Teacher Caring and Support

At a glance

  • Students feel higher levels of connectedness to school and peers when they believe teachers care about and support them.
  • This may be especially true of students experiencing uncertainty or trauma.
  • Teacher caring and support is associated with improved student engagement in math and reading.
Teacher and students standing together.

Overview

Students who believe their teachers build strong, positive relationships with them—and show that they care about them—report feeling higher levels of connectedness to school and peers.

This occurs when students feel that their teachers:

  • Go out of their way to help students.
  • Make time to talk about the things students want to talk about.
  • Help students to organize their work and catch up when they return from an absence.
  • Take a personal interest in students.

Reminder‎

Building strong, supportive, trusting relationships with students may be especially critical for students going through uncertainty or trauma.

Teacher caring and support

These skills can help build caring, supportive relationships with students.

Example strategies:

Set up regular check-ins with students, either virtually or in person. Check-ins can be done:

  • On a monthly, weekly, or daily basis (if feasible).
  • One-on-one—possibly through short phone or video calls, text messages, emails, or a brief survey or worksheet.
  • As a group—possibly asking students to share about important events in their lives, "one positive and one challenging" thing from their day/week.

Face-to-face and virtual settings‎

Consider asking students to complete a "things I want my teacher to know" worksheet to collect student-specific information and build rapport. Ask students to provide their preferred name and pronouns if they are comfortable sharing.

Example strategies:

Help students to organize their work and to catch up when they return from an absence. Examples could include:

  • Establishing a tracking system for students to record progress on missed or remediated work.
  • Reassessing deadlines.
  • Breaking tasks into small chunks that can be done over time.

Virtual settings‎

Use the "number three rule" when interacting virtually. If a student hasn't engaged by the third virtual activity of the day, consider reaching out with an individual "chat" message or phone call. (This could be to the student or parent.) Check in and find out if there's something that is preventing them from accessing or completing school material.

Example strategies:

Engage students in the process of determining consequences for breaking class rules and agreements. Also, provide consistent reminders (visually, verbally) so that students know what to expect.

Engage in trainings and activities that allow you to build awareness of your own (often unintentional) biases. For example:

  • Invite an observer to spend time in the class. The observer can provide feedback about whether certain students are invited to participate more often than others.
  • Provide students with options to offer anonymous feedback on their experiences in class. In addition, students could offer suggestions on ways to ensure students are treated with fairness.

Keep in mind‎

Establish systems to ensure that all students have opportunities to engage in class in positive ways. Avoid calling on students in ways that might appear punitive or unfair. For example, use index cards or another system to track who has been called on. Call on each student once before the cycle begins again.

Example strategies:

Solicit questions and requests from students on what they would like to learn about in class. One option is to ask students to complete an "exit ticket." Before leaving class, students would write down a question they have, or a topic they'd like to discuss in the future.

Did you know?‎

In virtual classrooms, this can be adapted by asking students to submit an "exit tweet" (280 characters or less) via email.

Example strategies:

Provide several options for students, from which they can choose reading or course materials.

Ask students for their feedback on any new virtual learning platforms, apps, or instructional strategies. Incorporate their feedback as much as possible or feasible.

Example strategies:

Aim to maintain a "5:1 ratio" of positive to negative interactions with students. Positive interactions can include:

  • Giving students frequent encouragement or positive attention—for example, eye contact and a smile.
  • Offering positive reinforcement or rewards for positive behaviors.

Virtual classrooms‎

Consider greeting each student by name as they enter the virtual space. Or choose a handful of students to individually acknowledge after each session. This might be at the end of the virtual session or with a follow-up email.

Provide behavior-specific praise that acknowledges students' efforts and learning contexts. One example: "You showed great effort to complete all of the pre-learning work when I know that you help care for a younger sibling, too."

Example strategies:

Use restorative communication practices when there is harm in a relationship with a student. The "harm" might take the form of a conflict, misunderstanding, or other negative interaction. Restorative conversations allow adults to demonstrate empathy, teach children how to resolve conflict, and give students a voice. Restorative communication practices include:

  • Letting go of previous negative events.
  • Taking ownership for the problem (when applicable).
  • Validating the student's feelings.
  • Using collaborative problem-solving to identify agreed-upon solutions.
  • Expressing caring by separating the deed from the doer.

Tools and templates

Looking to apply this in your school or classroom?

Download the PDF version of this page to record your own notes and next steps.

Teacher Caring and Support
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Content Source:
Division of Adolescent and School Health; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion