Effective Teacher Discussion Paper
Effective Teacher Discussion Paper
When I think of an effective teacher the first characteristics that come to mind are positive, enthusiastic, variability, and constructive criticism. There are five characteristics that a teacher should posses: these characteristics are clarity, variability, enthusiasm, task oriented/business like behavior, and student opportunity to learn material. In the past I have come across a few teachers that posse’s one or more of these characteristics. I have had the opportunity to be taught by teachers who have had too much of one of the characteristics discussed. There can be positive and negative effects on a student from a teacher having too much or not enough of one of the characteristics.
A teacher that has the clarity characteristic it is a teacher who explains things well. They may use verbal directions along with a print out or a power point to help ensure that each student understands what is expected of them. A teacher who may have variability would change up the way they teach. The teacher may have the student help demonstrate an activity, give group work, or use different tactics to help the students better understand the material instead of taking notes everyday. The teacher needs to make sure that he/she is not repetitive. Being an enthusiastic teacher is an important characteristic, as a teacher’s attitude is crucial to students staying focused and their learning environment. Students enjoy a teacher whom is up beat and happy, as it helps make the learning environment positive and the student’s attitude positive. A teacher, who displays the task oriented/business like behavior, should be this way all the time. This characteristic will help keep students on task and understand the respect that a teacher needs. Teachers must always make it very clear to their students the reason that they are at school: and this is to get an education. With this being said and taught to students, the teacher needs to provide many opportunities for their students to learn. Teachers should have a structured way to evaluate a student’s progress, so that it is evident or not if the material presented to their students is being retained and understood.
Although these five characteristics are positive to the learning environment, these same characteristics could have a negative effect on students learning from a teacher not having one of the characteristics, or having too much of one characteristic and being unable to balance all five out. The best example of having too much of one and not enough of another would be a teacher who has the students look at power point slides and take notes for every class while giving the lesson in a monotone voice. This teacher would be lacking variability and enthusiasm. Most students would not get much from this class because it is routine and boring. Some may excel in this type of environment, but most would probably loose focus. On the other hand a teacher having one or two of the characteristics could also have a positive effect on the students. The best example for the positive side would be a teacher that uses student involvement to explain a part of a lesson, give group work in class, and use power point from time to time. This teacher would probably have a higher success rate out of his/her students because he/she would be enthusiastic about their lesson as well as have variability in the lessons taught. It seems that this teacher would also have an easier time incorporating the other three characteristics, so they could balance the learning environment.
I strongly feel that these five characteristic play an important part in the teacher as well as the students learning environment. To be an effective teacher it is clear that a teacher must not only posses these characteristics, but one should be able to balance these characteristics in the learning environment so that both the teacher and student succeed and benefit.