What Makes a Good Online Teacher?
The same way that every single person sees themself as being benevolent, including hardened criminals locked away for heinous crimes. Every teacher thinks that they are the best and that their teaching style is the most effective. Regardless if others find their methods questionable and outdated.
So how do you measure the excellence of a teacher? Is it their Personality? How friendly they are? Their level of professionalism? Or is it the number of degrees and certificates they have accumulated over the years.
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This becomes difficult to measure because different students have different needs. It’s a typical case of “One man’s meat, is another man’s poison.” What one student see’s as professional, another might see as sheer incompetence.
Another problem with teaching is unlike Professional Athletes or Businessmen who have clear criteria’s to measure how good they are. Teaching does not fall within this category, and that’s why teachers will never be millionaires.
In football we know wether Lionel Messi or Christiano Ronaldo are the best, because of the statistics. Number of goals, assists or trophies won.
In sales the score is how much money the Salesperson can generate through sales. However teaching lies in-between that grey area, making it difficult to determine who is the best.
Even students don’t really know whether their teachers are good or not. They reply with generic answers such as “I like my teacher because they are nice.” Which doesn’t give you any clues about the effectiveness of the teacher. Regardless of the number of degrees and certificates they have.
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I will try to give you an overall balanced view of what I think makes a good teacher, in my subjective but honest point of view.
This criteria is based on 1-on-1 Online Teaching, and not the traditional classroom setting.
1.Friendly & professional
Ability to create a warm and friendly environment for the student which helps the student to relax. Studies have shown that a low anxiety state, helps memory recall and longer states of concentration. So it’s the teachers job to make sure the student is comfortable.
2.Experienced
As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. But this isn’t always the case, especially teachers with traditional pedagogical methods. They spend too much time emphasising grammar rules, which stifle the students confidence and destroys any motivation to speak as they fear making mistakes.
A good experienced teacher is able to know exactly what the student needs to improve, by using creative, fun and engaging material.
An experienced teacher usually has various types of resources which can help students. But essentially what an experienced teacher offers over an inexperienced teacher is a tried and tested method of learning.
3.Graded language
A good teacher is able to determine the students level and grade the language accordingly. E.g using simple words, and making sure sentences are short.
Speaking slowly is also extremely important, when dealing with low level students as they need to process the grammatical structures and difficult pronunciation all at once.
If it is a high level student, the teacher should adjust the language closer to a Natives Level.
4.Fun & Engaging
Lecture style lessons are the least engaging and students quickly lose interest. A lesson should include multiple activities such as videos, pictures, role-plays, games etc.
Students learn better when the topics are compelling, they lose track of time and become immersed in the target language.
5.Student Talking Time
This is something even some of the most experienced teachers forget. Students need all the practice they can get speaking, so the lesson should be designed in a way that allows the student to speak more that the teacher.
The suitable ratio is 70/30 STT (Student Talking Time) vs TTT (Teacher Talking Time) This obviously depends on the level of the student. Teachers will invariably speak more when teaching low level students as they need to give more instructions.
Even if you are dealing with introverted students, you need to encourage them to speak more. Speaking time is essential for many aspects, especially developing confidence. The more students speak, the more confident they become. Follow-up questions are a good way to encourage more speaking.
In Conclusion
This is by no means an extensive criteria, these are just a few fundamental things to consider when looking for a teacher.
It’s always better to learn from someone you like, learning should be a joyful experience. The moment it feels like drudgery, then all of the learning stops.
Students should not be afraid to change teachers if they feel anxious and frustrated all the time. Sometimes it just means that your personalities are not compatible, and a different teacher could be the solution to all your problems.
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But this should also be taken with a pinch of salt. Students should not be running away from difficulty. Languages will always demand a lot from the learner and negative feelings are part of the learning process.
Learning to overcome these emotional pitfalls is a vital element in achieving fluency. So it’s important to objectively evaluate whether it is a problem with your own attitude or an incompatible teacher.
Essentially everything comes down to the attitude of the learner. Learning a new language requires patience, even when you have a good teacher. Success is not a random visitor it is something we fashion from the deepest and longest of commitments.
