Effective Teacher Dispositions: Personality Traits and Communication Skills

An effective teacher is defined as a good educator who is able to leave an impact on his students’ personality and ultimately to change their behaviour for good. Among the factors important in an effective teacher are the strength of personality and the power of good communication. A teacher’s personality is often under the scrutiny of his students. Effective personality traits such as friendliness, excellent control of emotion, appearance, perseverance and dedication to work are important to be cultivated in order for a teacher to be effective. Other than that, communication skills that consist of both verbal and non-verbal should be thoroughly mastered by a teacher, given that teaching involves a lot of interactions. Verbal communication that includes language skill and the ability to create humour in teaching and learning sessions are crucial to prevent boring routines. Physical interactions such as eye contact, the use of hands and other body parts as part of body language are also an important element in developing excellent interaction. This is because a clear explanation plus a meaningful body movement is much more effective as compared to verbal explanation alone. Thus, an effective teacher should own all the excellent personality and communication characteristics mentioned in order for him to be an educator capable of impacting the heart and soul of his students in the long run.