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chapter i
INTRODUCTION
Background
Teaching is essentially an expression of personality (Symonds, 1954) and it is a practical task which always concerns to the performance or the presentation of the teacher. It should not be taken as a profession but a practice because teaching gets never older and knowledge never ruins. In teaching and learning teacher plays vital role in his /her classroom because he/she needs to be effective and a good model in the class. As Srivastava and Kumari (2005) say “Effective teachers use a variety of approaches over the causes of a day, taking into consideration the learning objectives, the number of children involved , the children’s characteristics, the resources available ,and so on” (p.7).
It is true that students are very different, and even the same student learn best from different methods in different situations. So, a teacher must have the capacity to know his/her students and their characteristics. To lead all the students to the destination through safe path, the teacher should possess the characteristics of a good leader who is most expected to carry out the leadership role in his/her classroom as well as organization because the students identify and incorporate attitudes, ideals and personality traits from their teachers. Therefore, it is often regarded as the single most important factor in the success and the failure of schools. So, a teacher needs to know about leadership concepts and styles also. “Leadership is like beauty – it is hard to define, but you know when you see it” (Bennis, 1989 as cited in Waine & Miskl, 2007, p.392 and Turkey, 2008 as cited in Stobbs, 2008).
In many cases, we have seen that the students are unwilling to appear in the classroom while the subject teachers are teaching. A number of them (bunkers) are seen in the cinema halls, roadsides, and bakeries and cafes. Sometimes, even the genuine and hard working students are also seemed twisting their lips and sitting in the classroom very impatiently (Admin, 2004).
A teacher is a person engaged in interactive behavior with one or more students for the purpose of effecting a change, it can be in knowledge (cognitive), skill (psychology) or feeling states (affective), in those students (Lew, 1977). Similar concept is accepted by Luthans (2005, p. 200) and says, “There are evidences that the teachers’ personality will influence interpersonal behavior and the perception and the outcomes of the organizational support”. According to Piaget (as cited in Atherton, 2010). Knowledge is internalized by learners through the processes of accommodatation and assimilation; individuals construct new knowledge from their experiences. When individuals assimilate, they incorporate the new experience into an already existing framework without changing that framework.
Accommodation is the process of reframing one’s mental representation of the external world to fit new experiences. Accommodation can be understood as the mechanism by which failure leads to learning. But, nowadays, many news have been publishing regarding the teacher students clash in the classrooms and schools (Nagaric 28th Jestha 2066BS, the Kantipur daily 10th Sharawn 2002BS…,). Students seem to hesitate to respect their teachers in the schools/ colleges ground and on the way they meet. They hardly obey the teachers they don’t like. This is so in our country as well. For instance, Brahmachari (2009, p. n.d.) states, “Muslim teacher of Madrasa in West Bengal, India, attacked by his students for advising his girl-student not to wear burque in hot summer days”. According to the Urban Alliance Foundation, Inc. (2007), a conflict between teachers and students is a common issue in today’s society. Students and teachers find themselves arguing in class because they both don’t agree on everything. Teachers are also found sometimes rude to the students. In this case, students may not like to listen to their teachers. They may criticize, scold and disobey their teachers because of their words to use to them. Effective teaching and effective communication move always together (Khan, 2009). Thus, teachers need to learn how to speak to students in a way where they would listen. The culture of disrespect is developing slowly in students’ attitude towards teachers. It also affect in teaching and learning in the classroom. So, it is important to remember that the children’s relationship with his/her teacher can influence their academic success.
The school is more than a place where knowledge and skills are taught and learned; where each member interacts and influences the behavior of others i.e. the personality of the teacher and that of the students (Lew, 1977). Similar to this, Bandura’s social learning theory (1977) posits that people learn from one another; via observation, imitation, and modeling. Therefore, here my concern goes on how the students learn from the teachers and build their concept good and bad about them; why they regard some teachers good and some bad. Sometimes we see a person awarded with the gold medal from university gets rejected in the classroom teaching by the students. The person whom the university and the organization consider the best, the students in the classroom may consider the worst.
The 21st century is the period of technology in which the students can surf the internet and consult various resources, and gather knowledge. But our educational system is still in the jug and mug process. One needs to understand, what the students expect in the classroom when the teacher enters. Is the competency of a teacher in a subject matter is sufficient for classroom presentation? Are the gold medalists/ distinction holders always the best for classroom teaching? What is the role of perception, attitude, behavior, language intelligence, verbal facility, culture and physical appearance of the teacher in the classroom? Actually who are the best teachers? While summing up these arguments, the single question gets generated in my mind as; what is the role of teachers’ personality in students’ learning in the classroom?
What Personality is
Personality may be viewed as the dynamic organization of those traits and characteristics patterns of behavior that are unique to the individual (James & Mazerolle, 2002, Callahan, 1966 as cited in Lew, 1977). It includes capacity, achievement, responsibility, participation, status and so on. Therefore, according to the position a person should build his/her characteristics and demonstrate the behavior because personality is not only the property of that individual but also the institutional organization (Waine & Miskel, 2007). Similarly, regarding personality, Robbins (2007) says that the personality is the sum total of way in which an individual interacts in the communities i.e. schools or societies. It is the dynamic way of unique adjustment to their environment. Luthans (2005) says, “Personality is the whole person and is concerned with external appearance and traits, self, and situational interactions” (p. 202). He further gives the argument that the personality development consists of a continuous process and the sequence which is based largely on the learning opportunities available and the socialization process (p.200)”. It means personalities are distinctive. Each individual behaves according to certain distinctive patterns through out a variety of situations.
