Attachment

Children’s socioemotional well-being is critical to school success, and attachment is the foundation of socioemotional well-being. Because of this, educators from preschool to high school can be more effective if they understand how attachment influences their students this is why I chose to take an in-depth look at secure attachment. As a teacher, it is my desire that all my students share a secure attachment with me and I feel that every educator should strive to have that attachment with their students. As a teacher, I want to foster a healthy attachment with my students which lead me to read several articles, “The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes”, “secure attachment”, “Attachment in the Classroom”, and“Map out a successful, satisfying relationship”.

Of all the readings, I feel that “Attachment in the Classroom” was the most helpful because it gave my ways to foster healthy attachments among my students. One thing that stuck out to me was the study conducted in the article which showed that secure attachment is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores compared to insecure attachment. That only has encouraged me to strive to form an attachment with my students. One thing an educator needs to foster healthy attachment is resources. Resources can simply be a co-worker, principal, or class. It is important to have resources because they can assist in offering ideas for helping in forming those attachments as well as understand attachment. When teachers lack the resources needed to effectively manage the social and emotional challenges within the particular context of their school and classroom, children show lower levels of on task behavior and performance (Marzano, Marzano, &Pickering, 2003).  This can make it difficult to form attachments with students.

In order to be effective, teachers must connect with and care for children with warmth, respect, and trust. We as teachers must increase sensitivity and warm, positive interactions with students. Another way for us to foster healthy attachment is being well prepared for class and hold high expectations for students. This is just one way that we as educators can show that we care about our student achievement, in addition to increasing sensitivity and being responsive. Although it can be changeling, we should try to be responsive to students’ agendas by providing choices when available. One way of fostering attachment that stood out to me was helping students be kind, helpful, and accepting of one another. Peer culture is a key component of school bonding (Juvonen 2007).

In closing, I have always believed and now research has shown that in order to be effective, teachers must connect with as well as care for children with warmth, respect, and trust. It may be easier for teachers to establish attachment relationships in preschool or primary classrooms where teachers spend more time with students than in secondary schools, and tend to a broader range of their needs. Indeed, most of the research on teacher– student attachment has occurred in early childhood settings, rather than in secondary schools. Nevertheless, even in secondary schools both teachers and students believe that good teachers establish trusting, close relationships with students (Beishuizzen et al. 2001).

 

 

References

Bergin, C. (2009). Attachment in the Classroom. Educational Psychology Review, 21(2), 141-170.

Map out a successful, satisfying relationship. (2011, November 27). Capital,D.3.  Retrieved December 20, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2521505961).

Miller, S. (2008). Secure attachment. Published by Ounce of Prevention Fund. Retrieved from
http://www.ounceofprevention.org/includes/tiny_mce/plugins/filemanager/files/Secure%20Attachment.pdf