Fort Worth, TX April 26, 2012
Tara Finn, a graduate student in the College of Education who earned her undergraduate degree in secondary education/social studies from TCU in 2011, recently studied how middle school teachers establish and maintain healthy and positive student-teacher relationships.
She specifically looked at how middle school teachers demonstrate that they care about their students, how the student-teacher relationship affects classroom management, and how middle school teachers repair broken relationships with their students.
Finn interviewed three participants who either currently teach middle school or have taught middle school. Her qualitative semi-structured interviews resulted in an understanding that positive and healthy relationships arose out of care, teacher characteristics, extracurricular activities, classroom management, and repair of broken relationships.
"I became a teacher because of my teachers," said Finn. "The relationship students have with their teachers is foundational and is the most critical factor in education because every aspect of school depends on the relationship."