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The Influence of Teacher-Student Relationship on Students'
Learning
Pinyu Dai1,a,*
1The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
a. pinyud@student.unimelb.edu.au
*corresponding author
Abstract: As the importance of education is realized by more and more people, people begin
to pay attention to the factors that have an important influence on students' studies. As a factor
directly related to students' individual and learning outcomes, the teacher-student relationship
has been noticed and studied by people. A positive teacher-student relationship can help
students in their professional learning in many ways. This paper takes the teacher-student
relationship as the starting point, and synthesizes the relevant literature and research on
teacher-student relationship and students' learning outcomes. Research has found that a
positive teacher-student relationship can regulate students' mental emotions, improve
students' participation in class, cultivate students' learning ability, and promote students'
academic achievement and goals. In the end, it is suggested that teachers can be considered
as listeners in mental health, leaders in academic learning and supporters in creative thinking
in the relationship between teachers and students, to establish and promote positive teacher-
student relationships and improve students' learning outcomes.
Keywords: Teacher-student relationship, engagement, learning outcomes, learning process
1. Introduction
The importance of education has received more attention in China. With the increasing number and
proportion of students in China, how to improve students' learning outcomes and help them study
better has become an important social topic. Hagenauer argues that positive teacher-student
relationships (TSR) are considered essential to the well-being of teachers and students as well as to
high-quality teaching processes and outcomes and that establishing a positive teacher-student
relationship must be considered an important educational goal [1]. In an atmosphere of positive
teacher-student relationships, students develop steadily and continuously in their mental and physical
abilities and health. These developments not only allow students to adapt and learn professional
knowledge, but are also an indispensable part of the student's growth process. It is also mentioned in
Hagenauer's research that positivity is the core foundation of the motivational learning atmosphere
[1]. But how to face the impact of a positive teacher-student relationship on students, how to establish
a positive teacher-student relationship with students? The study of these issues is very significant for
the academic impact of teacher-student relationships on students. This paper analyzes and
understands the relationship between teachers and students from the perspectives of emotional
dimension, support dimension, interpersonal dimension and professional dimension [2,3]. This paper
describes in detail the role of positive teacher-student relationships in mediating students' emotions,
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7048/40/20240764
© 2024 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0
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improving classroom participation, cultivating learning abilities, and promoting academic outcomes
and programs.
2. The Conceptualization of Teacher-Student Relationships
There are many theories about the definition and concept of TSR. This paper relies on the framework
provided by Hagenauer and Volet to propose an emotional dimension and a supportive dimension,
and in 2016, the two dimensions of "interpersonal" and "professional" are supplemented in their
theories [2,3]. This framework of personification holds that teachers and students play different but
closely linked roles at different levels and in different contexts. At the same time, this relationship is
not eternal, but presents a dynamic, procedural and interactive nature [1]. This means that
relationships may change over time through complex interactions that are positive or negative or
difficult to characterize. Students will be attracted by teachers' teaching methods and other aspects,
thus generating an interest in learning the subject. This preliminarily shows that a positive relationship
between teachers and students has been established. However, this does not mean that the teacher-
student relationship will remain the same and maintain positive effects after other interactions.
However, a good teacher-student relationship is not fixed, it will be affected by many aspects such as
learning results. If the teacher does not play an active role in regulating the subject, the student may
lose their trust in the teacher and their interest in the subject. He may become reluctant to
communicate with the teacher, which means the teacher-student relationship may have become
negative. In addition, it is important to note that these influential interactions may not be directly
between teachers and students, but may also come from other people such as parents and peers. by
the teacher in class and actively answered the questions raised by the teacher.
Students have multiple social identities. They are not only teacher's students, but also their parents'
children, peers and playmates of the class. This means that they also interact with people other than
teachers in their daily lives. These interactions may also have some impact on the teacher-student
relationship [4]. For example, if a student's parents show negative comments about one of his teachers,
such as questioning, hating, etc., the student is likely to lose trust in the teacher and not communicate
with him. In terms of getting along with classmates, the relationship between classmates on campus
is not all positive spiritual companionship, but also bullying and contradictions. If the teacher does
not deal with these negative things reasonably, there is a great possibility that the teacher-student
relationship will become negative.
