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Relationships with Teachers

teacher-smiling-student-relationships-with-teachers

Teachers play an important role in students' academic and social development.^[1] A positive student-teacher relationship is characterized by mutual respect, trust, and low levels of conflict. Students who have a close, positive, and supportive relationship with their teachers are more likely to feel safe and secure in their learning environment.^[2] Research shows that students with positive student-teacher relationships are less likely to engage in risky behaviours.^[2]

Youth who report having a caring school climate

About the Measure

This measure is collected from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) Youth Survey that gathers self-reported well-being data from grade 7 and 10 students. The survey asks students about the extent to which teachers at school provide a caring and encouraging environment. Students are asked about how much they agree with the following statements:

Most teachers have high expectations of me
Most teachers are interested in me as a person
Most teachers notice when I am doing a good job and let me know about it

Students’ responses to the above statements are totalled and then given a high or low Caring School Climate score.

Key Findings

After an initial drop between the first two Youth Survey cycles, the percentage of students who reported high levels of caring school climate remained stable. More grade 7 than grade 10 students reported high levels of caring school climate across all three Youth Survey cycles. Data by gender and at the municipal level can be found in the downloadable Excel file at the bottom of this page.

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Source: WDG Youth Survey, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2017-18. WDG Report Card Coalition. Last updated September 5, 2018.

Limitations

The WDG Youth Survey collects self-reported data and is subject to response bias and recall bias. Due to rotating class schedules, grade 7 and grade 10 students may not interact with the same number of teachers on a daily or weekly basis. As a result, the responses may not be comparable.

Download Full Dataset (Excel)

References

[1] Gallagher, E. (n.d.). The effects of teacher-student relationships: Social and academic outcomes of low-income middle and high school students. New York, NY: NYU Steinhardt. Available at: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/appsych/opus/issues/2013/fall/gallagher

[2] Rudasill, K. M., Reio, T. G., Stipanovic, N., & Taylor, J. E. (2010). A longitudinal study of student-teacher relationship quality, difficult temperament, and risky behavior from childhood to early adolescence. Journal of school psychology, 48(5), 389-412.