Positive Social Relations with Peers - Essay Example

Positive Social Relations with Peers Are Important For Learning and Engagement in School Introduction Effective learning depends on various factors. One of the most instrumental factors is the way students relate with peers. Positive relations yield positive learning outcomes. Negative relations lead to poor performance. According to Burney & Beilke (2008), children that relate well with peers have higher chances of performing well in class. They are able to freely interact with other children both in class work and other extracurricular activities. Rationale for positive relations with peers Collaboration Students who have positive relations with peers enjoy collaboration in different ways. Play has been documented to play a critical role in ensuring good performance of children (Brophy, 2010). Children with positive relations with peers interact well and find it easy to play together. This is instrumental in that during play, children are better positioned to learn different things. Communication is the first aided concept when children engage in play. They are able to learn how to effectively communicate with peers. This is instrumental in learning since such students are able to effectively communicate with teachers when learning. During interaction with peers, they learn how to ask questions and respond to issues put across. This is revealed during class work when they are required to contribute in discussions or any other learning activity. Nevertheless, if children have negative relations in class, they fail to interact with peers and this is detrimental to their learning. For instance, such students would always be lonely since they might not be in a position to intermingle with their peers in play and other interactive activities (Burney & Beilke, 2008). This is transferred to class where they still find it difficult to contribute to class work since they lack the courage that other children have as a result of positive interaction, which is manifested in different ways of positive relations. Self esteem Positive relations with peers have been found to improve children’s self esteem. Such students have a positive view of things, something that is carried on to class. They feel motivated and need for working hard to achieve their goals. Positive relations with peers help children develop a sense of appreciation. It makes such students have a belief that they are appreciated and that they are worth being in school. Conversely, children with negative relations have a disadvantage of developing low self esteem (Hatfield, 2004). Studies have documented that, students who have positive friendship with peers have an added advantage in that this helps in reducing aggressive behaviors. This is attributed to the feeling of being loved and liked by peers. This includes the relationship with siblings and other members of the family. When student have sour relationship with peers especially with their siblings, they develop antisocial behaviors that are considered as mechanisms of shunning away from the problems affecting them. Positive relations with peers have also been found to help in offering social support to students. One of the causative factors to low performance has been reported to relate to stress. When students have different stressing events and situations, their academic performance have been reported to reduce considerably (Brophy, 2010). Therefore, students with positive relations with peers have an opportunity to share their problems. This offers an opportunity for the peers to console and help find solutions. Although it is not a warranty that the peers would help in providing for solutions, the feeling of being appreciated and listened has a great impact on the psychological wellbeing of the student. Facets of positive relations with peers Due to different challenges facing many students especially those that emanate from home, most of them find it hard to withstand such situations in class. For instance, the issue of poverty has been contentious for a long time. Students that come from poor background may be faced with different psychological problems that end up affecting their performance. Such students benefits when they have good relations with peers. Some studies have documented that some of these problems push students to engage in antisocial behavior and drug abuse (Hatfield, 2004). The situation can only worsen if such students do not have peers to share their problems with. Instances of bullying have been documented to arise as a result of negative relations with peers. It would not be possible for students with positive relations with peers to be bullied by the same peers. In most situations, students that are bullied have been noted to have negative relations with the peers. Specifically, if the issue of discrimination is high in the surrounding, students from the minority group tends to be the victims of bullying. However, positive relations with peers can not only be the issue of the students alone. Collaboration between students, teachers and parents has been found to highly contribute towards negative or positive relations with peers (Brophy, 2010). Students that come from families that have the idea of discrimination in them are highly likely to develop the same behavior and carry it on to school. Conversely, students that come from families that do not condone discrimination have higher chances of developing the same belief even in school. Teachers play a great part in determining the kind of relations students have with their peers. For instance, school policies that emphasize on the need for students to maintain positive relations with their peers have little instances of bullying and other elements of negative relations. Additionally, students that allow the issues that emanate as a result negative relations with peers can be argued to contribute to the continued issues of bad relations with peers. In a different dimension, there have been arguments that the social settings through which students are brought up contribute in determining the kind of relations students have with peers. Students that come from neighborhoods that have high levels of crime and violence can develop the same behavior and later be transferred to school where they find it difficult to positively relate with the peers. Positive relations with peers have the foundation of peers with good behaviors and those that have a vision for their education. This means that they have set goals and objectives in regard to their education and future. In this regard, such peers would only encourage their peers to develop a positive attitude towards performing well in their academics (Brophy, 2010). Therefore, students that have such peers have an added advantage in that they are motivated to be positive and work hard to realise their education and career dreams. Such students work smartly in that they have good arrangements with their peers on what they need to do in order to perform well in their academics. For instance, they hold class discussions together as they strategise on how to approach different assignments or projects. In addition, such students have a spirit of helping one another in areas that their friends are weak. They do not have negative attitude towards their friends and always with their friends the best. They do not like seeing their friends suffering in any way. Studies have also documented that students that portray positive relations with peers motivate their teachers and encourage them to help them perform better. Teachers like it when they have cooperative students (Hatfield, 2004). Such students perform well in their academics, something that makes their teachers happy and encouraged to help them further. Conversely, students that portray negative relations with peers disappoint their teachers and in such situations, the teachers feel de-motivated in teaching such students. This makes the performance of the school deteriorate. Gender role and class performance When children are still in their development stage, they tend to categorise things according to what they perceive about them in the simplest way. The early socialisation is characterised by children drawing lines in regard to gender factor. For instance, boys tend to have positive relations with fellow boys while girls see it necessary to have positive relationship with girls. Nevertheless, this depends on the culture