A REFLECTION ON FORMING STUDENT-TEACHER TRUSTIN AN ONLINE CLASSROOM
Ashton Elise Dawes
Kanda University of International Studies
INTRODUCTION
In the age of technology, the novel coronavirus, despite hindering much of the world, has notbeen able to bring education to a halt. Instead, education moved to online platforms. While mostteachers might agree that online education is not superior to a traditional classroom setting, it
is still fortunate that educators have been able to continue their jobs without much interference.
Of course, with a new classroom setting, the challenges educators face have changed as well. In
the classroom, the screen acts not only as a divide between students and their classmates, but
between students and their teachers. This is how the online classroom can cause great distressto educators and students alike: a lack of ability to form a real bond with each other.
LITERATURE REVIEWThe importance of teachers being able to connect with their students comes from theunderstanding that a close relationship with a teacher encourages students to be more active intheir learning. Student-teacher connection is envisioned as having value beyond creating abetter experience for students and reaping more positive classroom results (Gillespie, 2005). Not
only does it encourage students to want to improve for their own sake, but in order to prove tothe teacher that they have understood the information. What students can gain from havingclasses online is arguably less than what they can gain from a traditional classroom experience(Cifuentes & Lents, 2010), but as educators, we have to recognize that the human experience of
relying on technology has expanded to the classroom, and that not every student has the same
exposure to technology as others (O’Donoghue et al., 2004). Educators, in the time of crisis,
have to recognize that students’ level of previous exposure to computers and technology playsa large part in the online classroom. Some students will have a large amount of experience withcomputers, and others will be limited, yet they are expected to perform at the same level
regardless (O’Donoghue et al., 2004). In a traditional classroom, the students’ understanding
and skill can be directly seen and understood by a teacher, but online, the students’ difficulties
could be due to technology rather than their skill in the subject. This is why teacher-studentrelationships are even more important when put in an online setting; a direct relationship with astudent allows the teacher to better understand the difficulties they are facing. Drop-out rates
and failure rates are directly linked to teacher-student relationships at any given university
18.	  A	  Reﬂection	  on	  Forming	  Student-­‐Teacher	  Trust	  in	  an	  Online	  Classroom.	  Ashton	  Elise	  Dawes.	  Pages	  72-­‐75.	  Literacies	  &	  Language	  Education:	  Research	  &	  Practice,	  2020	  Special	  Section:	  Teaching	  During	  a	  Pandemic.	  English	  Language	  Institute,	  KUIS.

(Hagenauer & Volet, 2014), and in a trying time such as a pandemic, teacher-student
relationships become even more important, despite being more difficult to naturally achieve.
Students cannot be forced to engage with their teachers, but if they feel the opportunity does
not exist, then their chances of success are already lessened (Hagenauer & Volet, 2014). Isolationis the number one way to lose student motivation (O’Donoghue et al., 2004), so educators needto be prepared to lessen the feeling of isolation and create an engaging environment so thatstudents feel they are directly involved in their learning (Hagenauer & Volet, 2014).
SEMESTER OVERVIEW
During the semester, many students spoke to me about the difficulties they felt they were facing
in terms of motivation and connection with the class material and other students. Some felt they
were not skilled enough in the English language to participate in class and therefore wouldn’t beable to communicate with me, their instructor, or the classmates who seemingly have a highlevel of English proficiency. While this is expected in any classroom for the first couple of weeks,
as the semester continued online, the students had not broken free of their shells and continued
to retain the same shyness and lack of willingness to participate. The online classroom setting
itself made it difficult for me to encourage them to try, and in my perception, made it difficult
for students to feel they were improving in their language skills.
What I came to understand for this is that students lacked motivation because they lacked
connection with others who could motivate them. So, I changed my classroom approach, hopingthat I could increase the amount of time students spent interacting with each other. By
increasing their time together, I inadvertently decreased my time with them. Of course, there is
no way for me to force students to meet with me one on one, so I would encourage them to visit
my office hours or to have a conversation with me. This encouragement was highly ineffective
and left me with an empty office. Perhaps their concerns over their level of English led touncertainty about attempting to speak with me one-on-one. Perhaps when I said “see you nextclass” to students, they understood that to mean I would not be willing to speak with them untilthat time.
I wish I could reflect on how well I was able to form bonds with my students over the course of
the semester, but I find that I was lacking in forming bonds with students more than I wassuccessful. As someone who has always felt quite close with her students, and had students
come to class early and stay late to chat with me, losing that to the online classroom setting wasa blow to my pride. I also found that no matter how cheerful or funny I tried to be in class, a grandmajority of students rarely gave me more than the continued blank stare at their computer
screen. Unless I was able to directly speak with a student, I was unable to gauge their level ofengagement with the material. There is a lot to be said for reading the room, and in a room bymyself, attempting to teach to a computer, there was no room to be read.
In an effort to improve my relationships with my students, I began to open my Zoom room fiveminutes before class time, to create a virtual free chat space for students. They weren’t expected
to join early, but they had the opportunity to ‘come early to the classroom.’ Their cameras andmicrophones could be on or off as they saw fit, and I think this made a huge difference in thatthey could come without pressure. About a quarter of my total students took advantage of thisopportunity to either speak with me about projects, the upcoming class, or difficulties they had
in a previous class. Although the conversations with students were usually not more than thirty
seconds per student, the turnout of early joiners was greater than I expected. Beyond having theclassroom open five minutes early, another measure I took (which was also the one that seemed
to make the most difference while being the easiest to provide) was examples. If I spent the timeto create two personal examples of assignment answers to students, they felt they could get toknow me better and feel more comfortable speaking to me about presenting videos or writing
papers that they would otherwise have been hesitant to share. The examples also made it easierfor me to explain to them what I wanted them to do, and they were then more willing and able
to ask me specific questions. I still do not know if I have really created a good relationship withthem, but at least I have made myself someone they feel comfortable talking to or someone
whom they can ask for help.
IMPACT ON FUTURE CLASSES
In the continuance of the 2020 pandemic, it is imperative that teachers take into considerationthat teaching online is not only difficult for teachers in terms of relaying information but also interms of connecting with students. During introductory units or orientations, taking the time tobond with students in a manner deeper than just giving a self-introduction may make thedifference between teaching a class without assurance of how well material was understood,and successfully teaching a class. For me, if the opportunity to teach online comes again orcontinues, I would like to implement a different way of grading. If I ask students to submit video
projects, then I can return their feedback in a video format as well. Rather than being a poweron the other side of a screen, I want my students to be able to see me as their learning assistant.
The online setting allows teachers to inadvertently limit their interactions with students. Thereis no need to limit my interactions with students in favor of creating more time for them tointeract with each other. Both can and should co-exist. My role as a teacher is a facilitator ofeducation, and if I limit the amount of time I have to encourage students with advice and learningassistance in the classroom, then I limit their willingness to connect with me as their educator.
CONCLUSION

Online teaching cannot possibly hold a candle to a traditional classroom, especially when it
comes to forming relationships with students. However, despite this difficulty and the barrier ofthe screen, it is imperative that educators try their utmost to bond with their students andbecome someone who the students can trust. Ideally, this connection will not only raise themorale of the class, but also to give students the support they need from their teachers.
Acknowledging that student-teacher relationships cannot be something that we simply allow tohave less importance in an online setting will allow us, as educators, to encourage students torise to the educational occasion and become more prepared and autonomous learners (Gillespie,2005).

REFERENCES
Cifuentes, O.E. & Lents, N.H. (2010). Increasing student-teacher interaction at an urban
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Hagenauer, G. & Volet, S.E. (2014). Teacher-student relationship at university: An important
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