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Predicting elementary teachers’ efforts to manage social dynamics from classroom composition, teacher characteristics, and the early year peer ecology

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Abstract

Teachers’ efforts to manage classroom social dynamics are associated with students’ social and academic adjustment, but the determinants of teachers’ use of social dynamics management strategies have remained unexplored. Multiple potential determinants of strategy use were examined in a study of 164 teachers and their 2986 students in 164 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade classrooms. Teachers who employed more of these strategies were: female, rated by observers as emotionally supportive, expressed compassion for withdrawn students, perceived a more positive classroom social climate, and had students who reported more negative peer relations. Results suggest that teachers’ personal characteristics influence their strategy use. In addition, results suggest that teachers’ strategy use may be a response to the immediate peer ecology.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the schools, teachers, and students who participated in this study.

Funding

The Classroom Peer Ecologies Project was supported by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences, Program for Social and Behavioral Context for Academic Learning (R305A100344) and from the William T. Grant and Spencer Foundations on the Development and Improvement of the Measurement of Classroom Quality (200900174). The research reported here was also supported in part by a training grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (R305B090007). Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the granting agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Summer S. Braun, Kathleen M. Zadzora & Aaron M. Miller

  2. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

    Scott D. Gest

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  1. Summer S. Braun
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  2. Kathleen M. Zadzora
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Correspondence to Scott D. Gest.

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Braun, S.S., Zadzora, K.M., Miller, A.M. et al. Predicting elementary teachers’ efforts to manage social dynamics from classroom composition, teacher characteristics, and the early year peer ecology. Soc Psychol Educ 22, 795–817 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09503-8

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