allAfrica.com: Mauritius: Establishing Positive Relationships with Learners (Page 1 of 1)

A positive classroom climate very much depends on the type of relationship a teacher establishes with his or her students. Learning is most likely to flourish in a climate where this relationship is based on mutual respect and rapport between teachers and learners.

Mutual respect largely develops from our learners seeing by our actions that we are competent teachers, that we care about their progress, by planning and conducting effective lessons and carrying out our various tasks with commitment.

In addition, we convey in our dealings with learners, both during whole - class teaching and in our interactions with individuals, that we respect each learner as an individual who has his/her own personal needs.

Good rapport stems from conveying to learners that we understand, share and value their perspective, as indivi-duals, on a whole range of matters and experiences: academic, social and personal, for example, expressing sympathy when their favorite football team gets knocked out of a cup competition, praising a student who has won an inter-college competition or showing concern for a child who has a bad cold The development of a positive classroom climate depends on this relationship being two-way: our respect for learners should be reciprocated in their respect for us, and our understanding of their perspectives reciprocated in their understanding of ours. Nevertheless, as adults, and given our role as teachers, we are responsible for influencing our learners in such a way as to establish a harmonious relationship in the classroom.

The type of relationship that we establish with our lear-ners depends mainly on our personal qualities and characteristics. Being natural ranks top on the list! Since the perfect set of personal qualities and characteristics for an effective teacher has not been found, teachers can afford to be themselves and not a carbon copy of some perfect guru.

Learners are sensitive to the ays in which a teacher may interact differently towards the various students.

When we stray from being fair, the whole class will notice and judge accordingly.

Students do like teachers who present themselves as real persons. This means the teacher speaks in a normal voice, expresses the feelings of a normal person, such as delight, happiness, enjoyment, annoyance, or disappointment, enjoys a laugh with the students when something funny occurs . hence, when learners see us for who we really are they accept us more readily because we are not presenting ourselves in a false way.

Learners can detect falseness very quickly and are immediately on their guard, which is hardly the basis for good personal relationships.

Being warm and pleasant also contribute to the development of good relationships with our learners. As teachers who enjoy being with students, we will be able to tell them that we value and respect them as fellow human beings, that we prize their individual characteristics and that we are happy to have them around. The smile on our face will be genuine and the tone of our voice will be soft and natural. Presumably our body language will be more open and free. Similarly, being pleasant conveys the attitude of a happy person, as compared to a moody person, and our learners also will respond accordingly. Thus, being a relaxed, friendly and enthusiastic teacher enables us to develop a positive and constructive relationship with our learners.

Next, being approachable and tolerant are also qualities and characteristics that enable us to establish positive relationships with our learners. When students feel that they can freely approach the teacher on most (if not all) matters, then we can say that we have been able to establish a fine basis for personal relationships in the classroom. The teacher who always has time to listen to a child, who is not a threatening adult and who makes lear-ners feel good about being with him or her on a one-to-one basis, is the teacher whom they will consider as being approachable. Since all students are different, the teacher who also conveys the attitude of appreciating the differences in his or her learners and is not bothered by such differences will be more likely to be viewed as fair and consistent. All learners are sensitive to the ways in which a teacher may interact differently towards the various students in his or her class. When we stray from being fair and reasonable towards some of our students, the whole class will notice and judge accordingly. Therefore we must try to be cordial, accepting and tolerant of even those students with whom we find difficulty establishing acloser relationship.

Nevertheless, since none of us is born a teacher, here is a short list of actions that we can undertake to enhance our relationships with learners:

-Learn the names of your students quickly. If necessary, make a desk plan and enter the learners' names. Assist this learning process by noting any distinguishing feature about each student - a physical feature, a mannerism or a voice pattern.

-Share oneself evenly with learners. All students have a right to be in contact with the teacher and so the more even-handed we are in our teaching, the more our personal relationships will be founded on an appropriate basis. This will also prevent the building up of some old and preconceived ideas of some students being the teacher's pet.

-Come to know the learners in as many different ways as possible. Those of us who have taught for a long time never cease to be amazed by the richness and diversity of our students' lives outside the classroom when we eventually come to find out what they do with their time awayfrom school.

-Talking to students either on a one-to-one basis or in small groups, both inside and outside the classroom, or joining in with students as they enjoy games and other activities enables teachers to discover more about their interests, likes, dislikes and even family backgrounds.

-Finally, a teacher who shows students that he or she is interested in them will find it easier to form realistic and natural relationships in the classroom.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories

Today's Most Active Stories