Teaching relationship skills

Relationship skills, such as clear communication, empathy, co-operation and conflict management, are essential for students’ engagement in learning and for creating positive classroom interactions. These skills influence classroom climate, peer relationships and teachers’ ability to focus on instruction rather than behaviour management. This brief uses a scenario-based task from Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2024 to examine how teachers respond to relationship challenges in the classroom, focusing on the strategies they report using in practice and how these approaches relate to teacher characteristics and preparation.