Students spend most of their waking hours with their teachers and peers, who are considered to be the significant others, that influence their learning motivation and school life. Whether a student likes to go to school or not, whether she can adjust in school and engage in all learning activities, whether she can get good grades or fail depend not only on herself, but on the significant others. In this study, the aim is to find out how and in what ways teachers and peers influence adolescents in their academic life. Forty-one articles were reviewed to discuss around four research questions: What kinds of influences do peers have on adolescents in the academic context? In what ways do teachers’ high expectations affect the students? What kind of teacher-student relationships do students perceive in order to have positive attitudestowards school and have satisfying outcomes? What aspects in adolescents’ academic life are influenced by teachers’ self-efficacy? Teachers and peers are important motivators in students’ academic life. When the school, teacher and parents are aware of the influences from peers and teachers, they are given a chance to improve the factors involved so that students can learn best in a supportive atmosphere and environment.

A total of 236 kindergarten to eighth grade students and 15 teachers from an elementary school in a northeastern U.S. city provided information about their perceptions of teacher involvement in students' peer relationships. Students provided additional information about classroom social networks. Both students and teachers indicated that they perceive teachers to be important in student peer relationships. None of the teacher characteristics (including teacher education, years of teaching, or ethnicity) were related to teacher perceptions of involvement in students' peer relationships. In lower grade groups (kindergarten to second grade), there were significant sex differences, with boys rating their teachers as more involved than girls; sex differences were not significant in either the middle (third to fifth grade) or upper (sixth to eighth grade) grade groups. As hypothesized, there were significant differences between grade groups, with students in the lower grades rating their teacher as more involved than students in either the middle or upper grade groups, and middle grade groups rating their teachers as more involved than the upper grade groups. Teacher and student perceptions of teacher involvement in students' peer relationships were then analyzed to determine whether these perceptions were related to classroom cohesiveness, as measured by social networks. The results were not significant, indicating that teacher and student perceptions of teacher involvement in students' peer relationships were not related to classroom social networks. This research provides a first look into both teacher and student perceptions into teacher involvement in classroom peer relationships, which school psychologists can use to help teachers construct supportive classroom environments. This research is a case study of one school, and therefore generalization from this sample is difficult. Future research should examine this element in schools of varying climate and region. / School Psychology

The voices of eleven Aboriginal and ten non-Aboriginal adult social work educators who volunteered to participate in this qualitative research study represent a diverse range of practice and teaching experiences. Participants with experience teaching social work courses that included the enrollment of Aboriginal students were interviewed to gain knowledge about their self-location, lived experiences, their insight, and their perceptions of the ways in which they have and continue to support and influence the retention of Aboriginal post-secondary students. This study utilized phenomenology as a philosophical approach. The interview process was guided by a phenomenological investigation to identify and explore themes that emerged from the data. The major findings of the study revealed the the many facets to the social work educator-student relationship. The major findings of the study revealed the ways social work educators with experience teaching Aboriginal social work students from northern and remote communities, are involved in providing personal and academic support. Examples of the support provided includes the daily maintenance of an open door policy, reaching out and providing offers of help to students, and assuming roles as advocates, resource brokers, mentors, advisors and counsellors. / October 2016

This study examines factors that affect student motivation and achievement in the middle school eighth grade science classroom, including, teacher-student relationships, student-peer relationships, teacher expectations in science, student preference of instructional delivery (labs vs. lecture), teacher demographics (experience at local school, professional experience, qualifications, age range), and student perceptions of teacher expectations in science. One hundred fifty survey participants were used in this quantitative study which included an analysis of the independent variables affecting student motivation and academic achievement. The findings of this study determined that there is a statistically significant relationship between student motivation and student perceptions of teacher expectations, actual teacher expectations, teacher’s age, teacher’s highest level of education, and whether or not a student received free or reduced lunch.

Vad gör att vissa lärare lyckas bättre än andra? Lärare ser ofta skiljt på rollen de innefattar och ansvaret de har. Syftet med denna studie är att visa på modern forskning inom hur en lärare-elev relation inom skolan för vuxna och gymnasieelever påverkar och förändrar lärande och lärmiljön. Denna studie har genomförts som en systematisk litteraturstudie. Resultat är uppdelat i fyra underkategorier: relation, motivation, känslor och beteende. Diskussionen utgår ifrån huvudresultatet att lärare-elev relationen är till stor vikt i elevernas utveckling, kognitivt, behavioristiskt samt för akademiska resultat. / What makes some teachers succeed in their role better than others? Teachers often view the role they are in and the responsibility they have differently, this study hopes to show a facet of modern research in the field of student-teacher relationships and their effect on factors like motivation and results. This study has been modeled as a systematic literature review. Results are divided into four categories: relationship, motivation, emotion and behavior. The discussion is based on the main results that teacher-student relationship is of great importance in students' development of cognitive and behavioral faculties as well as academic achievement.