Building a Positive Relationship with Learners

“Learning is achieved more quickly when the learner is immersed in the educational process. The more the learner enjoys the educational process, the more successful the immersion is; thus, learning is achieved”. What “immersion in learning” means here is the psychological, emotional, physical, and mental condition of living an obsession with both knowledge and work. This makes the learning more successful, as the mind thinks, the body executes, and the mood is raised with great happiness.

How can today’s teacher create this situation for learners as they go through the educational process? Is the educational process based on human foundations that allow learners to live this positive state towards learning? How can the teacher rebuild their relationship with the learners from a humane standpoint above all? Has traditional learning ruined the pivotal and important role of the teacher, who is supposed to contribute to instilling humane, moral, intellectual, and emotional principles in the hearts, minds and souls of learners?

The foundations of building a healthy relationship with learners:

The teacher should view learners as human beings and unique human entities, showing acceptance and respect for the differences within the classroom. The assumptions or intellectual perceptions that the teacher holds about the learners play a key role in guiding the teacher when providing assistance to the learners.

For example, a teacher who realizes that the level of an adult understanding is not necessarily better than the level of a child understanding will listen carefully to the child and will show respect for their personal world, as well as personal and psychological needs. Thus, the teacher can provide assistance to the child and contribute to the formation of their personal identity and knowledge in a way that suits the child themselves, by searching for the child’s learning motives and enhancing them, and supporting the child’s development and growth, which is the first and most important human rule.

Days don’t pass that easily in class. Learners will definitely show undesirable behaviors, so how should the teacher deal with them, while maintaining the principle of respecting the needs of learners at the same time in such situations?

According to the rule that states that “Every behavior has a positive intention”, the teacher must search for the meaning behind the undesirable behavior, investigate the roots of the problem, and put the issue up for discussion to find alternatives with the most acceptable behavior. At the same time, the teacher must be careful not to violate the privacy of the learner, or rush to show unthoughtful reactions to confront the undesirable behavior of the learners, and this is the second rule: “Every behavior is a response to a need.”

The teacher who does not know failure and uses feedback to reinforce the previous experiences of the learners is fully aware that the results of real learning are not expressed by quantitative grades. The learners’ behaviors, such as persistence, enthusiasm, and immersion in learning are the true indicator of the total skills they have acquired to achieve the learning objectives.

The teacher’s primary responsibility in this situation is to search for the reasons behind the learners’ failure. They must ask a series of questions about the difficulty and clarity of the material, for example, or evaluate the learner’s readiness. Did the learner study the material as they should? Do they have sufficient or correct strategies to solve the problems? Or perhaps the subject is difficult or unclear for the learner to understand?

Working to overcome these challenges allows learners to make progress in achieving educational objectives, and helps them not to repeat mistakes. On the other hand, punishing learners by evaluating them for failure or success by grades is one of the worst toxic educational methods that pushes learners who are stigmatized for failure to slack off and lose motivation to learn and work on progressing with their educational goals. “There is no failure, but past experiences” is the third rule.

We often hear teachers during specialized training and qualification programs sharing situations in which they learned from learners. These teachers impress others every time for their humility in admitting that they lack a lot to learn, and there is no harm in acquiring knowledge and seizing the opportunity whenever the opportunity arises. It is no wonder that these teachers are respected by their learners who acknowledge them as possessing the morals and knowledge they need. Learning from others is an essential rule in prompting teachers and learners to share their experiences and build a relationship based on mutual respect and honesty in learning.

Children are the best learners:

Children use the principles of social participation in playing and learning instinctively. They form friendships more easily compared to more cautious adults. They have not yet formed hindering beliefs or prejudices about themselves or others. They often allow themselves to show weaknesses to other children, and they easily gain the trust of other children. They don’t mind sitting close to other children while they play or learn, which makes it easier for them to form relationships.

