The purpose of this qualitative study was to use grounded theory and case study methodology to identify and describe the ways that an upper elementary school teacher makes students feel known and respected for who they are by creating a relationship-driven classroom community. Analyzing how a teacher uses a relationship-driven classroom community has the potential to improve upon existing classroom community models. Data were collected from a teacher questionnaire, student questionnaire, samples of student work, document collection, two formal interviews with ten students, two formal interviews the teacher, and descriptive field notes from observations. Results indicated creating teacher-student relationships that make students feel known and important has the potential to offset the issues resulting from the disconnect between teachers and students and could lead to greatly improved student achievement. The results also provide new directions in the following areas: (a) teacher-student relationships, i.e., making students feel known and important; (b) creating classroom communities that are formed around teacher-student relationships; and (c) accounting for the mismatch between teachers and students.

The challenge of transitioning into high school is associated with social anxiety, decreased grades, increased absences, and overall motivation to learn. Based on anecdotal evidence from 9th grade teachers in the Ohio School District, teachers had poor rapport with some of their students, and 9th graders were being retained more often than were students in any other grade. Grounded in Noddings's care theory, the purpose of this mixed methods sequential case study was to explore perceptions of rapport between 9th graders and their teachers. Guiding research questions were used to discover student and teacher perceptions about their relationship as it relates to care, respect, and communication. Archived data from Gallop Poll surveys given to 9th grade students at 3 schools (n = 163) demonstrated student perceptions of their relationships with teachers. Additionally, 15 teachers were randomly selected for a focus group interview about rapport with students. The interview transcripts were coded for emergent themes related to the guiding questions. The analysis of the Gallup Poll data included calculation of the mean, standard deviation, median, item score range, mode, and raw-data frequencies/percent for responses to answer the respective research questions. Responses on the survey showed that students perceived a moderate level of bonding with teachers, while the interview data showed that there were issues related to communication with students, administrative support of teachers, and sincerity of teacher care for students. The project outcome is a professional development about communication amongst teacher and students, teachers and teachers, and teachers and administration to improve rapport and reduce the prevalence and impact of adverse events such as dropout and other forms of disengagement.

This thesis highlights the complex nature of students’ experiences in the sexuality education classroom. It seeks to provide insight from the perspectives of Year 10 students in two classes on their experiences of a particular sexuality education programme. The purpose of this study was to ‘give voice to’ and explore the experiences of asmall group of nine Year 10 students in their compulsory co-educational sexuality education programme. To this end, the main source of data was focus group interviews with student participants. Students were asked to participate in focus group interviews part way through the unit of work and invited to share their thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the programme. The data analysis generated themes that describe student’s experiences in relation to course content, pedagogy and classroom organisation. The analysis of students’ talk in focus group interviews also showed that gender relations and emotional safety were important features of the students’ experiences of their sexuality education programme. More particularly, it was found that students valued their exposure to this subject and felt that school was a good place to learn about sexuality education. They enjoyed social constructivist teaching approaches that were student-centred and interactive. The students expressed some dissatisfaction with the way in which their sexuality education programme was organised and being delivered. In addition, there was evidence of both male and female students being influenced by traditional, hegemonic constructs of masculinity and femininity, and also a heteronormative culture within the classroom. The findings present implications for sexuality education teaching in relation to programme development and classroom practice. They suggest that sexuality educators may need to consider the way in which their classrooms are organised, as well as the pedagogical approaches they use, as it appears these aspects have significant influence on the emotional safety of students, on relationships within the classroom and on the student experience of sexuality education as a whole.

