Introduction
The formation as a professional is closely connected with development as a person. The essence and structure of teaching activity are among the most urgent issues of pedagogical science. A professional teacher is the only person who devotes most of the time to teaching and raising children. An interview was conducted with a professional English teacher with experience of 10 years to identify some aspects of the teaching strategies. In total, she was asked three questions: “How do you help students develop in self-discipline?”, “In your opinion, how effective are parent conferences in solving student problems?”, “Describe an ideal teacher.”
Self-Discipline
According to the interview answers, self-discipline is the ability to decide and force to follow tasks, even if students do not want to. There are many ways to improve and strengthen self-discipline, and everyone’s approach is individual. It is necessary to assess the level of self-discipline at the moment and, moving from this starting point, gradually complicate the tasks every day (Damrongpanit, 2019). For this, students need to set clear goals for themselves every day. For teachers, it is essential to go to a lesson not to fight for discipline, but to conduct an exciting experience.
Effectiveness of Parent Conferences
Relations between teachers and parents are built through an intermediary who is a student. In an optimal embodiment, these two microenvironments should merge. The teacher should become part of the family environment, as the closest adviser to parents on issues of education and upbringing of their children. The student’s parents should be part of the school environment, as participants in the general learning process (Sormunen et al., 2018). Separately, interaction with parents of hard-educated students is a challenging situation. Each teacher knows how difficult it is to have a conversation with the parents of students. Parents take a defensive position and seek to justify their non-interference in the upbringing of their children.
The primary purpose of the teacher’s communication with the parents of a difficult child is not to take on the burden of correcting the behavior, but to help a student improve. The ability to communicate is the professional quality of a teacher. The teacher must have a high psychological culture: be able to conduct a conversation, listen to, and understand the interlocutor, interact, and act. In this case, it does not matter who exactly acts as an interlocutor – the student or his parents.
An Ideal Teacher
According to the response of the interview, ideal people do not exist at all, especially in a complicated field, like teaching, it is tough to comply with the ideal. Being a perfect teacher is even harder when students often upset their teachers with reluctance to learn, poor behavior, and inattention. There are only the most optimal teaching methods and means, and each teacher has their own. The teacher’s personal qualities play an essential role in professional activity. The teacher must find an individual approach to each child and must contribute and root with all heart for each student’s success and progressiveness.
Moreover, the main factors determining the ideal teacher are personal competencies and proficiency related to the subject area and education. Individual ability can be defined as high responsibility, creativity, ability to solve problems, critical thinking, understanding, compassion and tolerance, senior social relations, and moral values. The subject area’s competence includes the requirements for the quality and quantity of professional knowledge related to the subject in a particular field (Kadioglu Ates & Kadioglu, 2018). Thus, professionalism and personal conditions become the determining factors in identifying the ideal teacher.
Conclusion
Success in teaching and raising children is determined by many factors, each of which is significant, and neglect of these factors inevitably leads to failure. Among these factors are the methodology of training and education, age characteristics of children, and the most essential value carrier is a teacher. Professionalism is a qualitative characteristic that includes a combination of fundamental knowledge, generalized skills and pedagogical abilities, and personal qualities.
References
Damrongpanit, S. (2019). How to measure self-discipline as a good citizen for the undergraduates. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 7(5), 1180-1188.
Kadioglu Ates, H., & Kadioglu, S. (2018). Identifying the qualities of an ideal teacher in line with the opinions of teacher candidates. European Journal of Educational Research, 7(1), 103-111.
Sormunen, M., Kirilina, V., Goranskaya, S., & Tossavainen, K. (2018). Interaction between home and school: The views of teachers and parents from Finland and Russia. International Journal about Parents in Education, 10(1), 33-46.