Promoting Positive Peer
Relationships
TBIG A
Our member
1 Marela Zul Is Y.A. 2520076
2 Rosmila Dewi Js 2520078
3 Riska Maulidah 2520087
4 Riski Maulidah 2520088
The classroom is a social setting in which students
engage not just in learning but also in interacting with
their peers and teachers. Some of these activities are
educational in nature and planned by teachers, for
example group discussion and playing games However,
in the course of learning, students simultaneously
engage in many other social activities, such as
negotiating and competing with others, saving face,
asking for help and working in a team; and sometimes
these activities involve disruptive behaviour.
The Importance of Positive Peer Relationships
1. The benefits of good peer relationships
Research has shown that students who have good
relationships with their peers
We are able to establish a sense of togetherness,
belongingness, self-worth and self-
acceptance (Baloche, 1998; Kauffman et al., 2002).
2. Students’ conceptions of friendship
wth. Some of the features can be summarized as
follows (Selman,
1981):
- From the perspectives of students in primary school:
At this stage, friends
tend to be selected from others of the same age, sex
and ethnic group.
-From the perspectives of students in secondary
school: These students recognize
that friendships form more gradually, and are deeper
and more stable.
Helping Students to Become Popular
-Some basic practices
Mussen et al.’s (1990)
Summary of the research findings suggest that
popularity may be associated with the
following features:
• being friendly and outgoing, and adopting a
sympathetic orientation towards
others;
• being considered by others to be kind and
helpful;
• being deeply involved in activities and groups
rather than remaining on the
periphery;
• being healthy, physically attractive and with
good personal hygiene;
• actively offering solutions to problems;
• having greater social knowledge and
Here are some proactive practices
to consider:
• Use the dynamics of peer groups to create a positive
classroom climate and promote
good behaviour.
• Help students to pursue and maintain positive peer
relationships and make this
part of the curriculum.
• Nurture students’ social abilities, such as active
listening, recognizing their feelings
and those of others, and showing empathy, so that
they can forge good peer
relationships.
• Develop students’ self-concepts and sense of self-
worth so that they recognize
themselves as valued persons.
• Provide students with opportunities to succeed in
constructive ways which are
valued by their peers, parents and the community.
• Encourage peer interactions and guide students to
deal positively with individual
differences in background, personality and ability.
• Establish intervention programmes for students with
Practices and aspects of Class Management
classroom culture that hinder
good peer relations Several aspects of the
classroom culture certainly
A common way to do this is: hinder the development of good
• marginalize students who are peer relations. For example,
naughty and punish other bullying behavior, namely
students who interact with them aggression in various forms,
during the lesson; intimidation and harassment,
• Arrange for naughty students to including spreading gossip,
sit in isolation or stand in a corner gossiping, and excluding others
of the classroom. from the group (Vitto, 2003).
• Depriving such student of their
right to have playtime or recess.
Stages in Helping Students with Peer Problems
To manage the classroom positively and effectively, teachers have
an important role to play in supporting students who are having
problems with their peers. The teacher’s intervention aims to
improve these students’ social skills and support them in building
a network of friends in the classroom. It involves training students
in various forms of problem solving, which may include finding
alternatives, anticipating consequences and understanding cause
and effect (Mussen et al., 1990).
Here are some stages that can be used by teachers:
When helping students to change their behavior by
putting them through an individual educational
plan, teachers must take into account the potential
strong effects of “reputation bias”.
Therefore, for the students you wish to help, it is
very important to build a network of three or four
suitable students of the same grade to offer
support as they practice skills for coping with
rejection and exclusion.
Developing Strategies for
Teachers can help to create good peer
Promoting Positive Peer
relationships in the classroom. This
Relationship.
section introduces other practical
strategies of value to teachers under five
headings:
1. Teaching social-emotional skills.
2. Teaching conflict-resolution skills.
3. Teaching problem-solving skills.
4. Getting students to learn in groups.
5. Creating a classroom climate of positive peer
relationships
TEACHING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS
Social-emotional skills including self-
awareness, empathy, and communication
and conflict-resolution skills.
They enable students to establish and maintain
friendships and a sense of belonging; and when
students feel accepted and respected, they learn
well. Otherwise, they can be distracted from
learning by spending much of their time
and energy trying to fit in and managing social
conflict and teasing, and may eventually
end up misbehaving. Limitations in these social
skills play a large part in causing classroom
behaviour problems.
To promote good peer relationships among students in a
class, teachers may build these social-emotional skills
into the general curriculum and classroom management
system. For instance, they can consider integrating
themes such as friendships and interpersonal
relationships into their classroom teaching.
TEACHING CONFLICT-RESOLUTION SKILLS
Research studies have shown that
students who are trained in conflict-
resolution skills are more likely to resolve
such problems in positive ways instead of
withdrawing or becoming violent; and their
academic attainment also improves.
Many conflict resolution programmes are
available, varying from individual personal
practice to a whole-school approach.
TEACHING CONFLICT-RESOLUTION SKILLS
A general sequence for conflict-resolution for
teachers to follow is given below by summarizing
the features of these programmes.
1. Gather information about the students involved
and describe the conflict.
2. Listen to and state each student’s point of view.
3. Brainstorm possible “win-win” solutions.
4. Negotiate or compromise.
5. Think about the consequences of possible
solutions.
6. Try out what appears to be the best solution
and review it.
TEACHING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILL
Students who master the skills of problem
solving are more able to develop and maintain
friendships and are likely to achieve better
academically and exhibit a higher level of
independent thinking.
These skills can be taught though a self-
instructional approach. One of the key
features of this strategy is that students learn
to solve problems independently and to
take responsibility for their own behaviour and
decisions.
• GETTING STUDENTS TO LEARN IN GROUPS.
Instructional strategies and forms of classroom organization that are student-
centred
and encourage interaction have more potential for promoting good peer
relationships
than traditional methods. Also using groups in learning creates more
contexts where
students are able to collaborate with others and develop their social selves.
The benefits of learning in groups have been cited in many studies. When
working in this way, students
can help each other to make progress in learning by giving one other
explanations in
ways that make sense to them, not from the teachers’ points of view.
When a group is used as a way of learning,
teachers should consider two main
issues:
• The selection of group members.
• The management of group behaviour.
• CREATING A CLASSROOM CLIMATE Of
POSITIVE PEER RELATIONSHIP.
Good peer relationships can be developed as
a classroom climate. There are many
ways in which teachers can enhance a
classroom culture of friendship,
belongingness
and cohesiveness.
The basic principle is to get the class to
engage in some whole-class
activities which are not necessarily directly
relevant to school learning.
THANK YOU
