging students away from it.

As far as measuring a teacher in terms of effectiveness with their students, Chingos and
Peterson state that teachers become a little better at their jobs every year of experience they get in
schools (2011. pg. 449). This is especially true when comparing preservice teachers, that may
have a higher level of education (Masters or PHD), to preservice teachers with a Bachelors degree
that have had more on field work experience. Despite this fact that teachers only get better with
experience, Chingo and Peterson also claim that teachers can become less effective as they get
older and closer to retirement (pg. 464). This is in parallel to the example of Amanda Franelle, as
she was very close to retirement age and seemed jaded in her occupation.
As previously mentioned, Amandaa relationships with her students was discouraging them
from continuing on with Art in years ten, eleven, and twelve. Also mentioned was the fact that her
use of feedback and criticism was sometimes stopping students from continuing on with their work.
Hallinan claims that students who enjoy school have more success completing school work and
academic achievement, and that teachers have the power to influence how students feel about
school (Hallinan: 2008. pg. 271). Students who do not have an attachment with school are more
likely to have disciplinary problems, poor attendance, and an early drop-out age than the students
who feel an obligation to attend (whether that be intrinsic or extrinsic motivation). In year nine
students are going through adolescence, and it is in this year that students are highly susceptible
to lack of motivation at school, their teacher, often being the make-or-break tool between
engagement or disengagement (Bochner, et al: 2013. pg 289). Bochner, et al, suggests a teacher
leading a class of adolescent students should put hard work into maintaining good relationships
with their students, saying students will be on friendlier terms with the teacher, finding them more
fair and open-minded and overall more helpful (pg. 289). We unfortunately did not see this in the
example of Amanda Franelles year nine art classes, instead you can see the the students were

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unenthusiastic to complete tasks in Art, their only reason for handing work in on time was because
they feared verbal scoldings from their teacher.

The two classes I taught were year nine, and I had been warned that year nine is
notoriously known as one the most challenging years to teach. So you can imagine my
surprise when I saw the students for the first time sitting military style, completely silent and
in perfect rows. Agree with her methods or not, they got results. But that was before I saw
how any student who spoke up or stepped out of line was received in Amandas class. It is
my belief that at the beginning of the class each student walks through the door with a
blank slate, regardless of how theyve behaved in previous classes. But those students
who have had a confrontation with Amanda (for whatever reason) were given no warnings
or chances in future classes. My observation was that she was on their backs at every
small misconduct, while allowing others to commit the same small offences without being
penalised. One particular student was was taken out of the class by Amanda to be spoken
to. The rest of the class and myself could hear how loudly she was yelling at this boy
through the brick wall between us. I thought to myself surely its against school policy to yell
that loudly at a student.

Teachers can support students, both emotionally and academically, by remaining fair in
their punishments and behaviour corrections. Adolescent students have a keen sense of justice
and fairness and will react badly to a teacher who they believe is inequitable. Its true that a
students may judge a teacher entirely on their behaviour management practices, these include the
implementation of school rules and policies, as well as classroom rules that differ from teacher to
teacher, like eating in class, talking or listening to music while working. If a teacher is treating a
class with a empathetic manner and just disposition, students are more likely to feel respected and
in tern give their teacher respect. The same follows if a teacher is doing the opposite and
correcting behaviour in a biased way, the students will resent coming to class and not respect their
teacher (an example of this later in the essay) (Hallinan: 2008. pg. 273).

Amanda Franelle had a few faults when it came to teaching, but passion for her topic was
not one of them. She was very enthusiastic about art, practising it outside of school hours

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and taking classes to expand her knowledge and skills. However, this manifested with her
feeling like there was only ever one way (the right way) to do something, which didnt leave
any room for the students to explore their own creative skills. Thus the feedback she would
give her students was very narrow minded and biased, never constructively criticising work,
but just pointing out that it was wrong. On the one hand I can see how she held her
students up to a very high standard, those who took her criticism on board developed their
skills at an amazing rate, but on the other hand I saw examples of how her blunt
commentary on a students artwork literally made that student give up altogether.

