Act of Teaching

Chapter 10: Personal Attributes and Characteristics of Effective Teacher

8 Attributes Characteristics of Effective Teachers:
1. Enthusiastic
2. Warm and Humorous
3. Credible
4. Holding High Expectations for Success
5. Encouraging and Supportive
6. Businesslike
7. Adaptable/ Flexible
8. Knowledgeable

Effective Teacher
-One who is able to help students learn more in ways that can be measured.
Researchers found / identified effective teachers according to their ability to help students gain
the most from instructions.
A teacher who produced more learning than others teaching similar students to be an effective
teacher

3 Headings: (Highly Interrelated)

1. Motivating personality: enthusiasm, variety, and warmth and humor
-help get and keep students involved and interested in learning.
2. Orientation Towards success: expecting success and being encouraging and supportive of
students.
-teachers believe in their own and their students abilities to be successful.
3. Professional Demeanor: Professionally knowledgeable and businesslike.
-teacher is focused on helping students learn.

Motivating Personality:
a. Enthusiasm- conveys to students that they are confident and enjoy what they are doing;
trusts and respects students the subject they teach is valuable and enjoyable.
Two Dimensions:
1. Interest and Involvement with the Subject Matter
2. Vigor and Physical Dynamism
-Teachers behavior suggests that they are committed to the students and to their subject.
b. Warmth and Humor- contributing to a safe and productive environment, warmth and
humor indirectly promote learning.
Also, supportive classroom climate reduces students misbehavior
*Warmth- A teacher manifest warmth through positive, supportive interpersonal
relationships with students.
*Humor- Making learning fun. Humor can defuse tension, communicate the
teachers security and confidence, promote trust, and reduce discipline problems.
Note: Avoid sarcasm and cynicism.
c. Credibility- effective teachers appear to students to be credible and worthy of trust. You
are credible only when your students believe you are.
 Credibility and trust are the result of being open, honest, and equitable in your dealings
with students, and of openly soliciting and accepting students comments or criticisms, of
defining your expectations and the relevance of the subject, of communicating clearly,
and of demonstrating interest and concern for your students success.

Orientation Toward Success- believe in their students abilities to learn and in their own ability to
help students be successful.
1. High Expectations for Success- effective teachers hold high expectations of success for
themselves and their students.
2. Encouraging and Supportive- effective teachers are encouraging and supportive of
students, addressing students needs to belong to be liked, and to be successful.

Professional Demeanor- effective teachers establish and maintain professional demeanor.

1. Businesslike- a common characteristics of effective teachers is a task-oriented,
businesslike classroom demeanor.
2. Goal Oriented- Businesslike teachers focus their efforts on helping students achieve
learning goals, often based on state and local standards.
3. Serious- Businesslike teachers value learning and model this to students through their
words and actions.
4. Deliberate- ability to establish and maintain a sense of purpose throughout each lesson
and carefully planning instructions. Also, teachers must adapt as quickly as possible, but
not without careful consideration of the learning objectives.
5. Organize- Businesslike teachers organize the classroom and instruction based upon the
established goals. It is guided by clearly established goals and objectives, the teacher
plans for, implements, and adapts whatever instruction will most efficiently help students
reach learning objectives.
6. Adaptable/Flexible- being aware of the need for change and be able to adapt to those
changes. Also, planning developmentally appropriate instruction to reduce the need for
subsequent changes. It is also the ability to recognize the need for change and to adapt
instruction accordingly.
7. Knowledgeable- having knowledge of the subjects a teacher teaches seem intuitively to
be an important attribute of effecting teachers.

Cruickshank, Donald R., Deborah Bainer. Jenkins, and Kim K. Metcalf. The Act
of Teaching. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print. (p.347-366)