Teacher-Student Relationships and Engagement: Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Improving the Capacity of Classroom Interactions*

Classrooms are complex social systems, and student-teacher relationships and interactions are also complex, multicomponent systems. We posit that the nature and quality of relationship interactions between teachers and students are fundamental to understanding student engagement, can be assessed through standardized observation methods, and can be changed by providing teachers knowledge about developmental processes relevant for classroom interactions and personalized feedback/support about their interactive behaviors and cues. When these supports are provided to teachers’ interactions, student engagement increases. In this chapter, we focus on the theoretical and empirical links between interactions and engagement and present an approach to intervention designed to increase the quality of such interactions and, in turn, increase student engagement and, ultimately, learning and development. Recognizing general principles of development in complex systems, a theory of the classroom as a setting for development, and a theory of change specifi c to this social setting are the ultimate goals of this work. Engagement, in this context, is both an outcome in its own R. C. Pianta , Ph.D. (*) Curry School of Education , University of Virginia , PO Box 400260 , Charlottesville , VA 22904-4260 , USA e-mail: [email protected] B. K. Hamre , Ph.D. Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning , University of Virginia , Charlottesville , VA , USA e-mail: [email protected] J. P. Allen , Ph.D. Department of Psychology , University of Virginia , Charlottesville , VA , USA e-mail: [email protected] Teacher-Student Relationships and Engagement: Conceptualizing, Measuring, and Improving the Capacity of Classroom Interactions* Robert C. Pianta , Bridget K. Hamre , and Joseph P. Allen *Preparation of this chapter was supported in part by the Wm. T. Grant Foundation, the Foundation for Child Development, and the Institute of Education Sciences. 366 R.C. Pianta et al.