that they are brought up in. students that are brought up within a culture that beliefs there is a disparity between boys and girls tend to dislike relations with the opposite gender. In most situations, girls are viewed as inferior to boys. The notion that boys perform better in mathematics and sciences than girls have been linked to continued poor performance of girls in these subjects (Montague & Jitendra, 2006). This goes on to be passed on to the kind of relations students have in school. For example, since girls have the notion that mathematics and sciences are subject for bys, they disassociate themselves from boys. The same case applies to boys. They tend to associate themselves with fellow boys who are considered to be masters of the two subjects (Brophy, 2010). This is argued to negatively affect the relations between boys and girls in school. The end results are the poor performance of the girls while the boys continue to thrive in these subjects. However, in cultures where such issues of masculinity and femininity have been a thing of the past, teachers, students and parents encourage the girl child to work hard and compete with the boys. They encourage positive relations with boys in order to boost their belief and confidence. In fact, teachers have been discouraged from segregating students according to their gender. This ensures that students can freely interact with their peers regardless of their gender affiliation. In such situations, the girl child is encouraged and performs well in the subjects believed to be the “boys subjects”. Saha & Dworkin (2009) noted that bringing boys and girls together is not only important in regard to their social wellbeing, but also helps in eliminating negative relations that may arise as a result of separating them. Environment adjustment Promoting engagement by encouraging students to positively interact helps in posting the picture of collaboration to students. This is instrumental in that students come from different backgrounds where maybe collaboration is not emphasised. Therefore, bringing students together helps students to adapt to the learning environment where collaboration is considered as a vital ingredient towards good academic performance. Although the primary aim of students attending school is to perform well in their academics, it has also been observed that the exposure of students especially when fostered by positive relations with peers can help such students identify different talents that can be instrumental to them in future. For instance, when students have positive relations with peers, they discover different talents especially during play. Some plays have been argued to positively contribute to the wellbeing of students especially on areas requiring students to act at the capacity of different roles (Montague & Jitendra, 2006). A play leader can exhibit leadership traits that can be natured as they grow up. Teachers have the responsibility of paying attention to such issues that they can use to encourage the student in working hard towards becoming what is seen to be in them. For instance, although the issue of leadership has been controversial with some theories arguing that leaders are born while others arguing that leaders are made, the bottom line is that when such a talent is spotted, teachers can advise the student on the course to undertake. This may help the students in advancing on what interests them. However, this is centrally to what would happen when students have negative relations with peers. Positive relations with peers help students identify bad and good behaviors. They are able to distinguish between what is required of them and what is undesired. Since learning is a whole package of enhancing academic knowledge and individual behavior, positive relations can help students in shaping their behaviors (Montague & Jitendra, 2006). Students that have positive peers have little room for engaging in bad behaviors. This is because the peers would not allow them to engage in any bad behaviors. They have clear guidelines of what they stand for and what they would expect their friends to behave. Positive relations with peers create a sense of maturity. They have their own mechanisms of solving their disputes. They have the advantage of solving things amicably as opposed to students that would relate negatively with their peers. Additionally, when peers interact positively, they help each other in uplifting weak areas. For instance, shy peers have an opportunity of developing courage when they positively interact with their peers. Whatever that could be affecting a student, at some point, the student forget about the problems and focus on the relations with the peer. Some students have in the past demonstrated their sense of collaboration by helping students that come from disadvantaged families. They make them feel that the situation they might be going through is temporary and will end soon. The same case applies to disabled students. These students are very delicate and can easily be affected by negative relations with their peers Hatfield (2004) argued that disabled students have been considered to be hot tempered especially when they feel that other peer are neglecting or undermining them because of their conditions. This has great impact on their performance. Nevertheless, Wentzel & Wigfield (2009) argued that the morale of disabled students can be increased by encouraging them to interact with peers. However, this becomes tricky especially when their peers discriminate against them. It is the responsibility of teachers to educate other students on the importance of viewing disabled students as normal human beings and the need from them to treat them equally. In some situations, some physically disabled students have been found to be bright in mind and even perform better those other students. However, their ability to learn effectively can be affected by thee relations they have with their peers. In this regard, positive relations could be argued to play a critical role in helping disabled students. Some of them have numerous problems ranging from their physical disability to the psychological torture that they might be going through. This is very detrimental in regard to their academic performance. The parents have also a role to play in encouraging disabled students. They should always point out their potentials rather than concentrating on their negative issues. The same case applies to the community at large. There is a need to have a community that respects disabled people. The community should be encouraged to support them in different ways. Students that might be found to mistreat them should be discouraged from doing that and instead encouraged on supporting them. In situations where the normal students fail to contemplate especially on the classroom work, they can effectively benefit from having positive relations with the disabled students who might be in a position to understand better than the normal students. Conclusion With many deliberations on the impact of positive and negative relations of students with peers, it has been evident that maintaining a positive relationship with peers helps students in many ways. They are able to share their problems and this help in reducing the level of stress. Emotional support has been documented to have instrumental advantages to students. Students who interact positively with their peers have advantages of being encouraged to work hard to perform in class. Negative relations have been found to be detrimental to student’s academic performance and their engagement. Therefore, the parents and teachers have the responsibility encouraging students to maintain positive relations with their peers. References: Burney, H. & Beilke, J.R. (2008). The Constraints of Poverty on High Achievement. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 31 (3), 295–321. Saha, L.J & Dworkin, G.A. (2009). International Handbook of Research on Teachers and Teaching. New York: Springer press. Brophy, J. (2010). Motivating students to learn. New Jersey. Cengage Learning. Hatfield, M.M. (2004). Mathematics methods for elementary and middle school teachers. New Jersey. John Wiley & sons. Montague, M & Jitendra, A.K. (2006). Teaching mathematics to middle school students with learning difficulties. New York. Guilford Press. Wentzel, K & Wigfield, A. (2009). Handbook of motivation at school. New York. John Wiley & Sons. Read More