Self-regulation and teacher-student relationships.

Abstract

It is common knowledge that a good teacher can turn a student's life around. In this time, however, of educational accountability, standards, predictions, and test scores, the notion of good teaching becomes confused with gatekeeping. It is essential, therefore, to establish a consensus on a conceptual and theoretical underpinning for effective teaching. This review is designed to lay that foundation by pulling together psychology theory and educational psychology theory around the shared concepts of student autonomy and intrinsic motivation, goal-orientation, and self-regulation.

Introduction

The intention of this project was to examine the relationship between teachers and students. Therefore, this review's purpose was to describe the development of trust in teacher-student relationships and effectiveness in classroom management and student learning. Beyond simply holding students to high standards, it is essential to fold into the conceptualization of the problem in education the dynamics and importance of caring relationships and student autonomy support. For Deci and Ryan (1985, 2000, 2002), when relatedness and autonomy support are present, the intrinsic motivation and self-regulation that follows improves student learning and success. Self-regulation is the process by which individuals make their plans, act upon those plans, and self-evaluate the results. According to Deci and Ryan, the more autonomous the individual the more intrinsic the self-regulation. Student achievement also improves when students are intrinsically motivated and when teachers are autonomy supportive (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990; Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004). Accordingly, when students are supported in their learning and view tasks as personally meaningful and relevant, those students are inclined to use effective, self-regulated learning strategies that enhance learning and success in terms of grades, test scores, and future achievement.

Since this study's focus was to examine the dynamics of effective relationships, student self-regulation was established as the centerpiece. Self-regulation, and the ways that student self-regulation can be enhanced by teachers, was examined and described. The importance of this project within the context of education is due to the capacity that teachers have to positively or negatively affect student motivation, self-regulation, autonomy, and ultimately, performance. The educational psychology section of this review was structured to describe student self-regulation in terms of autonomy, motivation, and goal-orientation. The psychology section of this review was designed to examine student autonomy in terms of ego-relatedness, secure attachment, and the true self, since effective teaching and mentoring helps students to explore their world with a sense of trust and autonomy, toward the ultimate goal of fully intrinsic self-regulation and improved academic achievement and success.

The underlying problem being addressed is due to the fact that there is a power difference between teachers and students, and that this power difference can become problematic for students. Since compliance is required of students at times, and since that call for compliance may contribute to learning problems, something transformative in the teacher-student relationship is needed. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the transformative relationship dynamics that can shift students' perceptions of teachers from demanding enforcer to trusted resource. The research contribution of this study was to apply psychological theory to the understanding of teacher-student relationships, to establish links between psychology and educational psychology, and to enhance teacher education and student learning and success. Consequently, the inclusion of Attachment theory and Object Relations theory in this review provides a new bridge between psychology and educational psychology, since these theories address the psychodynamics involved in the development of student trust and its importance within personal identity development, and ultimately, academic achievement, learning and Success.

According to Object Relations (Winnicott, 1965) and Attachment (Bowlby, 1969) theorists, a primary goal in relationships is to feel understood (Ainsworth, 1992). For Bowlby, when caregivers have a personal history of secure attachment, those in their care are likely to become securely attached. These caregivers are able to attune to the inner experiences of others rather than merely their own, providing a sense of continuity and safety for those in their care. For Winnicott, when individuals know and feel that they are genuinely heard and understood, through a sense of ego-relatedness and ego support, they are likely to develop a true self, rather than a false or reactive self. According to Winnicott (1967), the positive result for the care receiver is "a continuity of existence that becomes a sense of existing, a sense of self, and eventually results in autonomy" (p. 28).

Background

Though using psychological theory to improve student learning has been recommended (Freud, 1935; Field, Cohler, & Wool, 1989), it has not been proposed at this level in education and educational psychology. Missing in education is an understanding and application of the concept of the teacher in a parent role within the classroom environment. Emotionally, teachers play a similar role as parents within the narrower context of the school setting. If students are not securely attached to teachers, students will not be fully successful. Even when students do master course material without supportive, attached relationships, they have missed out on other valuable, essential educational experiences (Siegel, 1999; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000; Davis, 2003).

Calfee (1992) reported how schools in America have "disintegrated" over the past 50 years and identified three areas that require "reintegration" efforts: 1) curriculum, 2) instruction, and 3) learning and development. Calfee reported that psychology holds the necessary theory and findings to help provide a paradigm shift for how academic information is delivered, specifically, a needed shift "from impartation to engagement" (p. 171). Similarly, Covington (1993) noted that "these guidelines for change emphasize a task-focused approach, not an ability-focused approach to learning, with assessment procedures designed to maximize the achievement of all students" (p. 80). The purpose of this review, therefore, was to synthesize the relevant educational and psychological theories in a way that addresses how to bring about this shift from "impartation to engagement." As reported by Hanson and Austin (2003) for the California Department of Education, when caring relationships, meaningful participation, and high standards are practiced together, student academic learning and success are enhanced.

It is clear that something greater than mere academic competency needs to be taught in America's schools. Needing to be taught, along with academic competencies, are the intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies (Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, U.S. Department of Labor, 1991). Students need not only academic skills for success in today's world, but also intrapersonal competencies such as a sense of purpose, ethics, achievement motivation, and career awareness, coupled with interpersonal competencies such as team building and communication skills. Search Institute (Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998) found that caring relationships, meaningful participation, and high standards in a student's life across home, school, and community, as well as student intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, predicted decreased risk for delinquency, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, truancy and violence. The California Department of Education has since found that these same external resiliency factors (caring relationships, meaningful participation, and high standards) and related internal resiliency factors (student intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies) predict academic achievement and student learning and success in terms of school-level SAT-9 scores (Hanson & Austin, 2003). Therefore, this project was designed to establish a practical and theoretical foundation for achieving the goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Program and to lay the foundation for future empirical study and application.

