Areas of Growth for Teachers

Why should you grow as a teacher?

The areas of growth that we recommend are meant to help you identify your needs and find effective ways to overcome your weaknesses and enhance your strengths. That way, once you have acquired the necessary tools, you can start designing your course of action to accomplish professional development.

It is generally known that the teaching profession is one of the most directly impacted by social, economic, and technological changes. Consequently, you must regard your career as a continuing learning process in order to keep up with this ever-changing world. This means that, as a teacher, you always have room for improvement, since there is always some skill to sharpen or some didactic issue to solve.

However, the path to self-improvement is not a fixed one: it is different for each of us. So, this personal journey has to be preceded by deep reflection and careful planning before you set your own professional growth goals.

Also, we cannot stress enough that the road to self-development is not for the faint-hearted, since it demands constant attention and full commitment. Nevertheless, it can be a most satisfying reward to see the positive outcomes of the goals you have set for yourself in your classroom.

What can you improve on?

Self-evaluation

Change and evolution require self-awareness. You must cultivate the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and self-analysis. This way, you can see what is happening around you, learn from the situation, and make the necessary adjustments.

We can divide this process of self-evaluation into three fundamental phases:

• First, you must recognize there is a need for change, both within and around you. Detecting that something is going wrong is the first step towards improvement;
• Secondly, you have to determine which areas of your teaching need the most attention. Before setting your goals, you have to figure out your strengths and weaknesses;
• Thirdly, you must decide on your key areas of growth and commit to them.

When it comes to reflecting on your classroom experience, your students’ small clues and positive feedback are a rich source of information. That is, paying attention to what your students say in class is an effective way to find out your strengths. Usually, you will notice recurring themes of conversation that can help you identify what is working well and what is not.

Finding the positive in your students’ daily evaluations is a sure way to:

• Pinpoint which strategies are the best to engage their attention and interest;
• Consider the implementation of small progressive changes.

In conclusion, self-evaluation is a critical step in any process of growth and change. Generally, the path towards improvement becomes clearer when you are willing to admit your mistakes and put your students’ needs first.

Pedagogical learning

Your efficacy as a teacher is, arguably, the product of three aspects:

• Deep knowledge of the subject-matter or content area;
• Professional experience;
• Development of teaching skills.

Consequently, due to the fast changes in technology and society, you must brush up on your pedagogy to stay relevant. Those changes greatly affect the way students learn and the way you teach, so there is always room for pedagogical improvement. As a result, learning “how to teach” and “how students learn” become priorities in your journey towards significant growth.

In order to improve the way you teach, you can focus on these tasks:

• Brush up on the basics; that is, go back to what you once learned but have now partly forgotten, and renew those skills;
• Learn about new theories which can provide useful information about how people learn best;
• Learn about new teaching strategies and techniques that you can actually implement in your classroom;
• Improve the way you differentiate instruction in order to meet the individual learning needs of each student. This way, all your students have the same opportunities to reach the common learning goals.

We can safely affirm that methodology is at the core of the success of the learning and teaching process; so, studying the best approaches and adapting them effectively to your classroom’s idiosyncrasies is a course of action worth taking if you are a committed teacher.

Find out more about how you can improve your lessons by reading our blog article.

Adaptability

Teaching is especially demanding and constantly changing; so, being able to respond effectively to an uncertain environment is widely considered an essential ability for you as an educator. The following situations are examples of what you must navigate on a daily basis:

• Respond appropriately to students with diverse learning needs;
• Face and handle unexpected situations in the classroom;
• Interact and communicate with colleagues, students, parents and administrators;
• Implement new strategies and techniques in your teaching practices;
• Make changes to your lesson plans.

Certainly, being able to adjust to new conditions reduces stress and anxiety and, as a result, contributes to your well-being. Moreover, if you challenge yourself when circumstances change, you will prove to be:

• More focused on improvement;
• More prone to think ahead when it comes to anticipating potential student struggles.

In conclusion, we can say that when you are versatile and willing to develop your craft, you bring into the classroom a flexible learning atmosphere that fosters students’ motivation and engagement.

Communication

By the very nature of your profession, you are constantly interacting with a great number of people: students, parents, colleagues, administrators, etc. And, although the rapport you establish with the surrounding adults is important too, here we are focusing on what happens in the classroom with your students.

A fundamental and challenging part of teaching is being understood quickly and accurately by your students. So, the success of their learning process is guaranteed when your message gets across to them and effective communication is established.

Furthermore, many studies show that students’ lack of motivation and eventual school dropout are a direct result of teachers’ poor communication skills. Therefore, as a dedicated teacher, you must avoid at all costs frequent misunderstandings in class, which usually lead to students’ frustration and lack of interest and enthusiasm.

What communication skills do you need to grow as a teacher?

If you are willing to improve your performance in class, you should master these communication skills:

• Active listening;
• Speaking clearly and concisely;
• Non-verbal language (keep eye contact, smile, energetic body language to transmit enthusiasm);
• Consistent constructive feedback;
• Deliver instruction in a way that keeps your students involved and engaged;
• Manage your classroom in an observant and empathic way.

What are the benefits of an effective communication?

• Students can more easily integrate new contents and information with previously acquired knowledge, thus achieving significant learning.

• You build a rapport with your students that fosters the open exchange of ideas and opinions, thus creating a learning atmosphere based on trust and respect;
• Feeling actually listened to and not judged encourage students to participate and interact; a safe learning environment promotes their will to cooperate. As a result, their investment and engagement to the learning process increases exponentially.
• A supportive teacher-student relationship have a highly positive impact on the students’ achievement of academic goals.

