Karn Wilkins asks whether with the growing use of IWDs, wikis, blogs, VLE and apps we are losing the vital rapport we have with our learners. By mediating our teaching through technology, are we losing or changing the student-teacher relationship? Sherry Turkle, a psychologist, writes that the young are seduced by technology and have become disinterested in interaction beyond the online connections they have. She argues that 'we remake ourselves and our relationships with each other through our new intimacy with machines. Is this happening in the classroom?' In fact we cannot express all our feelings online and use the example of shopping together and playing together as being 'more important' than connecting online. Talking to each other and being with each other are more important.
A teacher wields a great deal of power over his/her students simply because of the fact that s/he controls their destiny for up to five or six hours each day, five or six days a week. When students feel that s/he values and cares for them as individuals, they are more willing to comply with his/her wishes. It is said that teachers are an important source of social capital for students. Social capital in a classroom setting is defined as caring teacher-student relationships where students feel that they are both cared for and expected to succeed. Teachers' continuous monitoring of the students to be aware of any difficulties develops relationship with each other. Understanding the child's problem, fear, or confusion gives a teacher a better understanding about the child's learning difficulties. Once the teacher becomes aware of the problems, he or she will have more patience with the student, thus making the child feel secure or less confused when learning is taking place in the classroom.
The communication between the student and the teacher serves as a connection between the two, which provides a better atmosphere for a classroom environment. It is true that a teacher cannot understand every problem of every child in his or her classroom, but will acquire enough information for those students who are struggling with specific tasks. A significant body of research indicates that "academic achievement and student behaviour are influenced by the quality of the teacher and student relationship". The more the teacher connects or communicates with his or her students, the more likely they will be able to help students learn at a high level. The teacher needs to understand that in many schools, especially in big cities, children come from different cultures and backgrounds. A teacher then needs to understand the students' senses of belonging, which can be of greater value and build self-worth for minority students. If the teacher demonstrates an understanding of the student's culture, it will provide a better understanding between the teacher and the student.
Students feel elated when the teacher eventually gives them the option of contributing. Giving feedback to the tasks, behaviours and performances also make them closer to each other which is a vital factor for effective teaching-learning situation. Our first educational experience, which takes place in the primary years of our life, sets the principles for our future education. Every school year an elementary teacher deals with new faces and new attitudes. Some children find themselves lacking interest in learning and others feel playing at school with friends is the happiest moment of their life.
Teachers play an important role in the trajectory of students throughout the formal schooling experience. Although most researches regarding teacher-student relationships investigate the elementary years of schooling, teachers have the unique opportunity to support students' academic and social development at all levels of schooling. Motivational theorists suggest that students' perception of their relationship with their teacher is essential in motivating students to perform well. Motivation is closely linked to students' perceptions of teachers' expectations. Studies of middle and high school students have shown that students shape their own educational expectations from their perceptions of their teachers' expectations. Students who perceive that their teachers have high expectations of their academic achievement are more motivated to try to meet those expectations and perform better academically than their peers who perceive low expectations from their teachers.
My experiences at a cantonment college, cadet colleges and at the Rajuk Uttara Model College show that student-teacher relationship is a very significant phenomenon in both students' and teachers' lives. Developing good relationship with the students is not an easy task. Maintaining discipline in the classroom is the first and foremost condition to conduct an effective class but to maintain an effective class within a particular timeframe minimising the multifarious problems of a classroom which accommodates students of various types and backgrounds is a difficult task. How to maintain discipline? Through punishment or motivation? Or both? Or something more than these? In cadet colleges cadets are frequently punished by the prefects and even by teachers. A teacher is to play different sorts of roles in a cadet college. Sometimes a teacher is to play the role of a spy, sometimes a guardian, sometimes a teacher, sometimes a coach and sometimes a psychologist. Playing different roles makes the teacher and student closer in one sense. Besides, it creates another kind of bitterness and misunderstanding as well. Still, all these roles played by cadet college teachers are the roles of a good teacher. In civil institutions teachers need not play various roles, they need to win the hearts of the learners mostly by teaching nicely, mixing with them freely, making fun and above all teaching through enjoyment. It is certain that students learn through fun. An effective teacher is a good psychologist and the teacher who can play the role of a psychologist, real teacher and friend of the students can be a successful one and success accrues from very positive relationship between teachers and students.
The writer works as an education specialist for BRAC Education Programme. He taught at Ghatail Cantonment College, Sylhet, Comilla and Mirzapur Cadet colleges and Rajuk Uttara Model College.
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