By Winnie Tam, Centre for University and School Partnership, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
In a recent study published in School Psychology International, Lei and colleagues conducted a three-level meta-analysis to investigate the relationship between teacher-student relationships (TSR) and student academic achievement (SAA) in China. The authors believed the positive link between TSR and student academic achievement is higher in hierarchical, collective China than egalitarian, individualistic western society, as teachers have greater authority in China than in Western societies, and teachers are often the center of TSR.
The study included 74 studies (90 effect sizes) published between 2002 and 2020 that examined the TSR-SAA correlation in the Chinese context and involved both primary school and secondary school students. The results were:
• Overall, significant positive correlation between teacher-student relation and student academic achievement (r = 0.26) was found among Chinese studies, which is larger than two meta-analyses conducted in Western countries (r = 0.16).
• The correlation increased with age as the strongest effect was found in senior high school (r = 0.35), followed by junior high school (r = 0.25) and primary school (r = 0.22).
• The effects were higher among females than among males.
Overall, the findings provided evidence for the importance of teacher-student relationships in promoting academic achievement. Moreover, it supported the authors’ hypothesis that the TSR-SAA was stronger in China than in Western societies. However, the authors noted that more research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms that account for the difference in TSR-SAA across countries.
Best Evidence in Brief Index 