What makes a teacher effective? by Abisai & Valentina team

We know a teachers’ work is not an easy task. To do a great job there are many vital factors we need to take into account. Among them all, we focused this writing on four: decision making, attitudes, skills and theoretical knowledge.
Decision making
Given the fact that teachers will face many troubles in the learning and teaching process, they need to become good decision makers and problem solvers.
We can identify three stages in which teachers need to make important decisions: planning. Implementing and evaluating.
In the planning process, teachers must decide exactly what is it they want their students to learn; not only choosing a topic and let it be so general. In the implementing step, teachers have to decide when and how to intervene with the students and finally, in the evaluating step, teachers should examine what they did and the effects their decisions had.
Attitudes
These are described as predispositions to act in a positive or negative way toward persons, ideas or events. They are divided into attitudes towards self, towards children, towards peers and parents and towards the subject matter.
Attitude toward self- this category has to be the first one, because teachers have to know about themselves before thinking about others. They need to understand that as human beings, they have necessities, but also errors as well as their students, and not stop there; they need to find solutions to these weaknesses. This understanding on one´s needs can be accomplished through books, participant observation, sessions by trained leaders and counseling sessions.
After having worked on themselves, teachers can now move on to the next step that involves attitudes toward children. This is a very complicated area where teachers have to work a lot, since it covers all negative attitudes toward particular pupils, ethnics, socioeconomic groups, children with disabilities, children with strong leadership, stereotypes, self-fulfilling prophecies etc.
The third one has to do with the relationship that teachers have with other peers. Factors like authority, collaboration, competition, cooperation and acceptance are the reasons why many teachers have problems. In order not be involved in such situations, teachers need to worry about doing their job in the best way they can and not to be the most popular one or unique.
The last type of attitudes involves the attitudes toward the subject matter in which teachers have to feel enthusiastic about what they teach. It is known that as soon as teachers enter the classroom, students immediately notice how they are feeling and adopt the same attitude toward learning, which is the reason why enthusiasm is one of the key ingredients to success. If a teacher likes what he is doing, he will transmit interest to his students; on the other hand, if the teacher just wants to do his job and get out as fast as he can from the classroom, students will feel bored and uninterested.
Theoretical Knowledge
This a necessary factor that all effective teachers need, because it helps teachers to understand why students act the way they do and not like most teacher who just draw on common beliefs that many times turn out to be wrong and unsupported.
Talking about the subject, teachers should have a clear vision about the special area they are going to teach (discipline, curriculum and pedagogical content) to be supported and have a clear direction in their teaching job.
Skills needed for effective teachers
Teachers are expected to own certain skills. Examples of such skills are: class management, to be a good observer, creative, the ability to recognize problems and to give those solutions too, ask different types of questions, diagnose students’ needs, keep students interested, use technological equipment, assess students’ learning, relate learning to experiences and many more.
Conclusion
If you are interested in becoming an effective teacher, you should pay attention to special aspects that include working with your students, attitudes with all that are around you, learning about you subject , and being an excellent decision maker. Good luck with that!!