Embracing Relational Teaching: How Strong Relationships Promote Student Self-Regulation and Efficacy (Strengthen student ownership of learning with relational classroom practices)

When you shift to relational pedagogy, you establish connections that help students feel valued, respected, and heard, which leads to enhanced student engagement. Author Anthony R. Reibel explores this approach, offering strategies and activities to make everyday interactions, such as instruction, assessment, reflection, and grading, more meaningful through student-teacher relationships. The result is higher levels of social-emotional and academic learning.

• Understand the meaning of relational pedagogy
• Gain the ability to organize curriculum to focus on student-centered learning
• Utilize reflection tools to better build relational assessments
• Learn to implement observational learning and avoid transactional instructional models
• Develop deeper relationships with students

Anthony R. Reibel is the assistant principal for teaching and learning at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois. He administers assessments, manages student achievement data, and oversees instruction and assessment practices. Anthony began his professional career as a technology specialist and entrepreneur. After a few years, he became a Spanish teacher at Stevenson, where he has also served as a curricular team leader, core team leader, coach, and club sponsor.
In 2010, Anthony received recognition from the state of Illinois for Outstanding New Educator; and in 2011, the Illinois Computing Educators named him Technology Educator of the Year. He is also the founder and editor of The Assessor magazine, an annual publication that showcases articles submitted by teachers discussing the realities of their practice.
Anthony earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Indiana University and master’s degrees (one in curriculum and instruction and one in educational leadership) from Roosevelt University. He is currently pursuing his doctoral degree in educational leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
To learn more about Anthony’s work, visit .assessormag.com or .ebgschool.com, or follow him @areibel on Twitter.