The Importance Of Teacher Communication Skills: The Key To Building Relationships

Teacher Communication Skills: The Key to Building Relationships
Ian Peterson
July 23, 2015 INTRODUCTION Many students seem to find themselves in a state of perpetual boredom at school – teachers are uninteresting, content makes them think too much and nothing they learn will ever factor into what they want to do after graduation. Teachers, it seems, often find themselves in a state of perpetual frustration – students are not interested in the subject, they do not want to apply themselves, and they do not think what they learn today will help them in five years. Educators have come up with myriad strategies for creating engaging classrooms, many of which operate by way of keeping up energy and not falling into the trap of monotonous lecture.

For years teachers have been viewed as the dictator at the front of the room, representing the liaison between subject matter and young minds. The focus of the classroom has been one-way learning and objective assessment, with complete disregard for individual personalities or needs. In short, class has been a black-and-white world where students must make it from beginning of the period to the end. No

Smart (2014) investigated the relationship between student motivation and how teacher-student interactions were perceived in middle school science classes. Student motivation was viewed as relating to goal orientation, valuation, and self-efficacy as related to material and performance. When teachers were perceived as having more cooperative behavior, such as helpfulness and understanding, students reported high motivation. They enjoyed having more independence, as well as more in-depth content coverage, which provided them with skills for future performance in the transition to middle school. Students who reported negative perceptions of teacher communication and more oppositional behavior also reported having low motivation. They viewed work and assignments as simply a means to attempt a passing grade, and were more likely to seek teacher assistance when presented with a challenge instead of trying on their