What makes a good teacher?

Which characteristics of a teacher make students more interested in learning?     

Teacher is a person who conveys a lot of professional knowledge in various fields to students to enhance their awareness about real life. There are some characteristics of a teacher being considered as ideal to inspire students in studying. Students’ perspectives about an inspiring teacher may vary due to many factors. Those factors will be listed and further discussed in this writing.

1. Interaction in teaching

With very long and completely academic lessons, students usually find it totally uninteresting and boring so they may miss some important knowledge in the lesson, some students even doze in the class. This happens when a teacher does not know how to interact with his/her students. When a teacher uses interaction in his/her teaching by asking questions, then answering students’ queries, students will absolutely pay more attention to the lesson and not miss any ideas about the lesson also. Especially, if a teacher knows how to take full advantage of discussion in his/her teaching, students will be able to talk about their points of view and learn new things simultaneously.

2. Friendliness

Although teachers need to maintain school’s discipline, their behaviors and friendliness will still “score” with their students. When a teacher is friendly with his/her students, the students will feel more comfortable to share their own opinions. Furthermore, when the students feel confident in sharing their own points of view, they will surely get more advice from their teachers.

3. Enthusiasm in instructions

Whenever students have some problems in life, they want to ask for advice from their parents or teachers; if any of these problems are related to study, of course they desire to be helped by their teachers. A teacher, who is enthusiastic in instructing his/her students, will be loved by his/her own students.

4. Understanding

Under normal circumstances, teachers do not usually understand their students’ needs, psychology as well as perspectives due to generation gap. Inspiring teachers are people who know how their students think so they can figure out how to talk to the students, how to instruct them to do good things and be successful in life. 

5. Sense of humor

Students will be more interested with a funny and interesting lesson. A boring lesson will make students sleepy and uninterested in learning. It is truly great for students to learn knowledge with a humorous teacher who can tell interesting stories, share useful experiences or unforgettable memories in his/her real life. Those things will help teachers to bring relaxed and comfortable moments to their students.

6. Little homework

This factor does not mean a teacher should not assign students homework. Homework is very important as it helps students to review knowledge and practice skills. If a teacher did not assign any homework, his/her students would not review the knowledge and find it extremely difficult in doing final exams afterwards. However, when a teacher assigns too much homework, students will feel stressful and overloaded, they even do not want to do their homework. Therefore, a teacher should give a reasonable amount of homework to his/her students in order to make them not feel too much pressure.

7. Patience and courteousness

Normally, students are afraid of listening to their teachers’ complaints. A teacher, who is patient and courteous with students, will make them more happy and grateful.

8. Tolerance

Students generally like a teacher who is kind, gentle and good-hearted. Therefore, a tolerant teacher will be welcomed and loved by the students. Kindness and tolerance will create more chances for students to learn from their mistakes and never commit the same things.