Good teaching 01 | geoffmartyngdte03

Relationship and rapport

Although they operated in different ways and diverse fields, these teachers all established an effective and encouraging relationship with me as a learner. They made me feel comfortable, respected and they demonstrated that they knew and understood me. I felt a natural respect for them, not because of their authority but rather their own personality, their expertise, the way they taught and the results they helped me achieve.

My Form 6 (Year 12) Maths teacher had a quiet but firm manner that made me want to achieve and do well. My violin teacher was warm and encouraging in contrast to a previous piano teacher who had been overly regimented and strict in my view. The university lecturer had the ability to communicate with each of us individually, even in a hall of hundreds of students. The life teacher inspired awe through his wisdom but exuded warmth, confidence and humility that was highly reassuring and inspiring.

GO BACK

In an article entitled ‘Building Rapport with Your Students’, Weimer (2010) identifies that good rapport between teachers and students can enhance motivation, comfort (openness), perceptions of the quality of the course, course satisfaction, communication and trust. Rapport helps to create conditions conducive to learning. Weimer lists the following as being the most important factors related to building rapport: respect (mutual), approachability, open communication, caring and positive attitude.

For someone like myself whose other profession is career counselling, these five sit very comfortably with Carl Rogers’ core conditions for counselling – genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathic understanding (Rogers, 1951). Indeed, in ‘Freedom to Learn’, Rogers himself outlined how his humanistic or person-centred approach could apply to teaching and learning (Rogers, 1969).

His hypotheses regarding learner-centred education were published posthumously in the book ‘On Becoming an Effective Teacher’ (Rogers, Lyon & Tausch, 2013), including the views that:

a person cannot teach another directly but can only facilitate another’s learning
a person learns significantly only those things that are seen as essential to maintaining or enhancing the structure of self.

All of which brings a realisation for myself that my teacher’s hat and my career counselling hat are very closely aligned – two sides of the same hat perhaps.