Weaker relationships with teachers put absentee students at ‘double disadvantage’

Teachers view absent students as being more withdrawn and having lower math and literacy skills, a study published in AERA Open finds.

Student-teacher relationships were weakened by teacher’s perceptions that absentee students display more “internalizing behaviors,” such as being withdrawn, but not by externalizing behaviors, such as acting out, the study said. That being the case, the study’s authors recommend that schools focus on building connections in the classroom rather than concentrating on teaching strategies to manage behaviors. 

“One stereotype about absent students is that they are ‘troublemakers’ when they are back in the classroom, but we don’t find that to be the case at all,” said Michael Gottfried, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, in a statement. Gottfried co-wrote the study along with Phil Kim, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, and Tina Fletcher, a senior official at the Walton Family Foundation.