In this talk I describe emerging results from a longitudinal study of teachers and students in 1st-, 3rd-, and 5th-grade classrooms. In each classroom, assessments were obtained three times during a single school year. We focused on three aspects of classroom social dynamics: social status (who is popular/liked/influential and who is not), friendships, and aggression/victimization. For each domain, we measured the degree to which teachers were “attuned” to the actual patterns reported by peers, and the strategies teachers reported using to manage these dynamics. We identified a number of associations between teacher attunement and strategy use and changes over the school year in students’ perceptions of classroom relationships, achievement motivation, and levels of aggression. Based on interviews with teachers and their reports about how they think about these issues (e.g., how important are social dynamics? how do you learn about them?), we identify several avenues for potential professional development and intervention efforts.
- Gest Prc Talk 23 Jan2013
