Promoting Relationship-Centered Learning

Building Skills for Managing Emotions, Establishing and Maintaining Positive Relationships, and Responsible Decision-Making

CASEL and Lions Quest are programs on the state-approved list, thus recommended to be utilized in the State of Texas.

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A caring community of learners is one where members feel valued, personally connected to one another, and committed to everyone’s growth and development.

Dr. Eric Schaps

Dr. Eric Schaps

Development Study Center Texas Education Association

Positive Youth Development

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“Programs that succeeded in fostering such relationships achieved dramatic positive changes… resulting in decreased problem behaviors and increased ability of youth to refuse drugs and alcohol.”

Effective positive youth development and prevention programs focus on caring and supportive relationships. For example, a study from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention called “Here’s Proof Prevention Works” states:

“Effective programs all focused on building caring and supportive relationships. Programs that succeeded in fostering such relationships achieved dramatic positive changes in parenting, family management, bonding, and communications skills, resulting in decreased problem behaviors and an increased ability of youth to refuse drugs and alcohol.”

Relationships Promote Learning

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“Positive teacher-student relationships draw students into the process of learning and promote their desire to learn.”

For example, an American Psychological Association article called “Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning” states:

“Picture a student who feels a strong personal connection to their teacher, talks with their teacher frequently, and receives more constructive guidance and praise rather than just criticism from their teacher. The student is likely to trust their teacher more, show more engagement in learning, behave better in class, and achieve at higher levels academically. Positive teacher-student relationships draw students into the learning process and promote their desire to learn.”

Relationships Create Resilience

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“Having at least one adult in a child’s life who provides a stable, caring, and supportive relationship is one of the strongest ways to build resilience and help stack the scale against adversity.”

Relationships with caring adults make young people resilient. Research on positive youth development shows that resilient young people – those who can bounce back from adversity and develop essential life and citizenship skills – have at least one ongoing relationship with a caring adult who is openly committed to their health and well-being. Facilitators of Lions Quest Programs are among those caring adults who make all the difference in developing capable, healthy young people of strong character. For example, an Edutopia article called “Bringing the Scient of Learning into Classrooms” states::

“According to a 2015 Harvard report, having at least one adult in a child’s life who provides stable, caring, and supportive relationship is one of the strongest ways to build resilience and help stack the scale against adversity.”

“According to [Standford professor Linda] Darling-Hammond… strong, long-lasting relationships between grown-ups and children in schools can override persistent negative experiences, priming a developing brain to learn and acquire more complex skills.”

Safe Environments Foster Learning

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“Supportive relationships, engagement, safety, cultural competence and responsiveness, and academic challenge and high expectations create positive school climates.”

Young people learn in high-challenge/low-threat environments that provide a meaningful context for learning. Learning thrives in a relationship-centered learning environment that acknowledges and draws upon the full spectrum of daily life’s physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and ethical experiences. To optimize learning, the school and classroom must be places where facilitators of Lions Quest Programs and students are meaningfully involved in a safe and nurturing learning community that creates relationships between the subjects, learned, and the real world. A brief from the Penn State and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation called “School Climate and Social and Emotional Learning states:

“Supportive relationships, engagement, safety,
Cultural competence and responsiveness, and
Academic challenges and high expectations create
positive school climates that can help build
competence.”