Students have a hard time opening up, even to the point where they will not ask questions, but instead, ask each other. They have no confidence in the teacher-student relationship. Adler believed, as cited in Beck & Malley (1998), in relation to his theory of “belongingness” that failure in school was directly related to feeling unconnected with the teacher. My students seem to have a fear of me and are unwilling to communicate about their needs. Student’s feeling of belonging is viewed as a necessary precursor to a successful learning experience (Beck & Malley, 1998). Through the transition between elementary and middle school, there has been a decrease in the quality of teacher-student relationships (Davis, 2003). A study documented by Lynch & Cicchetti, as cited in Davis (2003), found that 60% of students felt no desire to be close to their teacher. There are at least four actions to establish a positive relationship with students: a high level of trust, students need to feel as though their teachers care about them as individuals, teachers are willing to talk and build a supportive environment (Parsley & Corcoran, 2003). The most basic relationship in the classroom is the teacher-student bond (Cook-Sather, 2002).
School is supposed to have a social element to it. It should not always be serious, because that gets to be draining on both the student and the teacher. If there is no relationship in the classroom built on mutual respect and trust, which most students want (Whitney, 2005), school turns into just another dull chore to check off the list, not a day to day experience students enjoy. Findings suggest when students have a positive relationship with their teachers they benefit both socially and academically (Davis, 2006).
The solution to this problem is to create more time in the classroom to allow relationships to be built among the teacher and students. In order for this to happen, there needs to be less up front instruction and more time for conversation. Using the flipped classroom model, only half of the period will be used for teaching, as 6th graders will still learn through direct instruction. My students will learn basic information through video lectures, reading, and other sources outside of the classroom environment allowing for more class time to do high-cognitive tasks (Talbert, 2012). The students can choose to watch the videos in class or at home prior to the learning. It is important to have time in class to allow students to watch videos as they already have enough to worry about after school (Finkel, 2012). Once students have viewed the videos, classroom time can be used to help improve their understanding in the subject matter (Roehl, Reddy & Shannon, 2013) and build individual relationships.
There will be a lot more time to answer questions, which will hopefully help build relationships with students and improve grades. Students who have positive relationships with teachers echo their support, motivation, and learning in the classroom (Davis, 2003). Even if more questions aren’t asked, I will have more time to walk around the classroom and watch students as they work on problems, see their struggles, and help them fix their mistakes (Fulton, 2012). In the end though, the only time where I will be teaching is the first 15-20 minutes of class, which will leave at least a half hour to build relationships through individual conversations and one on one instruction. By emphasizing the student-teacher relationships, schools can increase the sense of belonging for all students (Beck & Malley, 1998). The intention is to take the attention away from the teacher and focus it on the student (Siegle, 2013).
Bibliography:
Alvarez, B. (2011). Flipping the classroom: Homework in class, lessons at home. National Education Association.
Beck, M., & Malley, J. (1998). A pedagogy of belonging. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 7(3).
Cook-Sather, A. (2002). A teacher should be...when the answer is the question. Knowledge Quest, 30(5).
Davis, H. (2003). Conceptualizing the role and influence of the student-teacher relationships on children's social and cognitive development.Educational Psychologist, 28(4), 207-234.
Davis, H. (2006). Exploring the contexts of relationship quality between middle school students and teachers. The Elementary School Journal,106(3), 193-224.
Finkel, E. (2012). Flipping the script. District Administration.
Fulton, K. (2012). 10 reasons to flip. Phi Delta Kappa International, 94(2).
Parsley, K., & Corcoran, C. (2003). The classroom teacher's role in preventing school failure. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 39(2), 84-87.
Roehl, A., Reddy, S., & Shannon, G. (2013). The flipped classroom: An opportunity to engage millennial students through active learning strategies. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 105(2).
Siegle, D. (2013). Differentiating instruction by flipping the classroom.Gifted Child Today, 37(1).
Talbert, R. (2012). Inverted classroom. Education Reform, 9(1).
Whitney, J. (2005). Seek balance, connect with others, and reach all students: High school students describe a moral imperative for teachers. High School Journal, 89(2).