Improving teacher-child relationships using relationship-focused reflection: a case study

This study evaluated LLInC (Leerkracht–Leerling Interactie Coaching in Dutch, or Teacher Student Interaction Coaching), an intervention targeted at teachers’ mental representations to improve dyadic teacher–child relationship quality. Four teachers and eight children from Dutch elementary schools participated in this single case study. Teachers themselves selected two children with whom they experienced a difficult relationship. The results indicated that teachers’ global judgments of relationship quality improved from pretest to posttest for almost all teacher–child dyads. Day-to-day perceptions of conflict, closeness, and self-efficacy improved for a few teacher–child dyads, and especially for teacher-child dyads of the second targeted child. This implies that LLInC is especially helpful when carried out for at least two teacher-child dyads. The results of this study suggest that LLInC is promising, especially with regard to teachers’ global relationship perceptions. However, LLInC should be further evaluated using a larger, representative sample, especially with regard to day-to-day perceptions of relationship quality.