The Importance of having a Teacher-Pupil Relationship

As I am now near the end of my School placement 3, I have noticed how important it
is to have an excellent relationship with your pupils. I remember when I first walked in and
met my co-operating teacher, one of the first things I asked him was “What would you
recommend me to do to gain the students respect”. The co-operating teacher told me that
the only way to gain their respect is to build a good teacher/student relationship with them.
I really had a deep think about that statement and I then put it into action, the first class I
had with all my groups, my main aim was to start off with a good relationship with my
students and I truly felt that it worked and from that moment onwards, I feel that my
relationship with my students has truly blossomed into something great.
I believe that to have a positive classroom climate in your class, it depends a lot on
how well you get on with your students and the relationship you first established and
developed with them. I feel that having a good classroom climate and relationship with your
students will truly lead to them engaging and learning a lot more in your classroom. I also
believe that having a relationship built on respect and rapport will create an excellent
learning environment in the classroom “Pupils’ learning is most likely to flourish in a climate
where this relationship is based on mutual respect and rapport between yourself and your
pupils” (Kyriacou, 2007). I truly believe a lot in this statement, if there is no respect or
rapport in the classroom, the learning can not take place as the student’s wont work for a
teacher that has no respect for them or the other way around.
I feel that having a good teacher-pupil relationship is very important for many
reasons. I believe that having this good relationship with your students leads to you the
teacher gaining respect from your students, which in my opinion is the most important thing
to have from your students as if your students don’t respect you or you don’t respect your
students, no work or learning would take place or be accomplished in the classroom “Good
teacher-pupil relationships go beyond controlling students and fostering compliance in the
classroom: they aim to create a classroom climate that represents an affective blend of
warmth, care, tolerance, respect, acceptance and competent teaching” (Hue, 2008).
From my own personal experience on school placement 3, I feel that I have an
excellent relationship with my students. I believe that my students and I get on very well
and respect each other’s needs and wants. And from this I believe that a lot of learning
takes place in my classroom as I truly think that my students want to come into my
classroom every Friday and learn something new in my classroom. Also, I believe that to
develop this type of a relationship with your students you the teacher has to gain respect
and also offer respect to and from your students. You have to show to the students that you
are not there to force them to learn but your there to encourage and motivate them to
want to learn. From them seeing that you are a teacher that cares and wants to see
students developing, I truly feel that they will want to learn in your classroom. I never really
noticed how good my far and good my relationship with my students has become until my
first inspection. My inspector was truly impressed with my relationship with my students
and informed me that from having this excellent relationship, the students work very hard
throughout my lesson. When I was informed about this I was very happy and it was a very
heart warming moment for me.
Finally, I think that to have good rapport between you and your students is nearly as
important as respect in relation to having a good relationship with your students. “Good
rapport stems from conveying to pupils that you understand, share and value their
perspective, as individuals, on a whole range of matters and experiences, academic, social
and personal” (Kyriacou, 2007) This means caring for students and showing that you care
about them. For example, when a student is upset you are there to comfort them and make
sure they are okay. This once again leads to you having a good caring relationship with your
students.
Overall, I feel that having a good relationship with your students does truly lead to
more learning taking place in the classroom as there is a good learning classroom
environment. I believe a lot in a good teacher/student relationship, from over the last two
placements I have now noticed that I am very strong at creating a positive and effective
relationship with all my students and groups and I truly believe that this will benefit me in
the near future. I truly believe that one of the keys to becoming a great teacher is been able
to create a good relationship with students and then further develop it into something
great.

References
Hue, M. (2008). Classroom Mangement : Creating a Positive Learning Enivornment . Hong Kong:
Hong Kong Univeristy Press (Hong Kong Teacheer Education).

Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham : Nelson Thornes LTD.