At the same time, it must be realized that TSR is multidimensional, which not only reflects
interpersonal relationships, but also includes professional teaching [1]. This means that the teacher is
not just an educational machine that imparts knowledge, he can have more influence on the students
and play more roles in the teacher-student relationship.
3. The Influence of Teacher-Student Relationships
3.1. Intermediation in Student's Emotion
In daily life, students interact with people for various things. These interactions may have a certain
mental impact on the students. For example, for children and students, anxiety is a relatively common
mental disorder. It is generally defined as a negative emotional state characterized by physical
symptoms of physical stress and worries about the future [5]. These anxieties may come from parental
teachings and expectations in the family, or they may come from competition and comparison with
peers. Studies have shown that for children. Parents' strict discipline is likely to bring negative anxiety
to children [6]. These anxieties will not only become an obstacle to students' lives and growth, but
also have a bad effect on their studies.
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Taking the way of dealing with anxiety as an example, the teacher-student relationship can play a
role in regulating and mediating factors to intervene in the treatment of these problems [5]. In Liu's
investigation, the structural equation model was adopted to explore the influence of parental
discipline on children's anxiety, as well as the regulating and mediating role of teacher-student
relationship on children's anxiety.
The teacher-student relationship can be an independent regulator to strengthen or buffer the effect
of parents' strict discipline on children's anxiety [5]. Better teacher-student relationships can
sometimes counteract the effects of students' anxiety about strict parental discipline. For example, if
the teacher knows that the parents put unnecessary pressure on the students to study and the task
includes making the students do more homework, based on a good teacher-student relationship, the
teacher can guide the students to communicate and build their confidence in the subject. This may
reduce students' fear of excessive and tedious homework and their guilt about not meeting their
parents' academic expectations. When students are emotionally stable, they will be more likely to get
rid of anxiety. This also shows that a good teacher-student relationship provides and mediates the
students' emotions.
3.2. Engagement in Classroom
Mallik's research concluded that positive teacher-student relationship perception can significantly
improve college students' classroom behavioral engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive
engagement [7]. The negative perception of the teacher-student relationship will hinder students'
classroom engagement and academic achievement.
Student engagement in the classroom includes students' participation in learning knowledge,
assignments and extracurricular activities, as well as in the learning process and academic
responsibilities [7]. More specifically, when students enjoy the class and focus their emotions and
energy on the class, they are more likely to focus on the learning activities in the class, including
answering the teacher's questions and participating in group discussions. This means that a healthy
classroom engagement is sometimes not just about academic focus, but also about emotional
engagement and understanding and challenging concepts. Therefore, student participation can be
composed of students' behavior, emotions and cognition, and they are interrelated. For example, when
students feel that their relationship with the teacher is positive, warm, and supportive, they show up
to class on time, express their opinions, enjoy learning activities in class, and participate in group
discussions and after-class assignments. The students' input into the classroom is self-conscious, and
there is no external force. This may be because they feel emotional value from a positive teacher-
student relationship. For example, when the teacher creates a gentle relationship with the students
and a harmonious and peaceful classroom environment. In this environment, students will develop a
more confident mood. This means that they will consciously think about the problem and speak their
opinion, maintaining a high degree of concentration and participation in the class content. On the
contrary, if the teacher establishes a chaotic and disorderly teaching environment and teacher-student
relationship in which only the teacher unilaterally imparts knowledge and is strict in words and deeds,
then the students are likely to lose their interest in the class, and act like a machine to passively record
and memorize the knowledge taught by the teacher, losing their subjective will and interest.
