The Skillful Teacher

Maxim 10: Acknowledge Your Personality
Chapter Four has shown how students need to feel they are in the
presence of an authentic teacher, one whom they can trust because
“What you see is what you get.” If you teach in a way that belies
fundamental aspects of your personality, then you will probably
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come across as stilted and inauthentic. Despite the infinite 
malleability of human beings, there is a limit to how far most of us
can go in pretending to be something or someone we’re not. For
someone as introverted as me, it would be a major mistake to try and
pass myself off as the pedagogic equivalent of Groucho Marx, Robin
Williams, or Graham Norton. I try to remember that some of my stu-
dents are introverts too and that they will probably feel more com-
fortable with me than with a highly charged extrovert. After all, by
appearing to operate at a superhuman and unattainable level of pro-
ficiency, charismatic teachers can inhibit as well as inspire.
If you feel uncomfortable about behaving in a certain way, it’s
probably best to acknowledge this to yourself, your colleagues (if
you’re team teaching), and your students. Be wary of spending valu-
able, nonrenewable emotional energy on trying to exemplify ideal-
ized behaviors of “the good teacher.” For example, I find listening
to students’ questions and responding fully to these to be hard work
requiring great concentration. To answer a complex question clearly,
I need first to focus on listening intently to the question, often to
the exclusion of everything else. This means that as I hear the ques-
tion, or think through my response, I often close my eyes, stare at
the floor or into middle distance, and generally ignore all eye con-
tact other than maybe with the questioner herself. As an introvert,
human faces distract me. In the midst of a class I am always struck
by students’ expressions and find myself wondering constantly about
the meaning of a glazed look (deep reflection or wandering atten-
tion?), a smile (recognition of a truth or mockery of my incompe-
tence?), or a frown (grappling productively with an intellectual
challenge or indicating a deep dislike of an activity?). Shutting out
external stimuli such as students’ faces is necessary if I am to under-
stand a question the way the asker has framed it and if I am to give
a good response.
Now in terms of good classroom communication, looking at the
floor or into middle distance, or closing my eyes while someone else
is speaking, are all things to avoid. But for me they are necessary to
Surviving Emotionally
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HE
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KILLFUL
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EACHER
giving a good response to a question. It may seem that by ignoring
eye contact with the majority of students that I have forgotten that
they are in the room. Quite the contrary. It is because I feel it is so
important to answer questions well that I do these things. In effect
I am treating the students with greater respect and attention than
if I conscientiously rotated my head 180 degrees from left to right,
making sure all corners of the room received equal eye contact from
me. If I put my energy into doing this, rather than into under-
standing and answering the question, I would give a much more
confused, and less helpful, response.
So I begin many of my classes by telling students that I value
questions but that when answering them I will probably stare at
my shoes or into space. I tell them that I do this because giving
a good, thoughtful answer depends on me concentrating on words
and temporarily forgetting faces. Far from forgetting their exis-
tence, looking at the floor means I am acutely aware of their pres-
ence because it means I am trying to give the clearest, fullest,
most helpful answer I can to their question. Many times the Crit-
ical Incident Questionnaires (CIQs) my students complete indi-
cate that my answering their questions is a particular engaging
moment or helpful action for them, whilst they also acknowledge
that if I had not warned them of my tendency to stop making eye
contact when doing this that they would have felt confused and
ignored.