Teacher and student relationship

When you think about school teachers, you remember either the scariest and most dreadful teacher or your favourite one. The scary teacher made your life miserable and made you skip school by faking stomach pain. On the other hand, your favourite teacher changed or impacted your life somehow or the other. For example, when I was in school, I was a loner. My favourite teacher, who unfortunately was a nightmare for many students, changed my life by giving me a place in the class and appreciating my every effort. She even became the reason for my career choice.

What is the difference between these two teachers? Their teacher-student relationship does not only build on a teacher in the front and students sitting there answering questions when asked. It is way beyond that; it is the way of treating each other and the sense of respect, love, care, and bonding between a student and teacher.

Importance of Teacher-Student Relation 

To Students

• Helps to improve the academic success of students

When we are under the supervision of a good teacher who we like and respect, we eventually start working hard for academic results. It is either to show our respect and assure the teacher that their trust is not vain or gain more trust. Either way, a good student-teacher leads to the student's academic growth.   

• Develops a fun learning process

When there is a healthy relationship with the teacher, our interest in class improves and makes learning fun. Good relationships lead to improved communication and the student asking questions while learning in a more fun and interactive way.  

• Improves their self-confidence

An increase in knowledgeable interactions in class, while having a surety of not getting a negative remark from the teacher, increases the student's confidence. As they know that no one will criticize them and have permission to express themselves, learning becomes easy with increased self-confidence. 

• Helps them to grow into a smart and kind person

when we like a teacher, understanding and accepting what they say becomes easy. So, when a student has a healthy relationship with their teacher, it lets them study hard, motivates them to take the values given by the teacher, and follows the class rules. This eventually makes them kind people and also increases their knowledge. 

To Teacher  

• Develops a positive environment

From a teacher's perspective, a positive classroom environment is when none of their students disrespects them, and everyone follows the rules while learning. When they build a good relationship with students, they automatically trust them and create that environment of honesty, respect, and a profound learning session. 

• Easy for the handling of conflicts in class

A healthy relationship also leads to a student confiding and trusting the teacher. When there is an inner conflict between students, it cannot be resolved if the teacher does not understand each student's mindset. With a good relationship, a teacher can easily solve conflicts between two students or another teacher and student, leading to a peaceful environment. 

• Provides professional growth

A good teaching experience comes with becoming comfortable and handling a diverse group of children. When a teacher promotes a healthy relationship with their students, the teacher also excels in their capability and move forwards with professional growth. 

Challenges Faced in Teacher-Student Relationships

By Students

• Lack of academic interest

You all have said or heard it once in your life; every person is not the same; similarly, all students are not the same. Some excel in their studies; others don’t even like to study. Their lack of interest makes them troublesome and creates distractions in class while disturbing others. This eventually makes the teacher showcase negative techniques on students to stop their mischiefs. These attempts are not successful in making them stop most of the time; however, it becomes a challenge on their relationship.

• Dropout

Teachers sometimes instigate negative behaviour on students, which impacts their life at school, and pressurizes them to take a step of dropping out, which eventually harms their life. Dropout due to a challenging student-teacher relationship is more common and leads to unemployment and degrading youth.

• Mental issues

Some students have a mental illness; due to the negative treatment they receive from their teachers at school. This issue is increased as students also tend to bully students who don’t have any possible way to complain, as the teacher won’t listen. This is also a challenge, as the poor relationship impacts the mental health leading towards a bad student-teacher relationship.

• Family issue

Sometimes, a student often has family issues, such as poverty, family disputes, divorce of their parents, violence at their home, etc., which impact their academic results. Teachers often negatively take this and put pressure on the student to perform well, and when they don’t perform well, they often give negative remarks and criticize them in class, which makes their condition even worse.  

• Parental pressure

Every parent wants their kids to excel in everything, sometimes with intention and sometimes without. They pressurize their children to perform well in school, with this pressure and above that, the pressure created by teachers leads to impacting the relationship of student and teacher. 

By Teachers

• Understanding issues with each student

There are several challenges that a teacher faces when it comes to handling a bundle of students. The first challenge is to understand each of them and their different nature, capability, and way of understanding things, teaching them with a different approach. Gauging their way of actions and thoughts is another struggle for teachers.  

• Difficulty in adapting to diverse classrooms

Every classroom has a diverse group of students and their diverse understanding of things. Teachers have to adapt to children from various backgrounds, religions, and castes. They also need to acknowledge their gender preference, and homogeneity of each student, while adapting to their choice of language and personal beliefs. It is a lot of work and challenge for a teacher. 

• Management of Parent and student relationship

Teachers are also mediators between parents and students to provide information about the student's performance at school. Teachers need to identify the nature of parents and what should be said and whatnot. Teachers also need to analyze the relation of each student with their parents so that it does not cause any more strain on their relationship. 

