On Thursday, Dec. 14, the Professional Development Committee held an article discussion panel in the English Language Center department. The purpose of the panel was to discuss Teacher-Student Relationship at colleges, according to this article. Acting chair Dr. Mick, Dr. Radi, Ms. Revathy, Mr. Mastoor, and Dr. Sabah attended the panel. The was connected to CCQ context. Dr. Sabah led the discussion by asking questions to activate the attendees’ experiences.
The contents of the discussion are below:
- How different are school Teacher Student Relationships (TSR) different from college TSR?
Schools: belongingness, care,
Higher education: Affective Domain / Supportive Domain
- What determines the level of TSR at colleges?
Affective Domain: bonds built between students and teachers/ care for students/ mutual respect/ trust/ honesty/ adult-adult relationship / independent(adult-like) behavior is expected from students/ promoting students integration/
Supportive dimension: teacher’s clear expectations, challenging activities/ no spoon feeding/ approachability.
- What is “Teacher’s approachability”? How does it influence TSR?
Teacher’s approachability:
Approachable teacher: answering students questions promptly, clearly communicating expectations with regard to assignments, helpful for students’ success, availability at office hours/ tutoring/ calling students by their names students’ names/ encouragement/ openness / staying in class to meet students/ saying high to students on campus, smiling often/ exhibiting warm and caring behavior/ teacher’s enthusiasm.
Unapproachable teacher: Unapproachable behavior was described by items such as ‘talks down to students’, ‘misses office hours’ and ‘appears bored when teaching.
4.How do different TSRs influence students?
Negative influence: low achievement/ stress/ frustration/ hatred/ non-belongingness/ dropping-out.
Positive influence: high achievement/ good retention/ feeling of responsibility/ commitment/ enthusiasm/
What are the factors that may influence TSR?
Teacher’s personality
Students’ characteristics ( anxiety, learning styles, personality temperaments, proficiency, goal)
College policies and rules
Teachers pedagogy: teaching strategies/ number of assignment/ classroom interaction/
Classroom environment
Mode of instruction (language, resource)
Gender
Time and space
context: topic of the lesson
- “TSR can be described using a range of concepts including closeness, care, connection, safety, trust, honesty, fairness, respect, openness, support, encouragement, availability and approachability” P 378
Conclusion:
“positive relationships with university teachers not only contribute to the retention of students but also facilitate other factors, such as commitment(Strauss &Volkwein, 2004), effort (Lundberg & Schreiner, 2004), motivation(Rugutt & Chemosit, 2009; Zepke & Leach, 2010), satisfaction (Calvo et al., 2010;Dobranska & Frymier 2004; Trigwell, 2005), engagement (Zepke & Leach, 2010),deep-learning approaches (Trigwell, 2005), achievement, and intellectualdevelopment (e.g., critical thinking, learning
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