3.3. Cultivation of Learning Ability
In public cognition, the positive role of the teacher-student relationship is generally recognized. In
China, parents perceive that a positive teacher-student relationship can improve students' learning
efficiency and thus improve their academic performance. However, few people realize that the
positive teacher-student relationship also plays an important role in the cultivation of students'
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abilities. Examples can be found in Appiah's research, which found that student's abilities in math
courses such as math perception, self-efficacy, and cooperative learning strategies play a mediating
role in positive teacher-student relationships [8]. While improving these basic abilities, students' math
scores have also been significantly improved. In the context of a positive teacher-student relationship,
students' professional competence is enhanced by positive interactions including timely subject
problem-solving and active discussion with the teacher.
And not only in the study of science knowledge such as mathematics, positive teacher-student
relationship can also help students develop skills in physical fitness courses such as sports. In Jowett's
article, student-teacher relationships have a strong impact on the social-emotional development and
health of young children and youth, as well as on academic engagement and progress, including in
math and physical education [9]. When students, under the guidance of the teacher, actively
participate in the physical exercise program in the curriculum such as playing basketball, high jump
and other sports. Their physical fitness may improve even more as a result. These improvements can
not only maintain students' physical health and improve their overall physical fitness, but also
cultivate their athletic ability and sports performance.
In conclusion, The influence of teacher-student relationship on students' learning ability can not
be ignored, not only in the academic disciplines represented by mathematics, but also in the sports
and manual disciplines represented by physical education.
3.4. Promotion of Academic Goals and Plan
As mentioned above, a positive teacher-student relationship can promote the development of student's
abilities, including mathematics represented by professional knowledge and ability and physical
education represented by physical quality. The same example can be found in Liu's study. In his thesis,
he studied whether the teacher-student relationship has a protective effect on students from low social
classes using questionnaires, and used multi-layer structural equation model to study the relationship
between math self-efficacy and math achievement of students from low social classes. Finally, he
concluded that there is an indirect relationship between positive teacher-student relationships and
academic achievement [5]. This means that a positive teacher-student relationship can have a positive
impact on students' academic achievement. In the positive teacher-student relationship, the teacher
sometimes plays a role model in the students' psychology, and the students may have a psychological
dependence on the teacher. Students may be inclined to see the teacher as a target and supporter of
their subject learning and to establish their academic goals.
In Farris's article, there is a contrary example to demonstrate that the teacher-student relationship
can have an impact on students' academic goals [10]. His article analyzes the impact of the pandemic,
which has led to many students' teaching methods having to be conducted via remote software. This
leads to turbulence in teacher-student relationships that are difficult to establish and maintain due to
distance and changes in teaching methods. The research shows that the turmoil of teacher-student
relationships and students' depressed experiences have caused a negative increase in the promotion
of students' academic goals. This means that when the relationship between teachers and students
becomes negative, the communication between teachers and students is reduced or even disappeared
due to the influence of external factors. The lack of face-to-face communication in online learning
mode weakens students' learning motivation and makes it difficult for them to fully control their
learning process. The lack of face-to-face guidance also makes it easy to get confused and difficult to
make learning plans. This sometimes has a direct impact on students' understanding and learning of
professional knowledge. Students are more likely to be distracted and have negative emotions, and in
a negative way.
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4. Suggestion
4.1. Listener in Mental Health
According to the content mentioned above, the positive teacher-student relationship can regulate and
mediate the anxiety of students, which can help students relieve the mental emotions of parents. The
same example of the role of positive teacher-student relationships can be illustrated in Fang's article.
In this paper, he discusses the various adverse effects of peer injury on students in grades 5-6, and
studies the role of teacher-student relationship in it [11]. In his article, he concluded that the closeness
or conflict between teachers and students is directly related to the harm of children's peers, and
proposed that the harm of children's peers can be reduced by improving the relationship between
teachers and students [11].