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

‘Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand.’ (Chinese proverb) Why is it that children in Year 6 have the ability to construct stories independently, yet at the start of Year 7 the same children have difficulties recalling this knowledge and understanding? Transfer from primary to secondary education has been widely debated for a number of decades. Despite this, Evans et al.’s (2010) evaluation of transition concluded that for over 20% of transferring children, the process remains problematic, leading to inconsistent progress, both academically and socially. Transition research has focused significantly on process and procedures, accumulating data from a wealth of stakeholders, but largely neglecting the voice of the child experiencing this process. My research centres on the child, documenting their learning journey through their transition from primary to secondary school. Galton et al (1999b) identify three elements supporting a child’s continuation of learning post- transfer: enthusiasm for learning; confidence in themselves as learners; and a sense of achievement and purpose. A significant contribution to these qualities is the socio- constructivist view that ‘talk drives learning.’ Clear differences in progress, learning and teaching are contained within the microsystems of classroom life. Therefore, to deepen understanding of contexts of transition it is essential to focus research on language and relationships within such systems. Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological framework (1979) provides a basis for an analysis of the contribution of microsystem relationships and sub- cultures to the social matrix of different and progressive classroom environments. My research used an exploratory multi-case study approach (Merriam, 1988a; Yin, 2009). Three distinct models of transfer were identified and examined in depth. Within each of these cases, the learning of a group of children was observed and key points discussed with them throughout the transition process. Therefore, my research explored transition in the broadest sense, through the child’s experiences. The research moved beyond myth and procedures in order to understand the tools a child needs to transfer into secondary school to ensure sustainable progress and enjoyment of learning. Each of the cases had their own model of transfer. The first, Case1, considered children transferring from the more ‘traditional’ primary school into a ‘secondary’ school. In the second, Case 2, children transferred within an ‘all-through’ school within the same building. The third, Case 3, operated within the experience of Case 2, but transferred from their primary setting into the all-through school (the same school as Case 2). The study expected Case 2 as being the best model of transfer and provider of seamless progression of learning for children in Years 6 and 7. However, each model had case-dependent issues that affect a child’s progress within the wider contexts of transition. As a result, the study acknowledged the impact of previous research and further considered this study’s impact on learning in meso and microsystems. Three main, associated arose across the case studies. The first considered teacher provision during the transition period identifying: • the importance of learning roles and relationships between the child and their teacher, and the child and their peers. • structures of accountability generated by Statutory Assessment Tests (SATs). Within a culture of test-based curriculum structures, the study discusses the impact on children’s learning within continual testing and reporting frameworks. It does not discourage the importance of developing basic skills, but considers the purpose of continually tracking and monitoring children throughout their transition period. The importance of standardised test scores is questioned, as these routines are not followed through post-SATs. • children encouraged to participate in new learning routines and contexts. However, the study identifies an absence of sufficient communication between schools that diminishes consistency of learning opportunities during transfer. In addition, the study highlights differing definitions of independent learning between individual school and classroom contexts. The second considered barriers to the continuous development of independent learning. It further identified the distorting influence of SATs, firstly on a child’s development of independent learning, and secondly, on differences of definition between primary and secondary contexts. It suggested that skills recognised in independent learning are situated within almost singular contexts of primary school. When transferring to secondary school, there is an increased challenge for children to transfer these skills into multifarious contexts. Finally, the study identified the differing challenges of language demands on a child’s continuous learning, specifically • inconsistencies of curriculum terminology between primary and destination schools. • differing language clusters that children develop during group work. I observed that these clusters were transferred within each independent learning activity, but were not recognised in the analysis of my secondary classroom observations. This raised the issue of teacher expectations, questioning whether on transfer teachers expect all children to be classified as ‘workers’, rather than consultant, leader, engineer or technician within group and learning activities. • the role of ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ learning relationships between effective partnerships of ‘novice’ and ‘expert’, concluding that weak novice-to-novice relationships affected the continuity of learning. Findings common across all three cases exposed wider implications for transition. These were compared to the ORACLE studies (Galton et al, 1999b; Hargreaves and Galton, 2002). Recommendations offered were to: • ensure the continuity of learning progression, • promote active participation in learning, • improve the quality of children’s work during the transition period.

This dissertation examines the relational implications of the presence of mobile technology within the basic communication course. To guide the research and interpret the results Mottet, Frymier, and Beebe’s (2006) rhetorical and relational goals theory is utilized. To investigate this phenomenon a survey design was employed, and participants were asked to respond to open-ended, closed-ended, and descriptive questions. Results of this study shed light upon how and when university students use technology, as well as the positive and detrimental results such usage has upon the development and quality of their relationships in the classroom, both with instructors and other students. Results from this dissertation revealed that students are frequent and heavy users of mobile technology (particularly “social” applications), but generally do not feel as if they are dependent upon their devices. In open-ended responses, students described ways in which mobile technology facilitated out of class relationships with peers and instructors, but hindered the development of relationship with peers in the classroom; these descriptions aligned with the fact that students who exhibited or experienced phubbing (snubbing someone with one’s phone) described less classroom connectedness than their peers. While differing perceptions of classroom connectedness among students were correlated with differing experiences of phubbing, perceptions of rapport with instructors did not differ significantly among participants. Further, students who were more relationally oriented experienced higher perceptions of classroom connectedness than their more rhetorically oriented counterparts. Finally, students in this study generally prioritized rhetorical instructor attributes over relational ones. These results are further explored in the discussion portion of this dissertation.

No description available.