What skills do I need to develop to become a good teacher?

Hi Deborah,

As well as subject knowledge, there are some other, more general qualities that teachers need.

As a teacher, you should:

1. Enjoy communicating your understanding to others.

There is definitely a performance element to most teaching. Our section on interpersonal skills, including effective speaking, covers this in more detail, and there is a great deal of overlap with presentation skills.

1. Have confidence.

You will need the confidence to look calm and professional even when tired and stressed.

1. Have great organisational skills.

Have you prepared for the session and done any marking in time?

Have you kept what is needed for anyone in the group who was away?

If you are part of a teaching organisation, have you fed back results to any interested colleagues?

1. Work effectively in groups.

In a school or college, you may be part of a group that teach at your level or within your subject. If so, you will have to agree between you what is to be taught and how to deal with any difficulties.

1. Be able to deal with conflict.

There may be students who need to be told to work harder, or a disagreement between students that you need to help to sort out.

1. Motivate your students to do their best.

This may require encouragement and/ or criticism, and probably a bit of both at different times.

1. Empathise with your Students.

If you can see that your students are exhausted, there may be no point in trying to teach a very complicated topic. You need to create a feeling that you are all working together towards the same goal. This means building up trust and rapport.

1. Give feedback.

Whether this takes the form of comments on performance or marking written work, it needs to be constructive. Offer praise as well as criticism whenever possible and tell your students how they can improve.

Read more at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/teaching-skills.html

Good luck!

Teaching involves a number of different skills and qualities. I would say the most important are:

1. People skills - being friendly and working well with others. You will need to be personable, caring, kind, friendly, compassionate, and understanding. These qualities make a great teacher. But you also need to be stern and firm in your directions, rules, and discipline
2. Public speaking - every day in your class you will need to be able to speak and present information to your students, practice speech, and practice fluency of language and talking in front of others
3. The subject you plan to teach - become a master of the subject you plan to teach, make sure you know as much as possible and learn as much as you can about the subject you plan to teach. Take as many classes as possible in this subject and learn everything you can about it.
4. Psychology & Human Development - start reading books and research articles on human development and psych. It will be helpful for you to know how people learn at different stages and the best ways to teach them at these stages (depending on stage of development and schema).