'2007. Students of Colegio Calasanzio with their teacher in the Galician traditional music workshop' photo (c) 2007, Iria Flavia Spanish Courses - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

I regularly emphasize the importance of building relationships with students — in my teaching practice, here in my blog, and in my books. It’s a reflection of my nineteen-year community organizing career — we say that organizing is just another name for relationship-building.

I thought it might be useful to share some related resources — both showing research and providing “how-to” suggestions. Feel free to suggest others.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources On The Importance Of Building Positive Relationships With Students:

Robert Marzano has a short and useful article in this month’s issue of Educational Leadership. It’s titled Relating to Students: It’s What You Do That Counts.

The Power of Positive Relationships is by Tara Brown, and appeared in Middle Ground.

The Relationship Balance by Cindi Rigsbee at Educational Leadership.

Here are some of my own posts on the topic:

Communicating With Students

I’ve Never “Motivated” A Student

“Be Niiiiiicccccceeeee”

The Value Of Sharing Positive Events

The Key To Disaster Survival? Friends And Neighbors is an NPR report on a new study documenting the importance of relationships. Though it doesn’t talk specifically about relationships and educations, the connections are pretty obvious.

Relationships Matter by Sean Slade is not a new study, but is an excellent compilation of studies highlighting the importance of positive teacher/student, family/school, teacher/teacher, and student/student relationships.

And If You Need Even More Evidence That Relationship-Building Is Important In The Classroom….

Five Practices for Building Positive Relationships With Students is from Ed Week Teacher.

Science Reveals the Power of a Handshake is from Science Daily.

 

 

What Relationships Mean in Educating Boys is an Ed Week report on two studies finding that the relationship between a teacher and a young male student is particularly important in creating positive learning experiences.

Best Teaching Is Based on Relationships is by Walt Gardner at Ed Week.

My latest Ed Week Teacher column brings together all my posts there from the past three years on the topic of “relationships.”

Get to Know Your Teachers, Kids is from the Atlantic and discusses the results of a new study.

10 Seconds: The Time It Takes a Student to Size You Up is by Peter DeWitt at Education Week.

The Harvard Business Review published a short article titled The Neurochemistry of Positive Conversations. Read the article, which includes the chart in the tweet below. How are we doing in our conversations with students?

Experiment Tests If Teacher-Student Relationship Helps Performance is from NPR.

Statistic Of The Day: The Importance Of Teacher-Student Relationships

New Study Says Teacher-Student Relationship In Fifth Grade Sets Stage For Future Behavior

New Study Shows Intervention Has Big Impact On “Achievement Gap” – Also Shows Shortcomings Of Ed Research

New Study Reaffirms What Teachers Know: Relationships Matter

Another Unsurprising Research Result: Students Less Likely To Drop-Out If Teachers Encourage Them To Continue

Study: Teachers Have Fewer Good Relationships With “immigrants and adolescents of color”

Four tips for building authentic connections with your teen students is from Edutopia.

Students Learn Less When They Sense Teacher Hostility is from Ed Week.

In A Surprise To No Teacher Anywhere, New Studies Find Positive Teacher/Student Relationships Help Learning

Study Finds That If Teachers Make Students “Feel Like They Matter,” Then Behavior Is Better – Who Would Have Thought?

 Welcoming Students With a Smile is from Edutopia.

‘You Can’t get to Bloom Without Going Through Maslow’ is the headline of one of my Education Week Teacher columns. This eight-part series on teacher/student relationships is wrapped-up  by Tara Brown, Dr. Donna Wilson, Dr. Marcus Conyers, Jennifer Cleary, Stuart Ablon, Alisha Pollastri, Eileen Depka, and Richard Gerver. I’ve also included responses from readers.

SAYING “THANK YOU” TO STUDENTS

THIS ARTICLE IS ONE OF THE BEST PIECES I’VE READ ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

WAYS TO TURN A BAD TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP INTO A GOOD ONE

NEW RESEARCH RE-CONFIRMS THAT POSITIVE TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS MATTER

Stories from the Field: Building strong teacher-student relationships in the classroom is from Transforming Ed.

ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH, RITA PIERSON WAS MORE RIGHT THAN NOT WHEN SHE SAID, “KIDS DON’T LEARN FROM PEOPLE THEY DON’T LIKE.”

“INDIVIDUAL MEETINGS” ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION & THEY CAN BE THE SAME IN A DISTANCE LEARNING CLASSROOM

NEW STUDY HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS (IN CASE ANYONE NEEDED MORE EVIDENCE!)

New Meta-Analysis Highlight “Establish-Maintain-Restore” As Most Effective Teacher-Student Relationship Strategy

Teachers in South Central LA who had personal ties to the neighborhood made better connections with students is from The Conversation.

Study Finds – To No Teacher’s Surprise – That Praising More Than Reprimanding Gets Results

INTRIGUING RESEARCH SUGGESTS RELATIVELY SIMPLE EXERCISE WITH TEACHERS MIGHT REDUCE STUDENT SUSPENSIONS

Teacher relationship skills and student learning is a new and useful study.

Trading ‘Please focus’ for ‘How are you?’: A listening strategy that’s helping some teachers improve the classroom experience is from Chalkbeat.

THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE “ESTABLISH-MAINTAIN-RESTORE” CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT APPROACH

Positive teacher-student relationships may lead to better teaching is an interesting paper. It’s behind a paywall, but you read a version here read summaries here and here.

CAN A POSITIVE TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP MAKE YOU BETTER AT TEACHING? is from Inner Drive.

NEW SURVEY ON SCHOOL LEARNING, RELATIONSHIPS, & BELONGING CONTAINS LOTS OF USEFUL & CONCERNING INFO

Study Finds Positive Teacher-Student Relationship Especially Important In High School

4 Key Relationships to Nurture in Your Middle or High School Classroom is from Edutopia.

Creating Connections With Black Male Students is from Edutopia.

Building Authentic Relationships With Students is from Edutopia

The Power of Student-Teacher Relationships: A Downloadable Guide is from Ed Week.

Good Student-Teacher Relationships Spiked During COVID. How to Get Them Back is from The 74.

Cultivating Relationships in Secondary Classrooms: Practices That Matter is from The Learning Policy Institute.

More Evidence – If You Needed It – About Why Teacher/Student Relationships Are Important

Feedback is welcome.

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