Do teachers impact on the learning behavior of their students?

As a matter of fact, any teacher that doesn’t see his or herself as a role model to their students is not worth being called a teacher. Being a role model in all aspects to your students is a responsibility and not a matter of choice. This is why it has to be consciously done because it impacts students learning behavior. An article on Essays UK gives an explicit and professional explanation of this that: Behavior is observable outcome of the teacher that affects the student performance in different activities in institution. Behaviors may be positive or negative and effective and ineffective. A behavior produces the requisite results. Behaviors are the action, which is different at different time. There are three types of behavior, thinking, feeling and doing. The classification of thinking behavior is very important for learning process and it can be divided into three domains. These domains are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Cognitive behavior consists on knowledge outcomes and intellectual abilities and skills. Affective behavior based on individuals hidden abilities likes, attitude, interests, appreciation and modes of adjustment. Psychomotor domain based on perceptual and motor skills (Shah, 2009). So, how a teacher conducts themselves affects every aspect of students learning behavior.

Essays UK furthers that An inspiring teacher can increase the knowledge of the student and develop their skills and personal characteristics, which include socio-emotional and spiritual realms in addition to cognitive behavior, which is more likely to be fixed. Personal characteristics are rooted in feelings and beliefs, which cannot be observed directly through the traditional methods and are difficult to identify. A teacher should be able to organize the classroom, have complete command of the classroom and ask probing questions (Ros-Voseles and Fowler-Haughey, 2007). Effective teachers have sound knowledge of the subject, take personal interest in each student, establish a caring loving atmosphere and show interest with students. A teacher must know the art of communication. A large number of studies have revealed that interpersonal relation between the student and teacher are very important for the student motivation and achievement in all subjects. Hence healthy teacher-student interpersonal relation is very important and requisite for the students to engage in learning activities (Brekelmans et al., 2002).

Different teachers show different kind of behaviors in the classrooms for example some are distant and others are sociable. Some are well organized and others are chaotic. Teacher’s behavior is believed to have great impact on student motivation and learning. Because motivation is goal directed behavior and it is the energy need to perform task or achieve some goal. Motivation is also thought to be a mediator between the teacher behavior and student learning (Christophel, 1990; Frymier, 1994). By expanding the traditional views of motivation, they construct the new term learner empowerment, which can be defined as the student feeling of competence to perform a task. Moreover, teacher’s behavior influences the student empowerment (Essays UK, 2017).

In educational psychology, the student motivation is one of the important elements that contributes to the learning process. Several investigations have been conducted that examine the motivational conditions of learning. The underlying implication of student motivation appears to lay the process of “how” students are taught rather “what” they are taught. Motivation has been described as a process that includes the specific directive and stimulating properties. This can lead the students to arousal and investigative behaviors give directions and purpose to their behaviors, allow behaviors to persist and lead to choices of preferred behaviors. A general pattern to the student motivation towards learning often takes the following sequential forms: student energy, volition, direction, involvement and completion. If one of the student motivations breaks down the entire process may come to a complete halt (Essays UK, 2017).

In order to teach students well, there are five key behaviors that contribute to effective teaching. They are lesson clarity, instructional variety, teacher task orientation, engagement in the learning process and student success rate (Essays UK, 2017). For teachers to impact the learning behavior of their students appropriately, it must be done following the right “tricks”. Firstly, the teacher must encourage high expectations. Always make your expectations known right from the beginning of the class. Set challenging goals for the students, Always encourage them to write and speak well, discuss the progress of the class from time to time and finally, communicate the importance of high academic standards. If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable and this explains the reason why many students are not motivated about their schoolwork because they were never told its true essence (AAHE, 1987).

Teachers make a difference. Teacher elicits much more student learning than others and their success is tied to consistent differences in teaching behaviors (Good and Grouws, 1977). Teachers can encourage cooperation among students to bolster their learning behavior. Instead of championing everything, ask students to explain difficult concepts to one another. Then, inquire into students’ interests and backgrounds so as to be able to know the best way to handle them. You can also encourage students to prepare together for class. In addition, give students the opportunity to critique the works of each other so as to give in room for exchange of intellectual opinions. Finally, on this, create study groups and project teams (AAHE, 1987).

Teacher should set a reasonable learning objective for every lesson that allows their students to progress in the classroom. Expect student to achieve the objectives, and their study shows that student achieve at higher rates when their teacher has high expectations for them. Motivate students by showing them that they can be successful in the classroom. Teacher can differentiate instruction to meet the student’s needs by adjusting the corresponding class work to the appropriate levels. Class work can modify in a variety of ways: shortened assignments, extra response time or enrichment activities. Show students how what they are learning matters in real life. This is one of the most effective learning techniques, especially for the older students, as it gives them meaning and purpose for their hard work. Guide student to discuss the new material and allow students to draw on their own experiences to learn and understand new material (Essays, UK, 2017).