Children's perceptions of student-teacher relationship in an interactive situated learning context

grantor: University of TorontoAlthough children's experience of student-teacher relationships is inextricably linked to the social, emotional, cognitive and academic development of the child, the research methodologies employed to date to study children's perceptions of student-teacher relationship have been limited to rating scales and questionnaires. By developing interactive open-ended tasks designed to gain a more thorough understanding of what bright and gifted eight and nine year old children perceive about relationships between students and teachers, this study makes a significant methodological contribution to the body of research investigating the social and emotional knowledge used by participants in student-teacher relationships. Structured interview and story completion tasks were administered using an interactive teaching approach that allowed for dynamic responsivity and in-depth probing. The findings suggest that the participants were able to spontaneously describe their knowledge of student-teacher relationships in behavioural, interaction-oriented terms, and when in-depth interviewing was employed they also demonstrated a rich knowledge of emotional components and dynamics inherent in teacher-student relationships. The centrality of emotions in learning, particularly as lived out and developed within student-teacher relationships is discussed in relation to educational practice and policy, as well as to directions for future research.Ph.D