Your ideal teacher
According to the findings of a recent survey of UK secondary school children, successful teacher have specific personality characteristics and behaviors. Most students agreed that down-to-earth and accommodating teachers where the most effective. While students thought that it was nice to have teachers who made them laugh, this wasn’t as important as having a teacher who was able to control and manage classes. Surprisingly, monitoring both students’ academic progress and their behavior was considered to be very important. Also surprising was the fact that students did not rate a teacher’s knowledge of a subject over their ability to teach it. Practically all respondents thought that teachers who could communicate ideas and bring them alive in the classroom were the most successful teachers. Teachers who appeared to listen to their students and make them feel valued were ranked the most effective. The survey ranked unfair teachers number one on the least effective teacher type list. In second place, were teachers who seemed not to be interested in their students, followed by boring teachers. To sum up, effective teachers need to be able to manage, engage with and to communicate with their students. Calm, creative and considerate were the top three desirable teacher personality adjectives students identified in the survey.