• Unpredictable reactions of each student

No one student acts in the same way to a single treatment method. Some students take constructive criticism well and work to perform well; others take it on their heart and become stressed, leading to a mental issue. 

• Supervision

Teachers supervise each student while maintaining that no one is treated negatively while analyzing bullying or negative activity adopted by students. Their role also makes them responsible for supervising their action in treating every student equally and showing no sign of discrimination between students. It eventually is a challenge as a single teacher and having around a handful of students in one-way a trouble. 

• Chronic absenteeism

Some students take a longer period of leave and remain absent from the class for a long time; it provides a challenge for the teacher to keep the pace of the class while keeping the absent students in the loop of the classwork and studies. This eventually makes them put pressure on the students and impacts their relationship. 

Key Elements of healthy and positive Teacher-Student relations

1. Communication and interaction, regularly, communication and interaction are basic key element that is necessary for a healthy relationship.
2. A safe space filled with trust and emotional support around their environment is also key for a healthy relationship between student and teacher. 
3. Mutual respect and room for constructive feedback are also key elements.
4. Equity between student and teacher, based on all the aspects of their relationship while focusing on creating a discrimination-free environment in class.

How to improve Teacher Student relations?

At Student Level

• Greeting teacher with respect

We all have read or learned the phrase give respect take respect. However, we don’t follow it that much; if students greet their teachers with respect and talk to them with utmost respect even if the teacher does not, they can create a good relationship with them, as kindness wins everyone. 

• Thanking teachers for their efforts

Teachers are the people who are ensuring to provide us knowledge and good values; they put their efforts to make us learn about right and wrong, thanking them for their work, should be the priority of students. It will also make the teacher feel appreciated and bond with students. 

• Creating an enthusiastic environment in class

Teachers have a job of providing knowledge, but their morale will eventually drop if they don’t feel interested and excited about it. The least students can do stay enthusiastic and showcase interest in learning about a new subject.  

• Providing their best efforts in learning

Students can also ensure that they work hard in their academic and extracurricular work. Teachers become happy even by seeing their students excel, and some of them treat students negatively only to provide pressure of working hard. If students eventually work hard, teachers will appreciate it. 

• Asking questions

Asking questions relevant to what they are learning in class is another way of showcasing interest. It can create an interaction between teacher and student and make them aware of each other’s thoughts while creating a good relationship. 

At Teacher Level

• Creating a positive environment in class

A positive environment lets the students feel comfortable. It creates a trusting bond, where students communicate the doubts and issues they face inside and outside the classroom. It brings a trustworthy bond between teachers and students. 

• Understanding and learning about each student

To make the students comfortable and identify their issues and learning style. Teachers are recommended to learn about them. It not only ends with knowing their names, passion, and family, but teachers should identify their values, how they feel, who are their friends, and who treats them wrong. Teachers should also be aware of their issues and learning capability and style. 

• Avoiding the application of punishment, or threat on students

Even with the naughtiest of students, punishment, detention, and threatening about calling their parents will never lead to them achieving anything good. Eventually, it will lead to them hating the teacher and attempting more mischief to irritate them. Teachers should avoid the punishment and threatening practice for every student. 

• Showcasing interest and care to students

A little bit of care and interest can change the life of a lonely student who might be crying for help. Teachers should provide care to every student and get interested in listening to their views to feel comfortable, acknowledged, and respected. 

• Building class value and rewarding students with an appreciation

As appreciation is also a form of motivation. Teachers can also apply the practice of rewarding even the smallest effort the student puts into their assignment or increased grades. A good teacher can create thousands of good human beings; building a kind and healthy relationship with students can bring a huge change in a student’s life and the teacher. 

Frequently Asked Question  

Q1- What should be the relationship between teacher and student?

A teacher-student relationship can be of many types. Still, the most impactful aspect of a good and healthy relationship between a student and teacher is respect for each other. The teacher treats the student with individuality, care, honesty, room for making mistakes, and support. On the other hand, students treat their teachers with respect, trust them, ensure honesty, appreciate their negative remarks, and are always kind and polite.

Q2- What is a negative teacher-student relationship?

Identification of a negative relationship is usually determined by the reaction and action of both student and teacher. A lack of support, romancing outside the classroom, getting too many punishments, lower grades, negative remarks, and disrespectful behaviour towards each other indicate a negative relationship. 

Q3- What are the benefits of a good teacher-student relationship?

1. Promotes success and growth of both. 
2. Removes communicational and behavioural issues between them.
3. Ensures a trustworthy and comfortable studying environment. 

Further Reading

• Essay on Social Media 
• Pros and Cons of Technology
• Persuasive Speech – Power of words to influence others