Exploring Student Perceptions of Helpful & Not-Helpful Teacher Relationships

1. Exploring Student Perceptions of Helpful & Not-Helpful Teacher Relationships Learnings From Nine At-Risk Teens

2. Research Questions In the perceptions of at risk students: • What makes a teacher helpful? • What does a helpful relationship with a teacher feel like? • What is the effect of a helpful teacher on how much is learned and the student’s ability and desire to complete high school.

3. Nine students Five females, four males 16 – 19 years old (sophomores to seniors) All in alternative program for at least 8 months at the time of interviews. Student Profiles

4. Some Student Attributes • One Hunter • Two Mechanics • One Mother • One Artist • One Musician • One Cook

5. Living Situation at Time of Interview • With Both Bio Parents (4) • With One Bio Parent (3) • With Grandparent (1) • On own (1)

6. Economic Background • 6 eligible for school lunch • 3 not eligible

7. Conditions & Experiences Leading to Being At Risk • Poor attendance & truancy (5) • Substance Abuse (3) • Dropping Out (2) • Anxiety(2) • Legal Involvement (2) • Homeless (1) • Teen Parent (1)

8. School Profiles • Two Alternative Schools (Offsite) • Serving 35 – 40 students • One in southern Maine • One in Central Maine • Both Districts from towns/areas with relatively dense populations (for Maine).

9. School Profiles (2)

10. Teacher Selection Process • Each student designated each teacher as especially helpful, helpful, and not-helpful. • Each student discussed two current teachers in their interviews with me. • I picked student-teacher pairs whose perceptions of helpfulness coincided as much as possible.

11. Nine teachers Nine students had at least one especially helpful teacher they were interviewed about, and three had not-helpful teachers they discussed. 6 male teachers, 3 female teachers working in program from 1 – 15 yrs. years,median 7 yrs. 6 teachers in more than 1 pair Teacher Profile

12. Research Question One: What teacher attributes and behaviors do at-risk students identify as helpful and not-helpful?

13. Helpful teacher behaviors related to academic learning • Breaking it Down: the teacher’s capacity to break material to be learned into component parts and thoroughly go through these with the student; • Creating Active Learning Experiences: the teacher’s capacity to create a learning environment in which students are active and able to choose personally relevant hands-on projects;

14. Helpful teacher behaviors related to academic learning (2) • Listening Attentively (1): the teacher’s capacity to listen to student interests, discoveries, and their learning process.

15. Relationally Oriented Interactional Behaviors of Helpful Teachers • Listening Attentively (2): A teacher’s capacity to attend to student disclosures about their lives, and their interior realm and respond; • Non Judgmental: A teacher’s ability to respond to students without personal judgment;

16. Relationally Oriented Interactional Behaviors of Helpful Teachers 2 • Reading the Student Well: A teacher’s capacity to understand what a student needs and to respond in a way that the student can accept. • Energy and Enthusiasm: The disposition to manifest energy and enthusiasm about the subject matter, the students, and the work of teaching;

17. Relationally Oriented Interactional Behaviors of Helpful Teachers 3 • Motherliness without hovering: The capacity of the teacher to be comforting, kind, concerned, as well as to be able to give students their autonomy; • Genuineness: A teacher’s ability to be direct about how s/he is feeling and clear about who s/he is as a “person”.

18. Not Helpful Teachers • Were judgmental • Didn’t “read” the student well • Only 3 current teachers, many experiences with teachers in previous schools.

19. Research Question 2 How do at risk students describe a helpful and not helpful teacher-student relationship?

20. Four themes characterize the “feel” of a helpful relationship: • OPEN • CLOSE • COLLABORATIVE • CARING AND INTERESTED

21. Openness, Comfort & Feeling “Laid Back” • Students feel free to interact, ask questions, and engage the task at hand. • Students sense their teachers’ willingness and interest in • learning who they are • becoming more “visible” to the students • Humor appears to be both a vehicle for developing openness and a sign that it exists between teacher and student.

22. Julia: “I'm not scared to ask a question. It feels open to me. It feels like she (teacher) says ‘you can ask me a question, feel free, and I will give an answer that I want and we can discuss’ and I won't be wondering what this teacher is going to be like ….I feel comfortable asking questions anytime.”Jenny: discussing her most helpful teacher “He's not really strict and he's laid back... I like laid-back people I don't like strict people…laid back people give me a sense of relaxation.”

24. Being Friends: The Sense of Closeness and Equality • Students tend to see their helpful teachers as “friends”, giving rise to a sense of:  mutual caring  fundamental equality

25. Being Friends: The Sense of Closeness and Equality • Intimate interactions :  Are person to person and • Help to reduce the student sense that they are unequal to their teachers despite the acknowledged asymmetries of age and role.  Involve personal disclosure that feels safe to the student

26. Angel: “I feel like some kind of closeness to her. She was explaining that when she had vacation that she missed all the kids in the class and I realize that I missed the teachers and I actually missed being in school and I missed the teachers and never realized that. When I had vacation at the (previous) high school it was like ‘okay I'm out of here’.”

