Liked vs. Respected
Do not concern yourself with being liked. Be professional, fair and consistant and you will earn your students respect. They may not like you when they are a student, but they will appreciate you when they get that first job.
Hi Joan,
You are right! You are a true professional and for that reason students like you and respect you.
Patricia Scales
I feel that I am professional, fair, consistent and knowledgeable. I think because of those traits, I am generally liked by my students.
I have found that if you are "liked" it is for the wrong reasons, personal ones that will only play a small part in the educational process such as developing a good rapport. I have even had a student or two that did not like me say they were glad I was instructing their next class because they had adjusted to my "style". I'll take respect, hands down, over being liked...but it sure does make the day easier if there is a good working rapport with the class.
Being liked by someone does not take a lot of effort
on your part.being liked is not something you earn
so does that have any meaning?but!trust is earned and if you have someones trust you have their respect.
(Copying and pasting previous posts.....)"I always tell my students that they do not have to like me but they need to love what I'm delivering." and "I always advise my students that I am not here to be liked; I am here to teach my students the latest techniques in their field of choice and the latest traditional classroom lessons;"
Fundamentally, these are two statements that can be potentially destructive to your students, and the class environment as a whole. It tells the students that you do not care how you come across to them, so long as they listen to you. That pre-emptive decoupling is dangerous in the sense that you have allowed your students to justify any negative feelings they may develop for you, the course and/or the school. You enable rejection, and as a result, you have opened the door for the students to become disenfranchised.
I understand the underlying point(s), but I disagree with ever uttering these to the class. And to address another part of the thread, to earn respect, one must be confident not only in their knowledge and experience, but in their delivery, manner, language and demeanor.
I have had students come back to me after having one or more of my classes stating how much they disliked me when they were my student only to thank me in the end. This to me is great, it matters not that the student likes me it only matters that the student succeed.
I also let the students know that I am not there to win a popularity contest but to provide them with the knowledge they need to succeed. I am fair and they know that my door is always open. I am also tough with information and test but we have fun in class. So, in reality... its a balance.
I always tell my students that they do not have to like me but they need to love what I'm delivering.
When students like their instructors ,some may switch it to a sort of friendship. Students are not our friends.
In case of respect students will follow procedures and rules .
I always advise my students that I am not here to be liked; I am here to teach my students the latest techniques in their field of choice and the latest traditional classroom lessons; I want them to respect me for my understanding of these skills and for wanting them to learn these skills completely; when they learn and start applying these skills in their everyday practices, I know that I have done my job correctly and the students will respect me; some of them even learn to like me for my dedication to their education.
