Series VIII-Part II- Negative Teaching Characteristics

Now let us take a look at some personality characteristics and teaching styles that increase the chance of children developing negative self esteem or low self worth.

EGO TEACHING

Teachers with this quality:

• Have unrealistically high standards that create intense stress in their students
• Give excessively long homework assignments designed to impress parents how good a job he/she is doing
• Give difficult tests that require children to learn minutiae
• Have grading systems that create numerous failures
• Demand respect by frightening and intimidating students

 

EXCESSIVE CRITICISM

This characteristic is exhibited by teachers who:

• Criticize children in public
• Criticize more often than compliment
• Believe that compliments and rewards reduce his/her authority
• Use sarcasm as a means of motivation
• Are quick to blame a child’s lack of progress or poor grades on the student rather than analyzing the situation for possible teaching problems

 

UNREASONABILITY

This characteristic is exhibited when teachers:

• Refuse to listen to a child’s explanation
• Make demands without giving reasons
• Provide work and experiences that are too difficult for children to finish without parental help

 

NARCISSISM

This aspect of a personality is reflected when teachers:

• Use children to keep the spotlight on themselves
• Give a great deal of work but rarely hand it back or hand it back with few or no comments
• Focus attention on themselves rather than the needs of the students
• Take it out on students if they have a bad day
• Are always the victim, always complain the most, and always brag that they have the most difficult class

 

RIGIDITY

This quality is expressed by teachers who:

• Take everything seriously
• Are unwilling to change their minds
• Are unwilling to admit mistakes
• Will stick with something even if it makes little sense or has little educational value

 

PUNISHMENT ORIENTATION

Teachers with this mentality:

• Punish students for relatively small infractions
• Make a public spectacle of students
• Hold students’ behavior or performance up to their peers for ridicule
• Always see students’ explanations as excuses or attempts to control the situation
• Enforce rules with harsh, unrealistic consequences

 

DISORGANIZATION

Teachers with this quality tend to:

• Change the rules frequently, thus creating confusion in students
• Give tests or quizzes without letting students know in advance
• Frequently lose students’ work
• Appear to be “winging it” with no real plan or structure

 

UNPREDICTABILITY

Teachers with this quality will:

• Change rules without informing students, sometimes until they break them
• Have different rules for different students
• Be nice to a student one day and not another, for no apparent reason

 

LACK OF CONTROL

Teachers who exhibit this quality:

• Have no set classroom rules for discipline or opportunities for reward
• Always seem to be yelling and screaming
• Make extreme threats that rarely are enforced
• Let the students “run the show”

 

CREATE ANXIETY IN STUDENTS

Teachers who do this:

• Say things to scare children (for instance, “You’ll be lucky if you get a 65 on tomorrow’s test”)
• Never offer reassurance before or after tests
• Constantly inform students of how much trouble they will be in if they don’t do well on this test or assignment
• Create self-doubt in students

 

“GOTCHA” MENTALITY

Teachers who have this characteristic:

• Hope to catch students making mistakes
• Always correct students for breaking rules, no matter how minor
• Will seize any opportunity to exhibit power over students
• Will publicly broadcast what they uncover about students’ infractions

 

OVERREACTIVITY

Teachers who exhibit this quality will:

• Turn minor events into major crises
• Enforce punishments inappropriate to the situation
• Scream and yell at students for minor infractions

 

Although successful experiences are the most critical factor in building confidence, a positive teacher with a constructive teaching style can go a long way toward breaking down initial resistance barriers. Positive or negative, a teacher’s personality and teaching style, even for one year, can directly affect a student for the rest of his/her life.

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