New book shows how to create a warm emotional climate in schools

A warm classroom climate enhances the learning and social behaviour of primary school children. But how can a busy teacher create such a positive emotional atmosphere?

Despite the focus in media debate on cognitive skills, teachers know the emotional climate in the classroom is often a necessary precondition for good grades. Parents instinctively know it too, as Massey University Psychology Professor Ian Evans points out: “When you ask parents how their children are doing at school, they say things like ‘great, she loves her teacher’, which reflect the huge difference emotions make.”

Professor Evans and colleague Dr Shane Harvey led a three-year research project, supported by the Marsden Fund, on the emotional climate in primary school classrooms, supported by the Marsden Fund. A team of nine researchers conducted in-depth interviews with about 40 teachers and pupils in Manawatu and Horowhenua.

Importantly, the research team observed teachers in their classrooms, videotaping their interactions with pupils. They analysed the videos to reveal the skills teachers used to help manage children’s feelings. The research findings form the basis of a new book, from Dunmore Publishing. Warming the Emotional Climate of the Primary School Classroom is being launched in Palmerston North today.

“There’s so much that goes on in primary school classrooms. If you can shape and enhance a child’s emotional competence, this is as valuable as academics,” Professor Evans says. The book clearly describes the issues for teachers, and the processes of research. “Basing teaching practices on research evidence is not easy,” Dr Harvey says, “and we have tried to illustrate all the different research methods that might be used to gain further insight into the qualities of gifted teachers.”

“Teachers in our study said they actively tried to like children even when they didn’t warm to them naturally,” Professor Evans says. “Our point is that you might have up to 30 kids in the class, all with very different personalities, and to make sure all 30 have positive experiences, you must create a positive classroom climate, not just positive individual relationships.”

Professor Evans says many of the principles in the book would seem similar to those in parenting literature:

•    Set clear boundaries
•    Act in a fair manner
•    Acknowledge and label your own feelings
•    Acknowledge and affirm the child’s feelings
•    Set high standards
•    Avoid punitive tactics, put-downs, sarcasm and criticism without specifying the positive alternatives

Despite the similarities, however, Professor Evans points out there are big differences between being a parent and being a teacher. “For one, teachers have to have much clearer boundaries. Teachers can’t curry favour. If they set out to be liked, the kids will see through them. For instance, one of the most effective teachers in our research hardly smiled at her pupils, yet they knew she really cared about them. Our recommendations are very much about allowing teachers to have their own personal style.”

Professor Evans and Dr Harvey propose a model of teachers’ emotional characteristics that can be individualised for different teaching styles. They describe a programme of research on how to create natural, positive teacher–pupil relationships and classroom environments that motivate children, allow them to feel accepted, ensure learning enjoyment and facilitate social-emotional development. In the book they comment on how impressively competent the teachers were in helping children understand their own and others’ emotions.

Much of the research involved an intensive training programme for teachers who volunteered. When observing their own videotapes many of the teachers gained insight into how they might enhance their interactions in the classroom. Letting the students know them as people was an important element of ensuring a close relationship between teacher and student.