Teacher–Student Relationships and Student Achievement

Abstract

Although the characteristics that students bring into the classroom substantially influence their learning, characteristics of the learning environment also directly and indirectly influence students’ achievement. Of these learning environment features, the teacher’s role is important for the quality of student learning experiences. In explaining the variance in student achievement, after student characteristics, the teacher is the strongest factor (Hattie, 2009). Teachers exert their influence on students through a variety of actions, such as providing assignments and homework; assessing students; collaborating with parents and other teachers; and providing instructional, emotional, and organizational support. How exactly student outcomes are produced in interactions between teachers and students is not clear, but probably among others, time on task (Fraser, Walberg, Welch, & Hattie, 1987), emotional security (Thijs & Koomen, 2008), students’ academic self concept (Muijs et al., 2014), student motivation and engagement (Martin & Dowson, 2009), and peer relationships (Hughes, Cavell, & Willson, 2001) are mediators that may link teacher behaviors to student outcomes. Some mediating factors will be dealt with briefly in the last section, but these are not the focal topic of this chapter. The present chapter focuses on a specific aspect of teacher behavior in the classroom, as realized in daily teacher-student interactions and the generalization of interactions over time: teacher-student relationships. According to Roorda, Koomen, Spilt, and Oort (2011), a favorable teacher-student relationship is considered to stimulate learning behavior and to support students to deal with the demands of the school context. A negative teacher-student relationship, on the other hand, reflects a lack of security and is believed to hamper and interfere with the child’s attempts to cope with demands in school. Indeed, the quality of teacher-student relationships has been shown to be related to student affective and cognitive outcomes (e.g., Cornelius-White, 2007; Roorda et al., 2011). At the same time, teacher-student relationships are connected to teacher job satisfaction and burnout (e.g., Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011).