Effective Teaching: Qualities, Communication, and Lesson Design
What Makes a Good Teacher?
What makes a good teacher? Students often say it’s about making lessons interesting to avoid boredom. A teacher must love their job; if they genuinely enjoy their work, it will make the lessons more engaging. Unhappy teachers can negatively affect their students. Teachers who share their personality often achieve better results than those who don’t. Students enjoy being entertained by an enthusiastic teacher. Teachers must be approachable.
The ability to control and inspire a class is a fundamental teaching skill. A good teacher cares deeply about their students’ learning.
How Should Teachers Talk to Students?
Effective communication requires empathy. Rough-tuning involves adjusting one’s tone to suit different situations and individuals. This includes an unconscious simplification that both parents and teachers often employ. Experienced teachers also use physical movements like gestures, expressions, and mimes to enhance communication.
How Should Teachers Give Instructions?
There are two general rules for giving instructions:
- They must be as simple as possible.
- They must be logical.
Teachers should ask themselves:
- What is the most important information I’m trying to convey?
- What information do they need first?
- What should come next?
When giving instructions, it’s crucial to check for student understanding. This can be achieved by asking a student to explain the next step or having someone demonstrate the task to the class.
Who Should Talk in Class?
Trainee classes are sometimes criticized for excessive TTT (Teacher Talking Time) and insufficient STT (Student Talking Time). Encouraging students to speak and use the language they are learning is a vital part of a teacher’s job. Students need the practice, not the teacher. A good teacher minimizes TTT and maximizes STT.
However, good TTT can be beneficial if teachers know how to rough-tune their language to the students’ level in a relaxed and unthreatening way. This allows students to hear language slightly above their productive level, which is important for language acquisition. Good teachers use common sense and experience to strike the right balance.
What Are the Best Kinds of Lessons?
The biggest enemy of successful teaching is student boredom, often caused by the predictability of classroom time. Students often know what to expect because each class mirrors the last. To combat this, John Fanselow suggests that teachers violate their own behavior patterns. For example, a teacher who always wears casual clothes could wear a suit, or a teacher who usually sits could stand more. A teacher who is normally energetic could try to be calmer.
Each time a teacher breaks a rule, it sends a ripple through the class—a mixture of surprise and curiosity that serves as the perfect starting point for student involvement. Teachers should also assign tasks with diverse topics to prevent boredom. However, too many changes can be destabilizing, so good teachers balance predictable safety with unexpected variety.
How Important Is It to Follow a Pre-Arranged Plan?
Teachers should be able to plan varied lessons but also remain flexible. If the class is drawn to another topic, good teachers focus on the students and react quickly if something isn’t working. Good teachers are flexible.