QUALITY OF AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER BY: NURHAINIES BINTI ISKANDAR (3.

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What is the quality of an effective teacher? An effective teacher is a teacher who does not only teach the students in the classroom but he or she is able to create enthusiasm for the students to learn and at the same time inspire the students towards success. According to Stronge (n.d.) an effective teachers can be seen, heard, and sensed. The effective teacher engages in dialogue with students, colleagues, parents, and administrators and consistently demonstrates respect, accessibility, and expertise. This means that effective teacher is the teacher who possesses all the professional skills and knowledge needed to do their job at the best level. However, from numerous qualities that a teacher must have in order to be an effective teacher, I think the most important quality is the teacher must be a real expert on his or her subject. Subject matter competence is a very crucial element in order to be an effective teacher because according to Reynolds and Muijs (1999, as cited in Rubio, 2010) good content knowledge responses to spontaneous and demanding students questioning. This is because students expect a teacher to have good content knowledge of the subject which will make the students feel confidence in the teacher and respect the teacher. In addition, Ferguson & Womackl (1993, as cited in Rubio, 2010) stated that effective communication of content knowledge is a hallmark of good teachers. Therefore, a teacher must have a very good content knowledge to ensure that he or she can answer all the students questions without having to refer to the book or ask the students to wait for the answer. If this scenario ever happens in the classroom, the teacher will make the students lose their interest to learn and the students will have doubt on the teacher capability to teach the subject. It will also disappoint the students as they are very eager to learn. In conclusion, based on the discussion above, one of the qualities that a teacher must have in order to be an effective teacher is the subject matter competence or good content knowledge of the subject.

References Rubio, C. M. (2010). Effective teachers-professional and personal skills. Retrieved January 13, 2013 from http://www.uclm.es/ab /educacion/ensayos/ensayos24/ pdf/24_4.pdf

Stronge, J. (n.d.). Qualities of effective teachers. Retrieved January 13, 2013 From http://www.mpsaz.org/rmhs/staff/jcgowdy/instruction/files/ qualities_of_effective_teachers.pdf