According to "Schools for Thought: A Science of Learning in the Classroom," by John T. Bruer, the study and application of psychology in the classroom is important for deciphering how students process information. This includes the way teachers interact with students, as well as how they present information. Human relations skills are vital to a student's ability to survive in the workplace, and if applied throughout the educational process, will prepare students for graduation and work placement.
Theories on human relations in education stemmed from The Human Relations Movement in the 1920s through 1950s, according to eLearnPortal.com. Theories were applied to the workplace and later to public education. From this movement, Elton Mayo, a Harvard Business School professor, conducted a study that showed that workers increase productivity in relation to how they are treated by management. School boards and superintendents now apply human relations techniques to teachers, hoping that through improved working conditions, teachers will be more responsive to increasing productivity, therefore offering students a better, more involved educational experience.
Human relations theories address issues of social needs, individual needs, feelings and attitudes. Theories suggest that employees whose psychological and social needs have been met will perform better. Elton Mayo's study, called The Hawthorne Effect, consisted of a series of social experiments conducted in the 1920s and 1930s at a Chicago factory, and concluded that workers were more responsive to changes in management relations rather than changes in the physical work environment. This study is applied to today's school structures through Mayo's conclusion that the individual focuses more on the overall welfare of a group when working in a group atmosphere; therefore, if conditions are improved for a group overall, then the individual is more likely to be satisfied with the outcome.
Other theories on human relations in education include studies conducted by Abraham Maslow, who developed a hierarchy of needs, which identifies the following individual needs: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Douglas McGregor, an American psychologist, also contributed to the Human Relations Movement. McGregor posed the idea of Theory X and Theory Y, to be applied to two different management approaches (one, X, very pessimistic; the other, Y, responsible and encouraging). He used these two approaches to establish the difference of response between the two. McGregor's theory was later expanded by Professor William Ouchi and his Theory Z.
Motivation directly affects a student's success in school, according to Bruer. Without proper motivation, children will not have a desire to learn and expand their knowledge. Children need to understand that if they try, they can succeed, but without this motivation, the students will not attempt something they believe is difficult or impossible. Teachers also use motivational theories to bridge the learning gap in classrooms. While some students are driven by performance or an end result, others are driven by the learning process. "Schools for Thought" also argues that challenging students will motivate them to succeed academically by presenting a challenge and encouraging the students to try until they succeed. By allowing students to take the tasks into their own hands and work more directly on their own learning process, teachers can motivate students to increase their interest in learning.
Maslow also addresses the issue of motivation through his hierarchy of needs. This hierarchy determines which needs are most important and posits that if an important need is not met, the worker or student cannot address other needs. Frederick Herzberg reviewed issues of attitude, studying which factors directly relate to job satisfaction. He established these factors to be: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility and advancement. These factors are contrasted with hygiene factors, which may temporarily affect an individual's level of productivity. These factors are applied in education to determine what drives educators, as well as how students respond.
Frederick Winslow Taylor proposed a theory that money is the primary motivation for workers and educators, something that is also addressed by Herzberg and reviews of his theories. David McClelland studied motivational theories in the 1940s, focusing on the attributes of highly motivated individuals in order to isolate these characteristics and apply them to how children are raised and develop as students. McClelland's model of needs-based motivation identified four needs: the need for achievement, the need for authority and power and the need for affiliation.