Are positive teacher-student relationships easier to form in some situations than others?
Some situations (such as the elementary school where each teacher is assigned only twenty or so students) provide more opportunities for the development of close teacher-student relationships. Other situations (such as the middle school or high school where teachers routinely provide instruction to four or five groups of twenty-five or more students) make it difficult to form positive teacher-student relationships with all students (Feldlaufer, Midgley, & Eccles, 1988; Meece et al., 2003), and thus, it takes more effort. It is also easier to focus attention on positive teacher-student relationships in schools where the administrators believe that trust and positive relationships are important for improving children’s performance (Bryk & Schneider, 2002).
