Building Caring Relationships

"Research has identified practical tips for teachers to help them build caring relationships with students," writes Vicki Zakrzewski in an online article published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Here are some of the tips Zakrzewski found most helpful:

Get to know your students and the lives they live. This is especially important if your students are from a different cultural or socio-economic background than you. Numerous studies have shown that cultural misunderstanding between teachers and students can have a hugely negative impact on students’ educational experience. But research has also shown that teachers who visit students’ homes and spend time in their communities develop a deep awareness of students’ challenges and needs and are better able to help them...

Actively listen to students. A teacher who actively listens to students is listening for the meaning behind what students are saying, then checks in with them to make sure they’ve understood properly. This affirms students’ dignity and helps develop a trusting relationship between teachers and students...

Reflect on your own experience with care. Oftentimes, we unconsciously care for others the way we have been cared for—for better or worse. When one researcher interviewed four different teachers at the same school who all shared one particular student, she found that each teacher cared for the student in the way she had been cared for as a child. It didn’t even occur to the teachers to ask the parents—or the child himself—what the child’s needs might be. Instead, they made assumptions about the child’s background based on their own childhoods; as a result, the child received four different types of care—which may not necessarily have been appropriate to his/her needs.

Source: "Four Ways Teachers Can Show They Care," by Vicki Zakrzewski, Greater Good Magazine, September 18, 2012

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