Types of Teachers Essay Example for Free

Types of Teachers Essay Abstract This paper explains three different types of teachers and their role and impact over the educational system. By the same token it is emphasized that the teacher is an important part of the learning process who impacts the shaping of the lives of young children. The relationship between a student and a teacher is a difficult one in most of cases and it is something that raises problems which need to be resolved. At this point every teacher has different way of presenting and teaching the given material and the crucial role in establishing a good and fruitful collaboration with students is the approach of the teacher which should inspire positive attitudes and amiable atmospheres for learning. To illustrate such an approach, as well as the opposite of it, this paper consists of the following types of teachers: intimate, authoritative and indifferent teachers. Keywords: authoritative, intimate, indifferent teacher; Types of Teachers. Teachers are the ones that pass the knowledge over to the students and they utilize different way of presenting the given material. According to Jupp (2012), â€Å"Teachers make thousands of decisions each day, and they don’t do it about abstract ideas. They do it about a life of a child. You can’t imagine anything harder. † For instance, some teachers bear this in mind and manage to create a friendly atmosphere which gives the students the needed motivation for seeking knowledge, whereas some teachers are not so proficient. The reason for this can be the lack of motivation of the teacher, because there are many teachers who evolve in this profession only because there was nothing else to do and their interest is simply based on earning money. Their goal at the end of the class is a finished syllabus, not passing knowledge. Students find this kind of situation frustrating and their frustration is seen in the outer world. Balanced, positive classroom will bring out the best of students. Many psychological studies, such as Baumrind (1971) which shows the various parenting styles can correlate with various teachers’ classroom styles in the sense that a good model of a parent is an appropriate model for teacher. According to the study, the crucial elements of relationships are the responsiveness and demandingness. Considering these elements teachers can be classified as authoritative, intimate, and indifferent. Authoritative teachers will be characterized by a high response, and a high demand, and are considered to be the closest to the ideal picture of a teacher. Most of them can be described with personality traits such as: curious, creative, attentive, principled, astute, patient, hardworking, gregarious, communicative, and openhearted and perhaps the most important, proficient. They are eager to know something more about the student apart from their first and last name, something more about their individuality, more personal. They are more likely to build a good relationship with the students and will allow them participation in the class, as long as it is something relevant to the topic of the lesson, so the student involvement in the class is at a very high rate. These ways of participations are â€Å"important predictors of social and academic adjustment† (Hughes, 2002). The authoritative classroom might be an excellent opportunity for developing speaking skills, because an authoritative teacher is open to feedback and debates with the students. However, authoritative classroom might not be ideal for developing speaking skills because some authoritative teachers are closed to feedback as this may question their authority. An authoritative teacher would organize the class neatly and orderly and the discipline would be present throughout the class, so the students would feel comfortable and respectful. In ideal situation mutual respect and cooperation are the most important tools of an authoritative teacher for their approach of teaching, although not every authoritative teacher uses them. Intimate teachers are characterized by high response and low demand, i. e. high involvement in students’ lives but occasionally poor establishment of a control in the classroom. When making decisions, the students’ feelings might be taken into consideration and nothing else. Intimate teachers often ignore disrespectful behaviour and discipline will not be present in such a classroom. This atmosphere is more like to be friendly but chaotic and may result in a classroom which is entirely out of control. Being kind is good, still being too kind and ignoring the discipline will be a dead end. This kind of teacher will probably be liked by most of the students but the teaching can be poor and it may result in poor academic skills. Indifferent teachers are characterized by low response, low demand, and little or no control over the class. They are one of the worst types of teachers. The image that students get of them is that they seem to be bored with the class and are eager to finish with it as soon as possible. The involvement of the students is at a very low rate. Some of these teachers do not prepare for class and usually are sitting in front of the class, sighing and citing word by word the lesson from the book. Others will tell the students to read silently as they are gazing somewhere or contemplating matters not even close to the lesson material. An indifferent teacher lacks motivation and is not at all hardworking. This teacher appears generally uninterested and might not even bother to provide different materials during the course, so students are able to get the exams from the previous years. That will certainly have negative feedback and students will have low motivation and poor or no knowledge at all. Classroom discipline is a concept unknown for these teachers. They lack the skill and motivation to establish a discipline in the class needed to provide an orderly atmosphere class. The reason for the indifference may be due to the lack of motivation for teaching. As mentioned in the abstract, some of these teachers may be those who become teachers unintentionally, because there was nothing else to do. Students will respond negatively of the atmosphere. If one asks a student to describe an indifferent teacher, he/she will probably sigh and say something like learning is up to the students as far as that teacher is concerned. Students who have this type of teacher do not have the opportunity to exercise speaking skills at all. According to Rowe, K. (2003), the type of the approach of the teacher i. e. the established relationships result in creating certain characteristic behaviours. The statistics show that the authoritative type produce students who are responsible, socially competent, well prepared and knowledgeable, the intimate teachers produce irresponsible students with poor leadership skills; and indifferent teachers produces students with poor verbal skills and poor or no knowledge at all. Teachers are the ones that teach the lessons of humanity and should take more responsibility in creating their approaches towards students. Regarding these classifications the closest to an ideal teacher is the authoritative one. In addition, according to Baumrind (1971), the authoritative approach is the best approach because it correlates with appropriate student behaviors. It is true that to be an authoritative teacher is much easier to imagine than to accomplish. Since, the students are to be the next academic citizens who deal with various positions and for that purpose teachers should think twice before stepping into a classroom unprepared. However, even the least motivated teachers should simply consider if the teachers they are being at the moment are the ones they would prefer their children to have. References Baumrind, D. (1971). Cornell University College of Human Ecology. Parenting styles and adolescents. Retrieved from http://www. human. cornell. edu/pam/outreach/parenting/research/upload/Parenting-20Styles-20and-20Adolescents. pdf Hughes, Jan N. (2002) Authoritative Teaching: Tipping the balance in favor of school versus peer effects. Journal of School Psychology 40(6), 485-492 Retrieved from http://www. centerforcsri. org/research/improvement. cgi? st=ssr=SR005149 Jupp, B. (2012, January 18). Join ED and teachers for#teach talk discussion on twitter Retrieved from http://www. ed. gov/blog/2012/01/join-ed-and-teachers-for-a-teachtalk-discussion-on-twitter/ Rowe, K. (2003) â€Å"The Importance of Teacher Quality as a Key Determinant of Students’ Experiences and Outcomes of Schooling Retrieved from http://research. acer. edu. au/research_conference_2003/3.