Teachers Are People Too

Teachers Are People Too

Key Takeaways

• Teachers bring their personality into the classroom
• The teacher-student relationship is a two-way process
• Different teaching styles suit different students
• Self-awareness is an important part of good teaching

We spend an enormous amount of time talking about student differences.

Learning styles.

Behaviour.

Motivation.

Individual needs.

Special needs.

Different abilities.

Different backgrounds.

Different experiences.

And rightly so.

But there is another person in the classroom whose personality has an enormous influence on what happens there.

The teacher.

Teachers are people too.

They have personalities, preferences, strengths and blind spots, just like everyone else.

And those characteristics don’t disappear when they walk through the classroom door.

In fact, they probably become even more important.

A teacher who naturally loves structure may create a very organised classroom.

A teacher who loves spontaneity may be much more comfortable allowing things to develop as they happen.

One teacher may enjoy discussion and debate.

Another may prefer students to listen carefully and follow a clearly defined process.

One may naturally focus on relationships.

Another may be particularly focused on achievement and academic outcomes.

None of these approaches is necessarily wrong.

But each will create a different classroom experience.

And that is where things become interesting.

Imagine a student who thrives on freedom and spontaneity being taught by a teacher who values structure above almost everything else.

Or a highly structured student being taught by someone who changes direction every five minutes.

Neither person is necessarily the problem.

They may simply be operating from different perspectives.

This is one of the reasons I believe teachers need to understand themselves as much as they need to understand their students.

Before we can adapt to other people, we need to recognise our own natural preferences.

At AusIDentities, we often encourage teachers to begin with a deceptively simple question:

“What do I naturally do?”

Do I naturally take control?

Do I ask lots of questions?

Do I focus on relationships?

Do I want everyone to know exactly what is expected?

Do I enjoy change?

Do I find change unsettling?

Do I make decisions quickly?

Do I need time to think?

There are no right or wrong answers.

But the answers can tell us a great deal about the way we teach.

Self-awareness can be particularly useful when a student consistently frustrates us.

Why does this particular child bother me so much?

Is it because their behaviour is genuinely unacceptable?

Or is it because they are behaving in a way that is completely opposite to my own natural preferences?

That is a difficult question.

But it is a valuable one.

Perhaps the highly organised teacher becomes frustrated with the student who is always improvising.

Perhaps the energetic teacher becomes impatient with the student who needs time to think.

Perhaps the relationship-focused teacher struggles with the student who appears detached.

Perhaps the achievement-focused teacher finds the student who “just wants to have fun” particularly challenging.

Understanding this doesn’t mean lowering standards.

It means becoming more aware of our own reactions.

Good teaching isn’t simply about knowing your subject.

It is also about understanding the people you are trying to teach.

And that includes understanding yourself.

Because sometimes the most important person for a teacher to understand isn’t the child sitting at the back of the room.

It’s the teacher standing at the front.