Enhancing Relationships Between Children and Teachers

by Robert C. Pianta

Enhancing Relationships Between Children and Teachers focuses on the complexity of the child-teacher relationship and how school psychologists and counselors can help teachers to understand the myriad factors involved in their classroom relationships.
Pianta uses systems theory to discuss the multiple factors in child-teacher relationships and integrates school, clinical, and developmental psychology.

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of research for a graduate course in adolescent development. It is tempting to think that any book about research and methods that was published in 2001 may be dated but I did not find that to be true in this case. The book is intended for applied child and adolescent psychologists, particularly those that work in schools. I read it while researching issues in education and found it to be incredibly insightful for teachers as well as its intended audience.

The main topic of the book is the use of systems theory to study classroom relationships, particularly those between child and teacher. "In terms of parts and wholes, interest is in the whole. Thus, the behavior of the 'larger' systems (such as child-teacher relationships) is used to explain the behavior of the 'smaller' systems (such as children). Attention and analysis are often focused at a level that is higher than the one in which the initial question is framed." (p. 34) Pianta contrasts this with behaviorism, in which larger systems are explained by their constituent parts. The book as a whole is written from this systems and relationship perspective and its consequences are far-reaching. Applying Pianta's perspective to education leads to the conclusion that "Views of motivation as existing in an internal form and of change as resulting from input to the child will inevitably result in instruction that is driven by curricular scope and sequence charts, behavioral objectives, and drill and practice - which are the dominant modes of instruction in the United States." (p. 39)

As a teacher or consultant, one should endeavor to focus on creating environments and interactions that allow for genuine interactions between children and teachers. Such interactions should reinforce the value of the child communicate the teacher's interest in and support of the child. This reinforcement should not be interpreted as coddling, since Pianta often discusses the importance of teaching and modeling behaviors like setting appropriate limits, impulse control, and processing and understanding difficult emotions.

Pianta reminds the reader that "No amount of focus on academics, no matter how strong or exclusive, will substantially change the fact that the substrate of classroom life is social and emotional." (p. 170) This reminder helps us to see that who and how we teach are at least equally important to what we teach. The book serves as a detailed vehicle for embodying the idea that "they don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

[Villads Claes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enhancing Relationships Between Children and Teachers is especially timely as the issue of Class size moves to the forefront of the debate about educational policy, and as school personnel must deal With increasingly complex emotional and behavior problems. Pianta mixes systems theory, empirical data, Clinical examples, and specific recommendations for techniques that can be employed at the individual or classroom level, making this book accessible to a wide audience of professionals. The effective use of clinical anecdotes from the experiences of real teachers working With troubled children brings abstract concepts to life. This book ultimately may be a call for changes in those school policies that discourage supportive teacher-child relationships, but as Pianta is well aware, changing systems is no easy feat. This book Will be important reading for researchers, practitioners, educators, and policymakers Who are concerned about the well-being of children across the many contexts in which development occurs.