I run a tight ship in my classroom, but that doesn鈥檛 win me points with students. How important is likeability when it comes to learning?
It鈥檚 possible to be a teacher who is tough yet kind, and I wrote about this topic recently at as a :
Mrs. Farren was the 8th grade English teacher no one wanted.
We all hoped to get the other one鈥攁 teacher whose name, likeness, and qualities I can鈥檛 recall in the least.
Because, as luck would have it, it was my lot to spend a year with Mrs. Farren.
And it was a long year. The moment you crossed the threshold of her classroom鈥攁 pristine palace where not a pencil was out of place鈥攜our heart started beating faster.
Was it fear? Not exactly. But it was most certainly an awareness that what you were about to experience鈥�50 minutes of English class鈥攚as going to be very, very hard.
Even before the bell rang, Mrs. Farren would lock eyes, if only for a few seconds, with each of her 30 students. When her gaze fell on me, I鈥檇 squirm just a bit. I鈥檇 pull out my homework assignment and lay it straight on the desk, the way she liked it, and hoped that when she passed by, she would glance down and nod approvingly at what she saw.
At every moment up until the bell rang again for the next class, there was a palpable sense of urgency. Under Mrs. Farren鈥檚 command, learning about pronouns and prepositions and the logic of topic sentences felt like training for battle or flying an airplane. To her, grammar and syntax and written expression were serious business.
Once, just before class began, I made the mistake of complaining that I hated a movie I鈥檇 seen the previous weekend. 鈥淒id you hate it?鈥� Mrs. Farren asked, her head cocked skeptically. 鈥淗ate is a strong word. Be careful how you use it.鈥�
I backtracked. 鈥淥kay, I disliked it. I very much disliked the movie.鈥� I will never forget the smile that crept across Mrs. Farren鈥檚 face when I calibrated my words鈥攍earning, mistake by mistake, that language is powerful and that it was my responsibility to master it.
Do students know, in the moment, who they will recognize decades later as the ones who taught them the most?
Like most professors, I鈥檓 rated by my students just after they鈥檝e completed a course with me, and like most, I want my students to like me. But research shows that professors who garner the highest student ratings aren鈥檛 always the ones who produce the most long-term learning.
In one , students randomly assigned to different professors in introductory core classes at the U.S. Air Force Academy gave lower ratings to the professors who improved their performance most in subsequent advanced coursework.
The same pattern鈥攍ower ratings for professors who produced larger learning gains later鈥攈eld true in a of undergraduates at an Italian university, particularly among weaker students.
In both studies, students rewarded professors who generally gave out higher grades with sterling ratings. It鈥檚 easy to love a professor who says everything you do is great.
顿辞苍鈥檛 confuse popularity with proficiency. I still want my students to like me and I think it鈥檚 possible for a demanding teacher to be supportive, too. But if I prioritize what students think of me in the moment, I may be sacrificing their long-term learning.
Do talk to the young people in your life about a teacher, coach, or mentor who raised your game to a new level. Maybe there鈥檚 a Mrs. Farren in your life who you now appreciate in ways you couldn鈥檛 fathom at the time. Maybe you鈥檒l share that there were moments when you 鈥渧ery much disliked鈥� them, because they asked you to do things you couldn鈥檛 yet do鈥攁nd for that, you are ever grateful.