27. Not Friendly Relationships These are characterized by students’ perceptions including: • A sense of inequality with the teacher • Teacher is a source of pressure • Teacher is unknown to student and vice versa

28. A Collaborative Connection A majority of students noted they are successfully encouraged to engage in challenging work if they perceive that : • the teacher is asking for their cooperation • will be willing to work with them on it, and has their best interests at heart.

29. Angel: “My helpful teacher” is like, hard assed on me, she's not riding on my back - she gets me to do it because the persistency of her, and I feel like I know I've got to get this done for “My helpful teacher” because she's looking out for my best interests obviously.”

30. Amelia describes a mediated discussion with a guidance counselor and an uncollaborative teacher: Amelia: “So he said ‘I don't see why I should help you when you're not coming to my class,’ and I said ‘I would come to your class if you would help me. I was coming to your class all that time and you still didn't help me.’”

31. Caring Inquiry and Interactions Beyond the Classroom (1) • Students in the study respond positively to caring inquiry about their lives beyond the classroom. • When teachers and students have time to learn each other’s interests they can build a stronger sense of connection especially if they share an interest. Teachers can personalize curriculum so that it is relevant to the genuine interests their student has discussed with them.

32. Caring Inquiry and Interactions Beyond the Classroom (2) • Eight of nine students said that relationship building interactions occur in places beyond the classroom, or in non-classroom time. • Students find it helpful to have non-class time with their teachers preferably one to one, where they can discuss what is happening for them at home, in school & with peers.

33. Distant and Unconcerned Relationships • When students sense that teachers are indifferent and distant from their lives beyond the door of their classroom, they are less likely to engage with the teacher and more likely to see their connection as a not-helpful one.

34. Robert : “Even like with life goals, teachers at the (previous) high school would never have tried to set me up with like an interview with the police. They don't care what happens to you outside of school. They want to get you through and that's it,”

35. Behaviors that Help to Identify Helpful Relationships: The Survey • All students filled out a survey of 21 questions that asked them about their teachers and/or their own behaviors when they interacted: • Questions about: • Verbal Behavior • Non-Verbal Behavior • Interactional Patterns and Intensities

36. Sample Survey Questions

37. In only 2 instances of 189 responses in these questions did a student rate the less favorable teacher with a more positive response than the more favorable teacher.

38. Research Question #3 How do students perceive the effect of helpful and not-helpful relationships on: • Academic growth, • Academic engagement, and • The desire and ability to complete school

39. Student Perceptions of Progress with Helpful and Especially Helpful Teachers Students all felt like they were making some progress in the classes they were taking with their helpful teachers.  For some of them the progress was in mastery of specific academic skills,  For others the progress was in asking more questions, increased self confidence and generally engaging more in activities.

40. How do helpful relationships affect the desire and ability to complete?  One third of the students said they were already determined, so the relationship didn’t affect their desire although it helped with the ability.  Two thirds specifically connected increased desire and capacity to complete with their connections with their helpful teachers.

41. With teachers they perceived to be not-helpful, students in this study: • Stopped asking questions • Stopped communicating • Disengaged from academic tasks • Began skipping classes • Dropped the class • Sometimes dropped school entirely

42. The Cascade of Disengagement:Disengagement in the classroom turns into disengagement from the classroom, and sometimes from school entirely.

43. Not Helpful Relationships Affect Learning: • Students were unanimous that they learned more in the classrooms of their helpful teachers than their not-helpful teachers. • They were almost unanimous (8 of 9) in terms of the deleterious effect not-helpful relationships had upon their learning.

44. Helpful Relationships Contribute to Academic Progress • For a majority of students in the study a helping relationship with a teacher contributed to academic progress, as well as their sense of being able and motivated to complete school. ( Note: Teachers corroborated student progress in all cases, using attendance, grades, portfolios, anecdotal experiences to validate student perceptions of academic progress and engagement.)

45. What are the Implications for Practice?This is where YOU come in!!What do you think they are?Thanks for Listening.

46. For More Information • For the full presentation or questions, email or call me at emanuel@gwi.net , 207-861-4004 • For Further Reading: Robert Pianta’s Book “Enhancing Relationships Between Children and Teachers” & Deborah Meier’s “In Schools We Trust”, journal articles by Kathryn Wentzel, Students talk about their own experiences: “Fires in the Bathroom”, Cushman, Delpit. • Start doing your own research on how students are perceiving your classroom and whom you could be more helpful to.