Theoretical Framework

Self-determination theorists (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000) report that individuals seek relatedness, autonomy, and competency from their environment. The theoretical framework of this review, therefore, was anchored in Deci and Ryan's research due to the ideal match between self-determination theory and the research of Search Institute (Benson, Leffert, Scales, & Blyth, 1998) and the California Department of Education (Hanson & Austin, 2003). The research matches in the following ways: caring relationships match relatedness, meaningful participation matches autonomy, and high standards match competency. The psychological emphasis of this review focused on the theories of Bowlby and Winnicott. Bowlby (1969) proposed that secure attachment provides for the development of trust and autonomy. Similarly, Winnicott (1965) reported that attuning to the internal experience of another provides for the development of trust and autonomy. The transformative relationship dynamics examined in this review are those that facilitate student autonomy through the processes of secure attachment and ego-relatedness, by way of providing meaningful student experiences and by attuning to student authenticity. For Bowlby (1969), secure attachment provides the foundation from which autonomous exploration of one's environment begins; this autonomous exploration is essential for personal identity development. For Winnicott (1965), attuning to another's authenticity, thereby establishing ego-relatedness through ego support, provides the trusted foundation from which autonomous exploration of one's environment is based, again, essential for personal identity development.

In a school setting, a trusting environment is established when teachers not only provide structure, but also attune to the authentic needs and concerns of their students. Considering the power difference between teachers and students, effective teachers, from an Object Relations perspective, hold in trust their students' not yet accessed and integrated independence, power, and self-worth (Cashdan, 1988). By attuning to the needs and perspectives of their students, effective teachers are able to foster and establish an environment of trust, as opposed to environments of compliance. In these trusting environments, students are comfortable to explore and express their personal concerns. Therefore, students are facilitated in discovering how the academic information best suits their needs, as they move toward autonomy and intrinsic motivation and self-regulation, and ultimately, enhanced academic achievement and success. From educational psychology, Deci and Ryan (1985, 2000) presented a motivational continuum upon which a person encountering a task may see that task as either extrinsic or intrinsic in nature depending on his or her propensities, competencies, and level of autonomy. Pintrich (2000) presented goal-orientation from a similar perspective, bringing this study closer to practical application in the schools. For Ryan and Deci and for Pintrich, the individual's outlook toward a task, as reflected on the motivation continuum, affects the way in which he or she self-regulates, therein affecting the way in which that individual succeeds or fails.

This review was, therefore, designed to examine and describe how teachers can positively affect student self-regulation, and more specifically, how teachers can facilitate the movement of student self-regulation toward the intrinsic end of the motivational continuum. In psychological terms, effective teachers establish and maintain secure attachment and ego-relatedness in support of their students' true self (Winnicott, 1965; Bowlby, 1969). These teachers establish and maintain not only a secure foundation, but also the necessary emotional space, for students to feel safe to autonomously explore the relevance of academic information and its application within their own lives, ultimately enhancing academic achievement, learning and success.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Though relatedness and autonomy have been identified in educational psychology as essential for student learning and success (Pintrich, 2000; Deci & Ryan, 2002; Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004), an understanding of the application of psychological theory (Bowlby, 1969; Winnicott, 1965; Cashdan, 1988) in the classroom and in empirical study will prove invaluable in facilitating teacher support and student autonomy. This author recommends that the conceptualization from this review be used to apply psychological theory to understanding teacher-student relationships and to enhance teacher education and student learning and success. It is recommended that educators are supported in having these positive influences rather than the negative ones.

The inclusion of attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) and object relations theory (Winnicott, 1965) in this review provides a new and unique bridge between psychology and education, since the development of trust is essential in support of student autonomy, and ultimately, achievement, learning, and success. The diagram below (Figure ONE) is included to provide a conceptual and theoretical model using a family systems approach (Bowen, 1978) to pull together the concepts and theories outlined in this study. See issue website http://rapidintellect.com/AEQweb/win2005.htm The payoff or incentive for doing the project proposed in this study is at least in part to avoid the cost of not doing it, not to mention that student learning and success are enhanced. Higher education achievement has a direct payoff in terms of careers and productivity for the state, and by implementing this program students will not only become productive members of society, they will be doing so because they want to.

In summary, this course of investigation was structured to describe and establish a theoretical and conceptual background regarding the psychological dynamics of how to help students move toward autonomy and intrinsic motivation and self-regulation. Empirical studies suggest that the implementation of the practices implied by this framework can lead to a marked improvement in student performance, including grades, intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, and retention (Reeve, 2002; Hanson & Austin, 2003; Reeve, Jang, Carrell, Jeon, & Barch, 2004; Fleisher, 2005). Reflecting on a very large picture, one of the problems within the disciplines of Education and Psychology is that there has not yet evolved a consensus on the conceptualization of the problem. Within Botany, for instance, regardless of daily research conflicts, there exists a consensus on how the concepts and constructs of seed, soil, sun, and water basically fit and work together. Within education and psychology this consensus does not yet exist. The purpose of this review, therefore, was to establish such a theory, by pulling together educational psychology and psychological theories around an analysis of effective teacher-student relationships. The goal of this project is to help teachers and to help students. It is also hoped that these findings will be used to resolve historical tensions between education and psychology (Berliner, 1993).

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Steven Fleisher, California State University, Los Angeles 

Fleisher, Ph.D., is an Instructor in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Child and Family Studies at California State University, Los Angeles.