Creating Birds of Similar Feathers: Leveraging Similarity to Improve Teacher-Student Relationships and Academic Achievement

When people perceive themselves as similar to others, greater liking and closer relationships typically result. In the first randomized field experiment that leverages actual similarities to improve real-world relationships, we examined the affiliations between 315 9th grade students and their 25 te...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 2016-04, Vol.108 (3), p.342-352
Main Authors: Gehlbach, Hunter, Brinkworth, Maureen E, King, Aaron M, Hsu, Laura M, McIntyre, Joseph, Rogers, Todd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic Achievement
Academic Achievement Motivation
Achievement Gap
Correlation
Feedback (Response)
Female
Grade 9
Grades (Scholastic)
High School Students
Human
Intervention
Male
Professional relationships
School Based Intervention
Secondary School Teachers
Statistical Analysis
Student Attitudes
Students
Teacher Attitudes
Teacher Student Interaction
Teacher Student Relationship
Teachers
United States (Southwest)
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Summary:When people perceive themselves as similar to others, greater liking and closer relationships typically result. In the first randomized field experiment that leverages actual similarities to improve real-world relationships, we examined the affiliations between 315 9th grade students and their 25 teachers. Students in the treatment condition received feedback on 5 similarities that they shared with their teachers; each teacher received parallel feedback regarding about half of his or her 9th grade students. Five weeks after our intervention, those in the treatment conditions perceived greater similarity with their counterparts. Furthermore, when teachers received feedback about their similarities with specific students, they perceived better relationships with those students, and those students earned higher course grades. Exploratory analyses suggest that these effects are concentrated within relationships between teachers and their "underserved" students. This brief intervention appears to close the achievement gap at this school by over 60%.
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/edu0000042