Positive Classroom Climate
Classroom climate refers to the prevailing mood, attitudes, standards, and tone that you and your students feel when they are in your classroom. A negative classroom climate can feel hostile, chaotic, and out of control. A positive classroom climate feels safe, respectful, welcoming, and supportive of student learning.
Here are 6 ways to build a positive classroom climate so your students feel connected to school:
A positive classroom culture is one of the most important elements of a successful learning environment and thus teachers should actively work towards creating a classroom culture that encourages participation and student success.
- Have high expectations for your students, for their work and their behaviour. Expect that your students will do well and encourage them by letting them know that you believe in them. Provide appropriate learning support for all students.
- Set up fair and consistent behaviour management processes in your classroom that are agreed upon and understood by the students. Teach students the behaviour you expect, give them opportunities to practice and use positive reinforcement. For more information on how to do this read our blog post entitled “set up the game to win“.
- Focus on building positive relationships with students. Allocate time and energy to listening to your students, getting to know them and letting them get to know you. The magic ratio for positive relationships according to John Gottman the relationship expert is 5 positive interactions: 1 negative. Not sure how to do this? Read some of our articles about building relationships.
- Use effective, evidence based teaching and learning practices. Be prepared for your classes by considering your students and how they best learn. Provide relevant and engaging curriculum, presented in interesting and student-centred ways. The literature review Building Resilience in Children and Young People from Helen Cahill et al, states that school connectedness contributes to positive mental health outcomes for students. The pedagogical characteristics of schools that demonstrate effective connectedness are the use of cooperative learning strategies, hands-on activities and variety of instruction.
- Foster positive relationships with parents so that they share your high expectations for the students and you can work as a team to educate. Remember, parents, are their children’s first teachers.
- Encourage positive relationships between students. Model the behavior you want to see in the way students treat each other. Use respectful language and demand a high standard of relating to one another in the classroom. Explicitly teach students social skills and give them plenty of opportunities to practice.
A Positive Classroom Climate
- Develop and reinforce classroom rules and norms that clearly support safe and respectful behavior. Having classroom rules helps you create a predictable, safe learning environment for your students. Rules give your students clear boundaries and opportunities to practice self-regulation and make good choices. When students feel safe and respected both emotionally and physically, they are able to focus better on learning.
- Promote positive peer relationships. You want to create an environment where your students support and are kind to one another. Some ways you can do this are:
- Notice and reinforce casual positive interactions between students on a daily basis.
- Deliberately plan relationship-building activities and games that encourage positive interactions. These can be long-term projects, or short and simple games designed for students to get to know each other better.
- Nurture positive relationships with all students. You need to let your students know that you not only care about their progress in the classroom, you also care about them as human beings. Some ways you can do this are:
- Greet your students by name every time they walk in the door. This lets them know that you notice and care that they are there.
- Use warm, inclusive behaviors with your face, body, and words each day. Smile! Ask, “How are you feeling?” Look at your students. Notice and reinforce their positive behaviors with encouraging words.
- Ask your students personal questions that will help you get to know them and what’s happening in their lives outside of school. “How was your soccer game last night?” “Is your grandma feeling better?”
- Notice changes in students’ physical and emotional behaviors. Changes may indicate a student is in need of additional emotional support. Provide or find support for that student as needed.
- Spend and keep track of individual time with each one of your students over a set duration (such as each month).
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