When you make the effort to mentor and guide your students, their confidence and self-esteem are enhanced. And, consequently, they feel more motivated to work hard towards their objectives. Your students’ positive academic progress highly depends on your effectiveness in performing your tasks. And, at the same time, this effectiveness is directly affected by the way you communicate with them.

So, as we can see, all the elements of the teaching-learning process are intimately interrelated. They influence and impact each other in many meaningful ways. And, observing carefully this complex net, we can find that communication skills are a crucial part of it.

Organization

As we have discussed earlier in this article, classrooms are unpredictable environments. Consequently, one of your many tasks as a teacher is organizing and preparing for whatever might come up unexpectedly.

Generally, if you are organized, you promote more effective learning environments, which greatly benefit your students’ academic advancement. When your classroom runs smoothly and efficiently, that orderly atmosphere contributes to an efficient transfer of knowledge.

Moreover, planning ahead gives you a comforting sense of control, making you feel more confident in your methods and strategies. That is, advance preparation allows you to consider the possible consequences of whatever may happen in the classroom. And, as a result of this careful planning, you can avoid overwhelming and stressful situations that negatively affect your performance in class.

Innovation

Nowadays, innovation, imagination, and creativity are playing an increasingly prominent role in classrooms. Educational environments are constantly evolving and adapting to social and technological changes, so you need to find new powerful tools to keep your students engaged and on task.

What makes you an innovative teacher?

• You think in unique ways to make learning significant and fun at the same time;
• You are willing to try new strategies and techniques to achieve your students’ academic success;
• You are alert to the individual learning needs of each of your students;
• You identify potential student struggles and challenges (loss of interest or focus, lack of understanding, low engagement, demotivation);
• You find new ways of motivating and encouraging your students to successfully reach their objectives;
• You are a lifelong learner who never stops developing your teaching skills;
• You are focused on consistently improving your performance in class;
• You teach your students to question everything and cultivate critical thinking;
• You encourage your students to take intellectual risks;
• You promote collaborative work.

In order to achieve a truly meaningful classroom experience, you must challenge yourself and confront new possibilities, diverse ideas, and perspectives.

Keeping an open mind and a critical eye can help you obtain a fuller picture of the complexity of the teaching-learning process, thus avoiding both stagnation and dated didactic approaches.

Leadership

Being a leader in your classroom implies that your students trust you enough to:

• Follow your lead;
• Allow themselves to be influenced, and even changed.

This is a direct consequence of having excellent communication skills. That is, cultivating an atmosphere of openness and reliability fosters an educational environment where student empowerment can develop unhindered.

When you promote confidence, honesty, commitment, integrity, and growth, you become a positive role model. Under your influence:

• Students tend to be inspired to achieve more than they thought they could;
• Their horizons and aspirations broaden in ways they never could imagine, only because you made the effort to support and advise them appropriately.

Read our blog article on how to create a more positive school environment if you wish to explore more about this topic.

Similarly, if you focus on developing your students’ potential, you will prove to be especially qualified to mentor and guide them in the right direction. When you care to find out what your students need, you can transform their learning experience by:

• Answering questions in a practical and useful way;
• Giving constructive feedback;
• Listening actively;
• Helping them determine where there is room for improvement;
• Supporting your pupils through hard times.

Being a leader in the classroom also implies becoming an agent of change. That is, taking up new initiatives and making them work efficiently for the benefit of your students’ academic progress. As an agent of change, your role entails these tasks:

• Observe and determine what changes are needed;
• Research and decide how to carry out these changes;
• Facilitate their implementation;
• Evaluate the results;
• Make adjustments if necessary.

In conclusion, leadership in a classroom means guiding your students in their individual learning processes in a meaningful and significant way. As a teacher leader, you listen to, inspire, counsel, and encourage your students to become their best selves and live up to their full potential.

Dig deeper about teachers as leaders in our blog article on the Erasmus + Project of the same name.

Continuous learning

Being a dedicated teacher means going through a lifelong learning process. So, if you have a clear sense of improvement and progress, you should consider continuous learning a priority.

In order to maintain and improve efficiency, you should keep yourself up to date on instructional methods, educational technology, the curriculum, etc.

Furthermore, another powerful reason never to stop learning is to avoid burnout and demotivation. Undoubtedly, going the extra mile to keep your teaching practices fresh and engaging helps foster a successful learning environment.

What can you do to keep learning?

• Participate in workshops, seminars and courses;
• Group with other educators who are open to share their ideas, methods and techniques;
• Observe colleagues’ classes:
  • learn what works for students from a delivery standpoint
  • focus on teacher-student interaction to learn what pulls the class into the lesson.

The classroom experience is extremely rich and complex. So, you should:

• Gather useful information from all available resources in order to face your daily tasks properly armed with adequate tools;
• Take away from those sources all that is meaningful and can impact your work for the better.

Conclusion

As a final reflection, we want to stress the importance of professional growth in teaching. As an educator, you are a prominent figure who can have a huge impact on both the academic and personal lives of your students. So, you should take responsibility for consistently improving your performance in the classroom.

Considering you play a pivotal role in your students’ intellectual growth, developing your teaching skills should be at the top of your priority list. Poor instructional skills can have far-reaching repercussions on their lives, since students’ perception of the classroom experience relies greatly on your performance.

Now it’s your turn: which areas of growth are you working on, and what has helped you most in your professional development? Share your experience in the comments below – we would love to hear your ideas and learn from them!

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