When you think back on your own education, there’s probably a teacher who stands out as an exceptional source of encouragement and inspiration. Maybe it was a college professor who inspired you to change your career field — or, maybe it was a kindergarten teacher whose simple acts of kindness made a positive difference in your childhood. But no matter what grade you were in or what subject you were studying, chances are your favorite teacher possessed many of the skills and characteristics that are featured on this list, which breaks down the qualities of a good teacher in detail.
Read on as we break down more than a dozen of the most important traits for educators.
The Top 14 Qualities that Make a Good Teacher
You don’t need to have a specific personality type to be an
inspiring and effective teacher. However, there are some useful traits you
should work on developing or strengthening if your goal is to be a more
engaging and successful educator.
1. Adaptability
Adaptability is a must for teachers, who need to
continuously evaluate what’s working for their students — and even more
importantly, what isn’t working. Being adaptable and flexible allows you to
flow between different theories of learning and modes of teaching — something
we’ll discuss momentarily — without becoming immobilized by stress or
indecision.
2. Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what another person is
feeling or experiencing — put simply, putting yourself in another person’s
shoes. As a teacher, it’s vital to practice empathy instead of making
assumptions — for instance, making efforts to understand and address the root
issue that’s causing a student to fall behind their peers, perform more poorly
than they used to, or lash out in class.
3. Patience
Patience is important both to possess and to model for your
students — who, as we discussed in our post on theories of learning, may view
you as a role model and emulate your behavior. Having a reserve of patience
will make it easier for you to work through each student’s unique struggles and
challenges, which may be difficult or slow-going to overcome.
4. Engagement
Students are perceptive from an extremely young age and can
easily tell when teachers are bored by or apathetic toward their own material.
If you want to generate engagement and enthusiasm in your class, it’s
imperative to exemplify those traits yourself, showing your students an
infectious passion for learning — and all the exciting discoveries and hobbies
that it can unlock for them!
5. Active Listening
Active listening is vital if you want to effectively
diagnose and help overcome students’ unique obstacles and challenges. Seek
feedback, encourage honesty, provide ways for students to contact you easily,
and be attentive whenever you listen, always trying to read between the lines
and assess body language while you’re communicating. Learn more about how and
why you should improve your
active listening skills.
6. Lifelong Learning
The best educators aren’t just interested in teaching — they
also have a passion for lifelong learning, which is reflected in their
enthusiasm and engagement as instructors. Continued learning and professional
development deliver invaluable insight, keeping professionals “sharp” and
reminding teachers of the real-world challenges that their students may be
facing — creating a pathway for greater empathy. Discover more about the
importance of lifelong learning and how different theories of
learning could help you teach — or understand — new information.
7. Free of Bias
As an educator, you’ll be responsible for teaching an
extraordinarily wide range of students. To combat inequality and discrimination
and ensure fairness, you need to assess your students’ needs in a way that is
free from bias — something that requires you to continuously check in with your
own judgments and assumptions about others.
8. Respectful Attitude
Even in classrooms of adult learners, there’s still an
inherent imbalance of power that exists between students and teachers. It’s
imperative for educators to be mindful of this imbalance and ensure that
students feel respected and heard for the people they are and what they
contribute to the classroom.
9. Creativity
Creativity goes hand in hand with adaptability — another key
trait we explored on this list. Whether you teach first graders or doctoral
students, you’ll need the ability to innovate, think outside the box, and find
novel solutions to challenges, which will empower you to meet a wider range of
students’ needs. Being creative as an educator will also help you to foster
creativity in your students — an essential skill they’ll need for countless
career paths.
10. Collaborative
From parent-teacher conferences and department meetings to
teaching dozens or hundreds of students every day, education is an intensely
collaborative field by nature, involving a constant interplay between students,
teachers, administrators, and family members. If your goal is to become an
educator or transition into an educational leadership position, you’ll need
strong collaborative skills to ensure you can work well with others
consistently.
11. Preparation
In line with being flexible and adaptable, it’s important to
be prepared for a wide range of scenarios and challenges in the classroom. You
can increase your overall level of preparedness as an educator by learning
about your students’ strengths and challenges, and ensuring that you consider
how each of your students could be affected by your lesson plans.
12. Promote a Growth Mindset
In 2006, psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the concept of
“growth mindsets” vs. “fixed mindsets” in her book Mindset: The Psychology of
Success. According to Dweck, individuals with a fixed mindset perceive assets
like intelligence as being determined early in life, which can cause obstacles
or challenges to seem insurmountable or overwhelming. In contrast to a fixed mindset,
individuals who have a growth mindset believe that traits like intelligence and
creativity can be developed with practice.
13. Meet Students Where They Are
Your students will come to you from different backgrounds,
skill sets, and challenges — and you need to be ready to meet them, whichever
point they’ve reached in their learning. That means having the ability to
accommodate students who learn at different paces, using different styles and
methods, within the same classroom or group. This is another area where traits
like adaptability, empathy, and patience come into play for educators.
14. Cross-Discipline Teaching
Drawing on multiple subjects and disciplines shows students
how businesses operate — and how problem-solving works — in the real world,
grounding their learning in practical real-life scenarios.
If you don’t possess all of these traits already, don’t
panic — just be mindful that there may be some areas where you could benefit
from a little practice. Whether your goal is to tune up weak skills, refine
strong ones, or develop new abilities, a degree or credential program provides
the perfect opportunity to acquire the qualifications and experience you need
to go further in your chosen career path.