So making teachers listen to students' mental problems may be one way to improve positive
teacher-student relationships and relieve students' psychological stress. This means that if teachers
can actively listen to students' psychological and emotional confusion, and appropriately provide
some spiritual support and solutions, students can reduce some of the current negative emotions and
psychological pressure from peers or parents. When a student is experiencing campus bullying, being
bullied by his peers and is afraid to communicate with his parents. This increased the psychological
pressure on the student and made him unwilling to communicate with others and even wanted to drop
out of the group. The teacher can take the initiative to communicate with the student and guide the
student to talk about the bad conflicts he meets with with a gentle tone and stable emotions. The
teacher can be a listener and give students a way to vent their grievances and disappointments. When
students realize that the teacher is willing to listen to their experiences and work with them to come
up with a solution, they are less likely to feel lonely and helpless, and more likely to be protected
from the long-term negative effects of subsequent emotions.
4.2. Leader in Academic Learning
In the previous context mentioned in this paper, a positive teacher-student relationship can not only
increase students' participation in the classroom but also cultivate their academic ability and set future
academic goals. Farris mentions that the relationship between teachers and students has weakened
due to the increase in online teaching due to the epidemic [10]. In this context, students become more
prone to academic confusion and lose their academic goals. This means trying to think of the teacher
as a leader when considering how the teacher's role in the teacher-student relationship is positioned
in academic learning.
When a teacher becomes a leader, it first means that the teacher needs to lead students to participate
in professional learning. For example, teachers have guided ways of engaging students in academic
learning in the classroom, and they are involved in the knowledge being taught. They can use some
of their own experiences as cases to explain or guide students to think, rather than being an individuals
independent of the classroom discussion atmosphere. Second, when a teacher becomes a good leader,
it means that the teacher should not only give his orders and convey his thoughts, but also
communicate with the students, help them solve the confusion and explain the meaning of the work.
When students find that they can also express their ideas and discuss with team members and teachers
on subject knowledge, they may be more active in thinking about the meaning and embodiment of
this knowledge.
4.3. Supporter of Creative Thinking
As mentioned in the preceding paragraph, positive teacher-student relationships can improve students'
ability and achievement in subjects including math and physical education. A positive teacher-student
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relationship can not only help students exercise their physical fitness and numeracy but also cultivate
students' creative thinking abilities. In Zhang's study, he used questionnaires to survey and test
creative self-efficacy, divergent thinking tests, and remote association tests on 362 elementary school
students. The results show that teachers' sense of support is positively correlated with students'
creative thinking, and that under a positive teacher-student relationship, students regard teachers as
an effective attachment task and promote the development of their creative thinking [12].
How teachers can be the supporters of students' innovative thinking is a question that needs to be
considered. First, teachers may be able to accept and listen to students' innovative thinking. For other
related questions that students associate with divergent thinking in the learning process, the teacher
can answer their doubts with patience and professional knowledge. When students have a deeper
screening and discrimination of their ideas and thinking through the teacher's feedback, their
innovative thinking may be improved to a certain extent. Second, teachers can personally participate
in students' innovation. In primary schools in China, there are some courses about handicrafts. In
these classes, students are asked to complete simple handmade items such as paper airplanes and
paper boxes. Sometimes students may not follow the template provided by the teacher to
mechanically copy, they will use their innovative thinking to make products that are different in
appearance and function. If the teacher can participate in the students' unusual creative process, and
help them to create. Students' innovative thinking is likely to be enhanced.
5. Conclusion
This study finds that teacher-student relationship has a significant impact on students' learning
outcomes and learning processes. A positive teacher-student relationship can not only improve
students' classroom participation and act as an intermediary to regulate students' emotions, but also
cultivate students' learning skills and help students achieve their learning goals and achievements. In
terms of suggestions, this paper puts forward that first of all, teachers can pay attention to being a
listener to students' mental health. Teachers can listen to and understand students' psychological
demands and relieve their psychological pressure. Secondly, in academic study, teachers can pay
attention to becoming leaders of students. Teachers can provide students with a systematic and
professional approach to learning, leading students to achieve their academic goals. Finally, teachers
can be supporters of students' innovative thinking. Teachers can support students' innovative thinking
in learning and participate in students' innovative creation appropriately. These may help teachers
and students build positive teacher-student relationships.
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