HOW TO CREATE A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM.
HOW TO CREATE A GOOD WORKING RELATIONSHIP IN THE CLASSROOM.
Rapport is sometimes characterised as a kind of indefinable magic that some teachers manage to create where others fail, and, certainly, you can often detect when it is present within a few seconds of walking into a room: a sense of lively engagement, a roomful of people who are happy to be together and work together.
I recently observed a class where the students were all working on group tasks, and the teacher said nothing at all for more than 10 minutes, yet the quality of rapport was tangible and real.
Read more: HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE AND ASSIST LEARNERS OF DIFFERENT LEVELS WITHIN THE SAME CLASS.
Despite the appearance of magic, good rapport is all about several distinct, concrete, and learnable elements.
Any teacher can learn to create a better rapport.
The crucial foundation block is authenticity, as without that, any relationship will be a facade rather than genuine.
Beyond that, good listening and showing respect and support are also important, and you can win a lot of students over with a good sense of humour.
Once these are in place, a depth of rapport can grow out of the shared experience of working and learning together.
You are primarily their teacher, and to repay their trust, you need to ensure that you provide excellent learning opportunities.
Building rapport with your learners
- Be welcoming, be encouraging, be approachable
As far as reasonably possible, build in time and space for learners to talk to you as people.
Don’t cram lessons full from minute one to the end.
Space for unstructured talk is good.
Listen carefully when learners tell you things.
Respond as a human.
- Treat each learner as an individual
Don’t view the class only as a class.
As quickly as you can, learn names and start to see and believe in each person as an individual with potential.
Let them see that this is how you view them.
- Remember positive things about your students
Keep a notebook in which you record and remind yourself of positive things individual learners do, personal notes about them (hobbies, family, stories they tell, etc.).
Let learners know that you are interested in their lives beyond the classroom by asking about people or events they have mentioned previously.
When a learner is feeling down, remind them of their positive achievements.
- Empathise
Try to see what things look like from the learners’ point of view.
Read more: HOW TO MAKE TEACHING AND LEARNING MORE VISUAL.
- Be you rather than “the teacher’
Don’t feel obliged to be a teacher all the time, jumping in to save or solve.
Don’t talk from your hierarchical role.
Ask genuine personal questions, and listen to the answers (not only the errors).
- Don’t fake happiness or pleasure
This can often come across as ‘false’.
- Be culturally sensitive
Make sure that what you say and what you ask learners to do are not inappropriate for the local context.
- Avoid sarcasm
It’s almost impossible to pitch correctly and upset people in ways that you cannot always see.
Is It OK To Be Friends With Learners?
Some teachers would shout ‘NO’ very loudly to that question.
Some would answer that they can’t imagine teaching without friendship.
Others would advise keeping a balance between getting to know your students and maintaining a certain teacher distance.
Your response may partly depend on several variables including the context where you teach, the age of your students, and the amount of time you have together.
These are three possible positions on a continuum of beliefs about classroom relationships.
Read more: Facilitating an Effective Classroom Discussion.
Decide where you would place yourself.
Learners are workers
- Who they are outside the class is irrelevant to in-classroom work.
- Interaction in class should be entirely work-focused.
- The teacher should not ask questions about personal issues.
- Friendship is irrelevant, unnecessary, and potentially dangerous.
Learners are students
- Who they are outside the class is irrelevant to in-classroom work.
- Interactions in class should be mainly work-focused, though there is space for other things.
- The teacher can ask questions about personal issues if necessary.
- A respectful working relationship is more important than friendship.
Learners are people
- Who they are outside the class is crucial to in-classroom work.
- Interaction in class should be normal human interaction, person-to-person.
- The teacher should take an active interest in the students as whole people.
- Friendship is natural between people who respect each other and work together.
The majority of teachers are likely to place themselves somewhere around the middle of this continuum.
It may be worth asking yourself how your classroom might change if you could move, even a small degree, further along the line to the right.
- Would the atmosphere be warmer?
- Might students be more or less interested in their work?
- Would they feel more encouraged and motivated?
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