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1. Listening to Feedback
Teachers can receive feedback in a number of ways, including students’ end-of-year or end-of-semester evaluations, management assessments, and self-reflection. Information relayed by students can be especially important. When used correctly, feedback can help teachers become more adept.Â
For example, some educators may choose to cover complex subject matter lightly in the classroom and assign additional coursework for students to complete on their own. However, if their students indicate through class evaluations that they would benefit from additional classroom instruction, the teacher may need to modify lesson plans to accommodate learning and improve student outcomes.
2. Avoiding Bias
Bias in education can take a negative toll on students. It is most insidious when it takes the form of unconscious, or implicit, bias—the associations and assumptions, positive or negative, that teachers may make about certain student groups based on their age, gender, race, and other factors.
Unconscious bias can cause harm. It can impact how teachers respond to and assess the work of certain students; it can even lead teachers to assume certain populations of students are more academically inclined than others.Â
Because awareness of potential bias is so important, an educator interested in learning more about how to become a better teacher might consider enrolling in professional development programs that highlight this complex issue.
3. Engaging in Self-Reflection
The surge in online learning has had a profound effect on teaching practice. This development and others are opportunities for teachers to periodically step back and reevaluate their teaching methods, styles, and strategies to continue to effectively connect with students. Self-reflection in response to changing social circumstances can also allow teachers to take steps to strengthen their teaching practice.
Ways for teachers to engage in fruitful self-reflection, according to Teach Away, include thinking critically about one’s own teaching process, noting what did and did not go well, and questioning whether any unconscious biases may have influenced recent teaching choices. Teachers can then apply their insights in the classroom with the aim of becoming more aware of students’ needs.
4. Becoming a More Effective Online Teacher
Teachers need to understand how to optimize hybrid and online learning environments and technology in a way that encourages collaboration while promoting internet safety. Mastering chat tools, video calls, hyperlinked lesson plans, and bulletin boards, and maintaining a virtual open-door policy for online students can help turn the digital classroom from a potentially cold and isolated environment into one that’s warm, engaging, and community building.
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