יחסי מורה-תלמיד חיוביים כ"בסיס-בטוח" לרווחתו הרגשית של הילד, למחויבותו הלימודית ולתפקודו בבית הספר

This study examined different aspects of the quality of student-teacher relationships and the extent to which they contribute to the emotional well-being and academic performance of first grade students in Israel. Relationships between children and adults, both parents and teachers, serve as a central channel by which children acquire emotional resources that promote their development, and as a vehicle that furthers their maturation and growth. Pianta (1999) proposed an integrative ecological-developmental model to explain the essence of student-teacher relationships and their contribution to children's functioning in school. The model has recently received broad empirical support from USA studies (Pianta & Howes, 2009). 132 first-grade students and their teachers participated in the study. The main objective of the study was to explore the extent to which positive student-teacher relationships can serve both as a "secure-base" to promote children's emotional well-being in school, and as a foundation for their academic adjustment to the school system. Results revealed that teachers' perception of their relationships with students was related to their evaluations of student academic performance and adjustment to school. These teacher evaluations were in turn related to student perceptions of their own (a) overall school experience, (b) academic abilities, (c) academic effort, and (d) quality of their relationships with their teachers. Finally, all students' measures above were either directly or indirectly associated with their actual academic performance in reading and arithmetic. These findings were obtained after controlling for various pertinent student and teacher control variables, including child's gender and intelligence. These results validate Pianta's integrative ecological-developmental model in the Israeli educational system, and support the notion that in general, student-teacher relationships are essential for students' better adjustment to school.