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Children’s Day: Child teacher bond

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M Ahmad
Children’s Day is celebrated on 14th of November to commemorate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959. It is celebrated across India to increase awareness of the rights, care and education of children. It is also celebrated as a tribute to the birthday of India’s First Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, known as ‘Chacha Nehru’ among children.
Nehru advocated for children to have all-rounded education that would build a better society in the future and considered children as real strength of a nation and foundation of the society.
The bond between individual children and their teacher is an important factor to consider in understanding the benefits of child education. Teacher-child relationships lay the groundwork for creating supportive learning environments as children transition from preschool to elementary school and beyond.
A child with a close relationship is likely to feel warmth and connectedness toward the teacher, and to see the classroom as a safe and affirming learning environment. A child who has a conflictual relationship is more likely to have strained interactions with the teacher and see the classroom as unsafe and unsupportive, fostering a negative perception of the classroom environment and adults in those spaces.
Evidence shows that young children’s positive interactions with teachers strengthen all aspects of their development, including language, cognition and social-emotional skills, regardless of their age, gender, race, ethnic, language and income level. However, the quality of children’s relationships with their teacher varies among individuals— even in the same classroom.
Early teacher-child relationships are also linked to children’s engagement in classroom instruction, which supports their learning. Once children begin their formal educational careers, the relationships they develop with their teachers become increasingly important for their engagement and school success.
These relationships can have lasting benefits, and it is critical that we consider the ways in which individual children experience the classroom and how different aspects of the classroom environment combine to influence school success. High-quality teacher-child relationships are associated with greater gains in academic, social-emotional and executive function outcomes.
Close teacher relationships are significantly related to positive school adjustment outcomes, such as school liking, behavioral engagement and vocabulary skills. Even if classrooms are high-quality learning environments, individual children might not benefit unless they also have a positive relationship with their teacher.
Children are more likely to be engaged in the classroom and motivated to learn when they trust that their teacher will provide comfort, encouragement and emotional support. Some teachers may provide more support and attention to children with whom they have a close and conflict-free relationship, which in turn, can deeply influence children’s school readiness and adjustment.
If the teacher-child relationship is perceived as unsupportive or negative, it may lead children to disengage from the enriching instruction happening in the classroom and reduce their interactions with others.
Children are not things to be molded, but are people to be unfolded.
Positive relationships of teachers within and outside classroom helps students feel more comfortable and safe in their environments. Consequently, students improve their participation both in class and socially and challenge themselves. Loving, stable and responsive relationships are fundamental to your child’s development. Through relationships, children learn how to think, understand, communicate, behave, express emotions and develop social skills.
Improving students’ relationships with teachers has important, positive and long-lasting implications for both students’ academic and social development. The student is likely to trust the teacher more, show more engagement in learning, behave better in class and achieve at higher levels academically.
Positive student relationships are fundamental to success. When students feel supported, they’re more likely to engage in learning and have better academic outcomes. When they have positive interactions with teachers, they have fewer behavioral problems. Many qualities define a positive relationship and pave ways on how to create powerful student teacher relationships. These can be seen to include good communication, a safe learning environment and mutual respect, a positive and patient attitude, student equality and timely praise.
“If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns” Rita Dunn
(The author is Principal (I/C), Abhedananda Home-Higher Secondary Institution for Specially-abled children, Solina, Srinagar)

 


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