And because the child only learns what they want to learn, they are by nature very focused on the present moment, which gives them the ability to understand others better compared to adults, and the ability to pay attention to the impact of their actions on others, which helps them adapt quickly to situations and groups whenever necessary, and show empathy with the rest of the children without hesitation. When children decide to play or learn, you find them looking for the common aspects between them and the rest of the children, which helps immerse children in building common experiences while playing and learning.

It is rare to find a child who does not want to go through every possible learning experience that helps them immerse themselves in the moment. Their motivation for that is the instinct of learning that stirs their curiosity towards the surrounding environment. You find them putting everything they find in their mouths, and trying to discover every corner and every object in the house, and asking many questions about the sounds, smells, colors, and shapes around them, never calming down or getting tired during this discovery game. 

The foundations of accelerated learning – innate learning:

What distinguishes the philosophy of accelerated learning is that it offers us the experience of returning to the instinct of learning through simple techniques that are profound in their impact. It is originally based on eight foundations, all of which are based on the innate way of learning in children, namely:

1. Teaching and learning without prejudice:

The teacher should allow the learner to go through the learning experience without framing it with prejudgments on the process, the experience, or the learner themselves, like telling them that the lesson is difficult, presenting it with boredom that suggests boredom to the learner, or referring to the lesson applications or information within it as useless or unimportant. This will make the learning process easy, exciting, and stimulating for them, and the learner will be more open to the experience and more capable to look in depth at the meanings behind the experience. 

2. Learning must be done in harmony with the way the whole brain works:

The more the learning process is consistent with the way the brain learns, the more and the faster the learner’s brain develops compared to the random and traditional methods of education. Therefore, it is important for the teacher to be aware -even if partly- of the latest research results related to the way the brain learns, and the experts’ advice to apply these results and benefit from them in accelerating brain learning.

3. The learner only learns what they want to learn:

They focus on the information that grabs their attention the most. The teacher should help the learners immerse themselves in the learning process by presenting diverse knowledge in a variety of ways that suit the way each learner learns.

4. Learning is a social experience:

The learner immerses themselves more in learning by collaborating with peer learners who share commonalities. Therefore, the teacher must diversify the methods of learning within the classroom, and leave the opportunity for the learner to choose to work alone for some time, or in groups of pairs or more. The role of the teacher is to allow building positive relationships between learners and maintain the learning environment in which they interact positively.

5. Learning grows powerfully if the material is used in its context:

The closer the learning environment is to reality outside the classroom, the more it simulates real life while maintaining feelings of safety during the learning process, while maintaining a feeling of fun at the same time by providing educational activities and games that keep the learner active and alert throughout the learning period and after.

6. Occupying the whole of the learner greatly improves learning:

Learning is a personal process. Learning is created within us through the interaction of the learner with their body, thought, and heart to the extent that they are no longer attentive to their surroundings. The skilled teacher is the one who offers a variety of activities that occupies the whole learner with learning, and reinforces within them values, meanings, and knowledge, which they can express in a drawing or in words later.

7. Positive emotions play a major role in improving learning:

The learner does not learn through the physical or psychological threatening and punishment. Fear is the first and biggest enemy of learning. According to the results of many researches related to the effect of fear on different brain regions, “The fearful brain is a paralyzed brain”; therefore, the most important role that the teacher has to play from the first day they meet the learner is to build a positive relationship with the learners and continue to build trust and communication with them throughout the year.

8. Honesty, honesty, honesty:

What does the learner learn from the teacher who provides the best lessons in the presence of a supervisor from the ministry, the principal, or other teachers, while on the rest of the days they hardly move from the chair, and they are not keen to explain the lesson with the integrity that the learners touched in situations where the teacher was under observation and evaluation? The learners will learn lies and hypocrisy.

The learner is honest by nature, and they expect everyone to be honest with them, which makes the learner trust them, and trust that what they recieve from them is the best for them, and the opinion of others about them is the truth. This instinct gives the teacher a responsibility to be careful in their words and behavior, as well as honest with the learners, and to express sincere feelings and interest in providing the best for the learners.