Ideal Teacher Behavior and Attitudes

2 Review of Literature In this section, some related theories will be briefly reviewed as the foundation of the analysis.

A. Ideal Teacher Behavior and Attitudes

In every community and in many families, there are always stories about how a particular student struggled in school because of a teacher’s negative behavior toward the student. Some of these struggling students moved on to work with new teachers whom they perceived as better teachers and they had high hopes. These students became optimistic. However, in reality, some of those struggling students never recovered academic success, but instead they dropped out of school forever Mageehon 2006 and Weinstein 2002 in Yu 2012. Sometimes even good teachers respond to situations in manners that students experience negatively, and the teachers do not realize that students perceive their responses negatively Oldfather 2002 in Yu 2012. Actually, there are several tricks of being good teachers. The following are some. The first one is good teachers should encourage high expectations. This includes setting challenging goals for learning. They should also create clear expectations both orally and in writing. Besides that, they should encourage students to speak and write well, discuss class progress, and communicate the importance of high academic standards. The second thing that good teachers can do is encourage cooperation among students. They can inquire students’ interests and backgrounds, allow students to criticize each other’s work as well as give suggestions on how to improve them, and encourage students to explain difficult concepts to each other. Maintaining good rapport with students should also be done; good teachers should be approachable, welcome students who come to the office, and respect various ways of learning including diverse talents owned by students. Emphasizing timelines is another thing that teachers could do. This includes encouraging students to work steadily and conduct sensible time management. Estimating and communicating the amount to be spent on tasks is also suggested. Good teachers should also give prompt feedback; they should provide sufficient opportunities for assessment, be prepared and be ready to give immediate feedback. Graded assignments ideally should be returned within one week, with detailed evaluations. The last thing is to encourage student involvement. This can be done, among others, by encourage active learning, give real-life situations to analyze, use role-playing and simulations, and ask students to relate materials with events outside the class. Above all, 3 teachers have to bear in mind that showing disrespect to students is not appropriate BU Center for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching 2014.

B. What Research Says about Teacher Behavior