Part-time tutoring and full-time tutoring are becoming actual jobs that people gravitate towards these days. This is because there is an increased demand for tuition as education is becoming increasingly challenging over the years. So, budding young tutors can take up part-time tuition while doing an undergraduate degree to figure out if it is something that they want to pursue in future. But it won’t be right to dive into this without knowing the qualities a good tutor needs to possess, isn’t it?
So, here are some attributes of a good teacher!
UNDERSTANDING AND RESPECT
Good teacher understands and respects their students. There are many teachers who have inherent biases against and for certain students. Handling these biases is what differentiates between an unprofessional teacher and a professional one. Regardless of the grades or personality of the student, a teacher must value his or her ideas and opinions equal to other students.
It is up to the teacher to create a safe and conducive environment that allows students to express their feelings and thoughts without the fear of being judged. Moreover, even if students consistently get low grades or seem lost during lessons, teachers must not give upon them and still maintain high expectations. A great teacher will put in extra effort to help them achieve the grades that they want.
INTERACTIVE LESSONS
A good teacher needs to be interactive with his or her students during lessons. Some teachers may be very knowledgeable in the subject that they are teaching but the way they teach makes it boring and complicated for students to learn. Simply reading notes and talking for a long time will end up with information overload for the students and results in the lessons being very boring.
A teacher needs to make sure that students are following along during lessons. This can be tested out by asking them questions, giving them pop quizzes, arranging other fun activities like games or simply anything that makes the lessons less monotonous. Teachers that do this will make their lessons more exciting and ensure that students perform well in the subject as well.
PATIENCE
It is impossible to expect all students to be obedient and respectful and thus teachers need to learn to be patient with students who do not exhibit such characteristics. Teachers need to react appropriately so that they can deal with disrespectful students while not tarnishing their friendly relationship with other students.
Some teachers are not able to handle such students and end up getting labeled as a villainous teacher. A great teacher will be able to play both the villain and hero roles appropriately which will result in students respecting them and at the same time be able to have fun while learning.
APPLICATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Teachers who discuss the application of their topic in real life also end up being the more engaging ones. Some teachers prepare these real-life examples before teaching a lesson while other teachers are able to come up with these real-life examples on the spot as they teach their lesson. This ability to digress from the topic in a smooth and entertaining manner is what differentiates a good teacher from a great teacher.
These teachers generally have a lot of experience in the field they are teaching allowing them to share their own personal stories during lessons. This will help students gain a deeper understanding of the topics that they are learning.
KEEPING IT SIMPLE
No matter how well a teacher teaches a topic, there will always be a few questions that arise from students. Sometimes these questions may be very interesting and insightful while some students may ask questions that should have been answered earlier in the lesson.
Regardless of the type of question, it is important for teachers to answer them in a way that students can understand them. Some teachers make things very complicated and do not know what to do when their students do not understand their explanation. This generally happens either because teachers themselves do not understand the topic very well or they include unnecessary details in their explanations.
Some teachers also answer questions even if they are not fully sure of them. This results in detrimental misconceptions for the students. Great teachers will be able to answer questions in a simple manner but are also not afraid to admit when they do not know the answer and will get back to their students once they learn the answer!