What Influences how Teachers Teach?

Education is the basis for the construction of knowledge, competency, and potential individual development. At the center of this, teachers play a critically significant role in the learning process of students. Apart from planning and executing lesson plans, teachers also play the role of a third parent within the school environment. In fact, as Stone (2015) notes, the teacher is often considered a constant role model for the students. Teachers must portray a positive image to fulfill a student’s need for a positive role model. Within the classroom setting, the teacher plays a critical role in determining the student performance. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of teaching is tenuous due to disruptions from contextual and behavioral factors often emanating from legislative requirements and teacher’s attitudes towards the teaching process among other factors.

Legislative Requirements that affect how teachers teach

Legal requirements include federal, state, and local regulations that must be adhered to by the school, administration, teachers, non-teaching staff, and other constituents. The legislation are intended to provide a guiding principle to the administrators and the teachers in their daily school operations. For instance, the federal law on is unambiguous on the no child left behind, which is meant to benefit individuals with disabilities. According to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (n.d), the law advocates for the inclusion of every child within the learning activities, which means that the teacher should design the learning goals and activities while considering children with physical or learning disabilities. Other legislative requirements that help teachers in the teaching process include the core curriculum standards that guide the design and implementation of lesson plans. By virtue, the legislative requirements are designed to provide an overarching guidance to the teacher, while benefitting the student. Unfortunately, while some of the legal requirements are designed to help teachers, others distract the teaching process. For instance, the education for all legal requirements imposes legal obligations not to discriminate against learning with special needs means that the teacher should not discriminate or fail to attend to special needs students. While this is for the collective good of this specific demographic, it is likely to cause distractions within the instructional setting, as the teacher must pay special attention to this particular group. The extra attention and the adjustments required are likely to slow down the teaching process.

Impact of the teacher’s attitude on learner’s success

Teachers play an important role in the classroom behavior management and achievement of learning goals. The setting where effective and successful learning is conducted is bound to contribute to the success student. The teacher’s attitude in and outside the instructional setting significantly affects the student academic success and attitude towards education and the learning environment. According to Ulug, Ozden, and Eryilmaz (2011), a positive or negative reaction in the teacher is reflected in the way he/she directs and shapes the lives of the students. For instance, when a teacher displays positive behavior by showing an understanding of the student thoughts, shows interest, or appreciation, this is likely to increase student motivation and success. On the contrary, if the teacher engages in belittling comments towards the students, then this is likely to demoralize the students and failure.

Personal Reflection

Teaching is a process that is guided by several factors for effective learning. The legislative requirements will affect the way I conduct myself within the instructional settings and the ways that learners should behave. However, while some legal requirements aid in the teaching process, others disrupt the process. Consequently, a teacher’s positive attitude is likely to have a positive impact on the performance, behavior, and personality of the student. On the other hand, a negative attitude will also affect the student performance levels and likely to cause student failure.

References

Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. (n.d). Elementary and secondary act: No child left behind. Retrieved from: http://www.k12.wa.us/esea/NCLB.aspx

Stone, R. (2015). Best practices for teaching science: What award-winning classroom teachers do. New York : Skyhorse Publishing.

Ulug, M., Ozden, M. S., & Eryilmaz, A. (2011). The Effects of Teachers’ Attitudes on Students’ Personality and Performance. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 30, 738-742.