Teachers often make the mistake of always believing that students are irrational and
underdeveloped thinkers, and therefore incapable of making informed decisions about anything.
Thus thinking any judgements a student makes is not equal to their own (Goodman: 2009. pg. 4).
This is true in the example given above in reference to the right way to do art. Understandably
there is skill, training and technique involved in creating certain styles and genres, but this is
mastered at an advanced level and not necessarily in a year nine Art class.
Hattie and Timperley state that a teachers feedback to their students is one of the most
powerful influences on learning and achievement (2007. pg. 81), and suggests using a three
question model when giving students constructive feedback about their work: Where am I going?
How am I going? And where to next? The first is concerned with the overall goal of the
assignment, the second compares the students work to the standard the teacher expects of them
and the third is sequential instruction or a push to achieve something greater (pg. 88 - 90). In the
above example you can see that Amanda was just concerned with supplying the How am I going?
portion of feedback, without putting her comments into context - revisiting the final goal and then
instruction on what to do next.

Too often I heard students say Its only Art - my parents dont care if I fail,
Its not like this is going to help in the real world, and I dread coming to Art. This is how
the students felt about this topic at Middleton High School. However, most of them handed
assignments in on time because they knew that Ms Franelle would tear them a new one if
they didnt. I felt it was sad that these students were motivated by fear.

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Its true that most high school students come to school everyday apathetic and have a lack
a motivation, which is why its so important for teaches to make their classes as engaging as
possible, to help channel some motivation. The lack of motivation for high school students only
increases as they get older and into the senior years, seeing most classroom tasks as less
significant in their lives (Wiseman: 2012. go. 102). Amandas age and experience in Art had
worked against her in this instance, as it was extremely difficult to see things from students point of
view. Wiseman states that teenagers are physically, emotionally, and physiologically different
than their teachers, and what may motivate an adult to learn (intrinsic motivation - wanting to
expand their own knowledge because of their natural curiosity, or expand of their skills) will not
motivate a student (who are mostly motivated extrinsically by good grades and rewards from their
parents) (pg 102 & 103). An example of how Amanda could have worked around this dilemma is
by getting the students to set their own attainable learning goals at the beginning of a semester,
therefore playing to both their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Cauley & McMillan; 2010. pg. 1).
At first I thought my dilemma was as simple and as limited to the fact that my mentor
teachers attitude towards her students was making the students feel uncomfortable in the
classroom, which made me feel sorry for them. However, looking at all the research I can see just
how complex the issue of bad relationships with students is. Hallihan confirms that students who
enjoy their teachers company are more successful at school and that the type of teacher you are
can have an effect on a students success in a topic. This is also true in how a teacher handles
behaviour management and how they provide work feedback, as well as how easily a teacher is
able to empathise with a students perspective. We can see by the research done by Chingos and
Peterson that Amandas age may have been a factor in her attitude towards her job, however this
essay concludes that good relationships shouldnt be a choice, it should be an obligation.

References:

Bochner, S, Duchesne, S, Krause, K & McMaugh, A (2013). Educational Psychology for

Learning and Teaching. 4th ed. Melbourne: Cengage Learning. 288 - 310.

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Cauley, K & McMillian. (2012). Formative Assessment Techniques to Support Student

Motivation and Achievement. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and
Ideas. 83 (1), 1 - 6.
Chingos, M & Peterson, P. (2011). It's Easier to Pick A Good Teacher Than to Train One:
Familiar and new results on the correlates of teacher effectiveness. Economics of Education
Review. 30 (1), 449 - 465.
Goodman, J. (2009). Respect-due and Respect-earned: Negotiating Student-Teacher
Relationships. Ethics and Education. 4 (1), 3 - 17.
Hallinan, M. (2008). Teacher Influences on Students' Attachment to School. Sociology of
Education. 81 (July), 271 - 283.
Hattie, J & Timperley, H. (2007). The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77
(1), 81- 112.

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