Course 8: Developing Relationships

Foundations of Teaching for Learning

Professor Tony Townsend and Dr Fawaz Shareef
Commonwealth Education Trust
Course 8: Developing Relationships

Week 1: The Importance of Relationships

Lecture 3: Strategies for Improving Relationships
Dr Fawaz Shareef
Types of Relationships in Schools

Teacher-student relationship
 has been a focus of inquiry for over 2000 years, since Plato, Socrates, and
Confucius established much of the philosophical guidelines for teaching
 was redefined with the advent of cognitive psychology
 Constructivism was defined as teachers and students constructing
knowledge jointly
 teachers and students were believed to constitute a community of learners
which engages in social discourse and produces common understandings.
Types of Relationships in Schools

Teacher-teacher relationship
 teachers are often isolated from their peers
 interaction between teachers will lead to increased
teacher professionalism
 interactions among mentors and their paired teachers
are often reserved, non-problematic, and uncritical
Types of Relationships in Schools

Teacher-administration relationship
 research has found a positive relationship between
participative decision-making and excellent classroom
instruction
 Research shows that teachers who have leadership
roles and increased opportunities for professional
relationships improved by these experiences
 Types of Relationships in Schools

Teacher-parent relationship
 impacts students' learning and well-being
 fosters parent-teacher relationships, and includes parents in
educational interventions, which are significantly more effective
than those without parent involvement
 promotes a number of desirable student outcomes, including:
decreased teen pregnancy and drop-out rates, increased graduation
rates, and improved achievement and school attendance
 Improving Relationships

Successful relationships will depend on

Trust
 every relationship in the school setting will have something at stake hence trust is an important
factor
Effective Communication
 allows teachers to form effective partnerships with parents and community
Understanding Personal Styles
 There are many different ways of establishing positive relationships
Ability to deal with Issues
 Conflict and difficult people are a reality within any group setting and this is more so in a school
community with many different people involved
 Trust

Benevolence
 Having confidence that another party has your best interests at heart and will protect your interests is a key
ingredient of trust.
Reliability
 Reliability refers to the extent to which you can depend upon another party to come through for you, to act
consistently, and to follow through.
Competence
 Competence has to do with belief in another party’s ability to perform the tasks required by his or her position.
Honesty
 A person’s integrity, character, and authenticity are all dimensions of trust. The degree to which a person can be
counted on to represent situations fairly makes a huge difference in whether or not he or she is trusted by others
in the school community.
Openness
 Judgments about openness have to do with how freely another party shares information with others. Guarded
communication, for instance, provokes distrust because people wonder what is being withheld and why.
 Effective Communication

Make It Positive
 Do not communicate only negative things
 Communicate what the child is doing well
 Communicate in such a way that is responsive to those areas where their child needs support
Make It Practical
 Give parents resources to understand the curriculum
 Be specific about where students are having difficulties
 Make specific suggestions about what parents can do to help their child
Make It Personal
 Collaboration between parents and teachers is raised when parents read something personal about
their own child
 Include personalised messages to parents whenever possible.
 Personal Styles

 Conflicts arise with people in school communities due to individual

differences in their style of reflecting, interacting, and problem
solving
 Failure to recognise these natural differences and failure to capitalise
on the strengths these differences can lead to missed opportunities
 It is important for the teachers to understand the different personal
styles of individuals within their community in order to build an
effective relationship within them.
 Personal Styles

Thinker - Gathers data through the left brain

Normal Conditions Under Pressure
 Logical  Overly serious
 Analytical  Emotions hidden
 Systematic  Indecisive
 Organised  Inflexible
 Fact oriented  Broods
 Deliberate  Over-controls
 Orderly  Withdraws
 Rational  Judgmental
 Perfectionist
 Personal Styles

Feeler - Picks up feelings through their emotional antenna

Normal Conditions Under Pressure
 Emotional  Over-personalises
 Focuses on feelings  Blames
 People-oriented  Vindictive
 Friendly  Moody
 Warm  Volatile
 Charming  Impulsive
 Loyal  Manipulative
 Sensitive to others' needs  Sustains conflict
 Gossips
 Personal Styles

Sensor - Senses small stimuli in immediate environment

Normal Conditions Under Pressure
 Active  Brusque
 Results-oriented  Short-sighted
 Confident  Combative
 Competitive  Hyperactive
 Here-and-now oriented  Distrustful
 Does several things at once  Inconsiderate
 Candid  Compulsive
 Assertive  Impatient
 Realistic
 Personal Styles
Intuitor - Gains insight through the subconscious right brain
Normal Conditions Under Pressure
 Creative  Aloof
 Imaginative  Removed from reality
 Inner vision  Lack of completion
 Conceptual  Ignores conflict
 Asks “why” questions  Impractical
 Innovative  Dogmatic
 Idealistic  Overlooks detail
 Intellectually tenacious  Overly optimistic
 Independent
 Psychic potential
 Dealing with Issues

Teachers will need to be able to work through conflict and to deal with
difficult people rather than avoiding it

Some of the possible problems that arise within groups include:

 A clear purpose and reasonable goals for the whole group are not articulated
 Meeting times are not kept or are unrealistic
 Long-held resentments sabotage the relationship
 The personalities of people do not complement each other
 Insufficient attention is given to the relationship - the rationale for partnering people is
lacking
 The expectations of the individual group members are significantly different.
 Next Session

In our next session we will look at

how codes of conduct are an
important element in shaping our
relationships in schools.
 Foundations of Teaching for Learning

Copyright Notice
Course 8: Week 1, Lecture 3
Slides © Commonwealth Education Trust. All Rights Reserved.

1, 18 Image: http://www.schneiderb.com/social-media-its-about-the-relationships/

2, 17 Images: © schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org