Some people believe that the most important qualities of an effective teacher are understanding and empathy. Others believe that it is more important for teachers to be rigorous and demanding in their expectations for students.
Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, etc. The role of an effective teacher is to smoothly facilitate this learning process. Whether the most important qualities of an effective teacher are empathy and understanding or rigorous and demanding attitude in their expectations of the student is a contentious issue. Voluntary participation of students is crucial for holistic learning which in turn can only be achieved through understanding and empathy on part of the teacher. Therefore, these qualities take precedence over other in the effective pedagogy as corroborated by the following benefits.
Firstly, building a positive relationship with students is important for a teacher to invoke their attention and interest towards his subject. When students feel that they are being listened and understood they reciprocate the gesture by being receptive to the teachers instructions. It is for this reason that more often than not, a student’s favourite subject is the one taught by his favourite teacher. Secondly, knowing and addressing the root cause for a student’s slow progress is instrumental for a teacher to ensure their academic growth and mental well-being. When a teacher displays empathy, students get the assurance that their problems would be seriously acknowledged and understood. This, in turn, prompts them to disclose their weaknesses and circumstances that can then be addressed by the teacher. For example, a student struggling with the most basic calculations in mathematics is more likely to approach an empathetic teacher rather than a demanding one out of fear of embarrassment.
Thirdly, regulating student behaviour is paramount for a healthy learning environment. Many times, students suffer with behaviour issues either due to intrinsic reasons or extrinsic circumstances and require regular counselling and consolation. Such students might perceive the presence of a demanding and strict teacher as challenging to their freedom and may exhibit violent and rebellious behaviour. A teacher with an understanding and empathetic nature, on the other hand, can more easily pacify and control such students much for the good of classroom ambience and the others. And finally, teachers can only inculcate the values and beliefs in their students by being leading examples themselves. Given that the values of empathy and understanding are vital for present generation to deal with the pressing problems of the future such as climate change or global pandemics, teachers must exhibit such qualities in their practice.
On the contrary, being rigorous and demanding teachers can seriously impede learning by inflicting psychological damage on the students. Under a constrained setting induced by a demanding teacher, student would only superficially follow the instructions without any joy of learning. With impossible deadlines to meet, gigantic syllabus to cram and crunch time for exam preparation, all under a demanding and rigorous teacher, a student can never attain the level of motivation and mental freedom to explore the subject. The immense pressure, thus created, would restrain s student’s mental and intellectual abilities. Inability to cope with such pressure, can force students towards suicide or adopting unfair means.
Nevertheless, undue leniency in the garb of empathy also results in poor academic participation and performance. In the presence of myriad distractions in the form of technology, sports, etc., it is but natural for students to get diverted without any accountability from the teacher. A demanding nature is also necessary to foster students for the fiercely competitive outside world. Yet, strictness and understanding nature are not entirely mutually exclusive qualities. A teacher must have enough maturity and flexibility, to use these qualities as per the need of the situation and students. In fact the demands of an understanding teacher are more likely to be met by his students than that of a martinet.
In conclusion, the qualities of empathy and understanding in a teacher go a long way to smoothly facilitate a student’s education. In helps a teacher to build rapport with the students, understand and address their problems, control their behaviour and inculcate values in them. Yet, the mutual coexistence of a pinch of rigorousness and demanding attitude in teacher is also warranted to keep students checked and competitive.
Comments
Essay evaluations by e-grader
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 9, column 712, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y his students than that of a martinet. In conclusion, the qualities of empathy ...
^^^^^^
Line 11, column 132, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...othly facilitate a student’s education. In helps a teacher to build rapport with t...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, if, may, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, well, for example, in conclusion, in fact, such as, on the contrary, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.5258426966 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.4196629213 121% => OK
Conjunction : 39.0 14.8657303371 262% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 9.0 11.3162921348 80% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 30.0 33.0505617978 91% => OK
Preposition: 88.0 58.6224719101 150% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 12.9106741573 147% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3779.0 2235.4752809 169% => OK
No of words: 677.0 442.535393258 153% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.58197932053 5.05705443957 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.10090420048 4.55969084622 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.14433407072 2.79657885939 112% => OK
Unique words: 321.0 215.323595506 149% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.474150664697 0.4932671777 96% => OK
syllable_count: 1152.9 704.065955056 164% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 6.24550561798 48% => OK
Article: 10.0 4.99550561798 200% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.38483146067 228% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 32.0 20.2370786517 158% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 23.0359550562 91% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.6706849564 60.3974514979 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.09375 118.986275619 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.15625 23.4991977007 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.4375 5.21951772744 123% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 10.2758426966 136% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 5.13820224719 253% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.492944404304 0.243740707755 202% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.135441704912 0.0831039109588 163% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0894515684183 0.0758088955206 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.287090250115 0.150359130593 191% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0794925396601 0.0667264976115 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.1392134831 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.8420337079 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.08 12.1639044944 124% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.38706741573 108% => OK
difficult_words: 186.0 100.480337079 185% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 11.8971910112 76% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.2143820225 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 9, column 712, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...y his students than that of a martinet. In conclusion, the qualities of empathy ...
^^^^^^
Line 11, column 132, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...othly facilitate a student’s education. In helps a teacher to build rapport with t...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, finally, first, firstly, if, may, nevertheless, second, secondly, so, then, therefore, third, thirdly, thus, well, for example, in conclusion, in fact, such as, on the contrary, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 27.0 19.5258426966 138% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 15.0 12.4196629213 121% => OK
Conjunction : 39.0 14.8657303371 262% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 9.0 11.3162921348 80% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 30.0 33.0505617978 91% => OK
Preposition: 88.0 58.6224719101 150% => OK
Nominalization: 19.0 12.9106741573 147% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 3779.0 2235.4752809 169% => OK
No of words: 677.0 442.535393258 153% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.58197932053 5.05705443957 110% => OK
Fourth root words length: 5.10090420048 4.55969084622 112% => OK
Word Length SD: 3.14433407072 2.79657885939 112% => OK
Unique words: 321.0 215.323595506 149% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.474150664697 0.4932671777 96% => OK
syllable_count: 1152.9 704.065955056 164% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.59117977528 107% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 3.0 6.24550561798 48% => OK
Article: 10.0 4.99550561798 200% => Less articles wanted as sentence beginning.
Subordination: 2.0 3.10617977528 64% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.77640449438 56% => OK
Preposition: 10.0 4.38483146067 228% => Less preposition wanted as sentence beginnings.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 32.0 20.2370786517 158% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 23.0359550562 91% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.6706849564 60.3974514979 64% => OK
Chars per sentence: 118.09375 118.986275619 99% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.15625 23.4991977007 90% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.4375 5.21951772744 123% => OK
Paragraphs: 6.0 4.97078651685 121% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 7.80617977528 26% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 14.0 10.2758426966 136% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 13.0 5.13820224719 253% => Less negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.83258426966 103% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.492944404304 0.243740707755 202% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.135441704912 0.0831039109588 163% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0894515684183 0.0758088955206 118% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.287090250115 0.150359130593 191% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0794925396601 0.0667264976115 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.4 14.1392134831 109% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 41.7 48.8420337079 85% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 7.92365168539 111% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.7 12.1743820225 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 15.08 12.1639044944 124% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.02 8.38706741573 108% => OK
difficult_words: 186.0 100.480337079 185% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 11.8971910112 76% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 11.2143820225 93% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.7820224719 76% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Write the essay in 30 minutes.
Rates: 66.67 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 4.0 Out of 6
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.