Student Learning: The Influence of Instructor and Student Confirmation, Classroom Connectedness, and Self-Efficacy

Previous research demonstrated the importance of a healthy instructional environment characterized by institutional support and positivity for student learning. Furthermore, classroom climate is impacted by the qualities of the students and the other individuals in the classroom. Accordingly, the goal of this article was to investigate the independent and collective influence of instructor and student confirmation (i.e., communication of value and significance), classroom connectedness (i.e., perceptions of support and cooperation), and self-efficacy (i.e., beliefs about personal capabilities) on student learning. Three hundred and fifty-five students provided responses to measures of instructor confirmation, student confirmation, classroom connectedness, self-efficacy, and learning. Results indicated that classroom connectedness mediated the associations between instructor and student confirmation, and learning. In addition, self-efficacy moderated the association between classroom connectedness and learning.

Teacher Care and Students’ Sense of Connectedness in the Urban Mathematics Classroom

This multimethod study draws on theories of teacher care, dispositions, and culturally relevant pedagogy to examine how 12 urban mathematics teachers’ perceptions of their own care practices align with their Black and Latinx students’ (n = 321) sense of connectedness in the mathematics classroom. A qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with the teachers established three typologies of care: empathetic, transactional, and blended. A questionnaire measure of mathematics classroom connectedness revealed that students in classrooms led by teachers who enacted an empathetic caring pedagogy were more likely to agree that their teachers provided emotional support, their classroom felt like a family, and their contributions were valued in class. Furthermore, students’ sense of classroom connectedness mediated the link between teacher care and the students’ perceived value and relevance of mathematics.

Gender and Student Participation

Active class participation has been associated with student engagement and can be an important aspect of a successful learning experience in college classrooms. Several factors influence student participation including classroom dynamics (such as classroom connectedness, instructor-student rapport) and individual characteristics (such as biological sex and psychological gender). With respect to individual characteristics, previous research has evaluated sex differences in participation and has yielded inconsistent findings. The present study investigated the relationship between psychological gender and student participation both in- and out-of-class. Classroom connectedness and professor-student rapport were assessed as possible moderating factors. Results indicated that masculinity and androgyny were associated with more in-class participation while femininity and androgyny were associated with student professor interaction outside of class. While both classroom connectedness and instructor-student rapport were correlated with student participation, there was no evidence of them moderating the relationship between gender and participation. Professor gender type was not associated with student participation. Implications for college classrooms and higher education are discussed.

School context and subjective distress: The influence of teacher justice and school-specific well-being on adolescents’ psychological health

Notwithstanding the large consensus on the idea that justice should be favoured in school contexts to promote student well-being, there is still a lack of research that has investigated how the experience of justice at school spreads impact on global adolescent psychological health. The aim of this study is to investigate the degree to which the experience of teacher (in)justice is possibly related to some of the indicators of adolescent global psychological health, namely individual and social functioning, psychological problems, and somatic symptoms. We also test the role of two components of school-specific well-being, i.e., emotional engagement and classroom connectedness, here considered as potential mediators between teacher justice and psychological health. Structural equation modelling indicated that teacher justice is positively associated with emotional engagement, classroom connectedness and individual functioning, and negatively related to psychological problems. The relation from teacher justice to individual functioning was partially mediated by emotional engagement and classroom connectedness. The relation from teacher justice to social functioning and somatic symptoms was fully mediated by classroom connectedness, while a partial mediation was found between teacher justice and psychological problems via classroom connectedness. These results are commented at the light of their implications for teacher practices.