Students interact with the teachers according to his/her personality. The students are always searching the loopholes to escape away and make fun of everything. If they find a teacher with a strong personality, they tend to go to the subject matter and get something from him/her in an informative way, but if they find him/her with a weak personality, they try to run away from the teaching though they are in the classroom. Therefore, a teacher should have a wide variety of teaching styles and nice personality that will make the learning process interesting and enjoyable (Joyce & Hodge as cited in Hunt & Joyce, 1967; Liong, 2008). The physical appearance of a teacher is very much important while presenting in the classroom. A teacher should look, sound and speak like a professional/ teacher (Admin, 2004, p.4) otherwise the class will be changed into a fare. Aurther (2008) says, “Physical appearance affects the environment and that environment affects the personality of an individual, therefore, people treat to the individual according to his appearance” (p.38). Similarly Symonds (1954, p.80) says, the manner of teaching is an expression of the teacher’s basic personality reactions, and these reactions constitute the core of teaching behavior in the classroom situation which shape students’ behavior towards them.
After presenting in the classroom, the teacher must identify the context and the processes to be addressed, the strength, need and interests of the students ought to be identified and delivered consciously and purposefully. Many of the activities that make the classroom effective can be active learning, students’ participation, critical thinking, examples, questions and explanation and so on. These all points also come under the personality of the teachers; thus Srivastava and Kumari (2005) say “effective teaching doesn’t depend on your ability to dazzle your students, but rather on your ability to help them learn” (p.55).
If we go even deeper than this, personality in teaching includes self- confidence, stress tolerance, emotional maturity and integrity which focus teachers to ease the difficult tasks, make critical decisions, maintain cooperative relationship among students, subordinates and superiors and consistent with their stated values and be responsible and trustworthy. Therefore, a strong personality is recommended for the teacher besides his/her competence and knowledge in teaching method (Turkley, 2008 as cited in Stobbs, 2008).
Once the teacher determines the types of learning, the content involved and the optimum sequence should be analyzed well then he/she should be well known about the techniques to be used. The best teacher is one who is like an orchestra conductor, who gives the instructions and let the students perform (Azzam, 2008, as cited in Stobbs, 2008). Patience is a virtue for any teacher, if it doesn’t come naturally, the teacher must learn to be. Because a slow learner may never acquire the knowledge or skill as the teacher expects them to acquire. So, the teacher is suggested to demonstrate and explain patiently until all the students acquire the needed competence (Kamran, 2008 as cited in Stobbs, 2008) because it is said that if the learners don’t learn, the teacher has not taught. But the personality is not exactly the subject to be learned and formed. Robbins (2007) says that it is hereditary and environmental. Among the factors that exert pressure on our personality formation are the culture in which we are grown up; the norms among our family, friends and social groups. We bring some characteristics from our heredity which the environment polishes and gives the shape (p.108).
A teacher is a facilitator but not a master. He/she should play a vital role to create a learning environment which the students prefer most. Callahan (1966) as cited in Lew (1977) says, “the teacher whose personality helps to create and maintain a classroom or learning environment in which students feel comfortable and in which they are motivated to learn is said to have a desirable teaching personality.” Whatever the characteristics he/she brings from his/her heredity that should not give the bad effect on the students while clarifying the values of the students; he/she should respect all and learn more from them. He/she should be physically, mentally as well as socially a teacher because the teacher does not only teach math or literature but other things to be a good person (Ysabel, 2008 as cited in Stobbs, 2008). His/her personality should be attractive from every nook and corner. He/she must understand the variation among the students, cultures, family background, traditions, values, and customs and friendships. Regarding this, Keirsey and Bates (1984) say that people are different in fundamental ways.
They want different things; they have different motives, purposes, aims, values, needs, drives, impulses, urges. Nothing is more fundamental than that. They believe differently: they think, cognize, conceptualize, perceive, understand, comprehend and cogitate differently. And, of course, manners of acting and emoting, governed as they are by wants and beliefs, follow suit and differ radically among people (Keirsey & Bates, 1984, p.2).
Same is the case with students’ learning. They look teacher’s personality because the teacher’s personality is highly and positively correlated with the students’ attitude (Kise, 2008). Haladyna and Shanghness (1982: 551) as cited in Kise (2008) indicate in their study that teacher’s personality and relationship with students is the most crucial variable in attitude formation and therefore teacher is the primary change agent in affecting the learning environment.
Along with all the definitions and the quotations mentioned above, I came to understand personality as the dynamic organization within an individual of those systems that determines his/her characteristics, behavior and thought. While focusing on the personality, it emphasizes on stable characteristics which must occur repeatedly or constantly and based on the assumption that everyone is unique.
Therefore, the current study helps us to understand how a teacher’s personality accesses and hinders the students learning in the classroom. It also finds the ways to improve the personality and presentations of the teachers if they are really willing and determined. It focuses, especially, on the classroom teaching and learning. It draws information from teachers’ perspective, head teachers’ perspective, guardians' perspective, and experts’ perspective along with the reaction of the students towards the teacher. It helps education administrators, parents, teachers and all the learners who want to flourish their carrier as professional teachers.