You are their instructor, not their friend. Much like a doctor, a certain distance has to be maintained in order to have respect.
Instructors need to be weary of any potential liabilities. Students may feel uncomfortable with an instructors distance with respect to the student. Students want to be sure that no favoritism is shown and that the instructor is professional at all times.
Maintaing professional distance is a key to maintaining control in the classroom and having the students respect you. You can be friendly without being a friend. Frankly, I believe teachers allowing students using their first name doesn't help with maintaing a professional distance.
Students need to view you as a mentor as well as respecting you. And if you are too friendly with one student then other students may think that you are favoring them. And as easy as it is to be "friends" on facebook, that would be a definite no-no.
You need to establish the professional image to add credence to you as a professional and to always create a postive learning environment
If you don't maintain a professional distance, the students will not have any respect for your teaching abilities. You must keep control of your classroom and keep your focus on the career you are teaching.
If the professional distance is eliminated, students fell that you will give them special treatment for completing course requirements. It is very tough to discipline a friend. Professional distance also helps you remain in control of the classroom so every student feels you are instructing them equally.
That is very important because they would see you as a friend and get the wrong impression, not saying that u aren't their friend just a way where u would let things go or cover for them and we don't want that.
maintaining a distance makes the students aware that you are with them as an instructor and not as friends.. it sets the parameter and the profesionalism as well as we gain their respect..it makes them strive to excel and prove their worth...Astrid
It seems like our students have less boundaries to began with. I have had students who were overly friendly and flirtatious. I had to set a clear boundary early on and this seemed to resolve these issues.
If you do not maintain a professional image and become their friend then you can lose the respect they had for you as a professional. Without respect you cannot teach the material as a person of experience because you are now in their circle of buddies. What you say in lecture as their friend now has less impact on them.
Maintaining a professional image is the first part of setting boundaries in the class room (at least in my experience). Most of my students already have "friends"; I am their teacher first, not their personal friend.
I think maintaing a professional boundary between instructor and students as well being professionally dressed does more for an instructor than any amount of teaching prowess.
Maintaining a professional image is sometimes difficult because when caring about the students I find that I want to come down to their level and help them...often times this may not be the professional thing to do and trying to find a professional way to do this can be a challenge.
I teach a required psychology course; I have to maintain a professional distance from my students and be very clear that I am there as an instructor--not as a psychotherapist. It would be easy to get drawn in to helping them solve all of their mental health issues if I let one student start with some personal problem in his or her life. I am very careful to not be in dual roles.
It's important because students depend on you to lead them through the course. If you cross the instructor-student line then students don't feel that confidence in the instructor that they once did. Suddenly you have become one of them and there is no comfort in feeling like you have no leader to rely on to get you through a tough situation. This is not fair to the students, therefore it is essential that the instructor -student relationship be maintained at all times. Intstructors must display professionalism and knowledge for their subject matter at all times to ensure students confidence throughout the course.
Maintaining a professional distance from students is a important part of class management, because respect is earned based upon the instructor's professionalism and also, supports your image/ability to manage the class.
Students yearn for structure, and come to class with expectations of what an instructor should be. By maintaining a professional image in the classroom, the instructor is providing students with a positive image to strive for success. In the role of instructor, I am maintaining my role as an SME and ideally an IDE. If I were to attempt to be their friend, our roles would change and the level of respect would decline.
This fosters great respect and the reason why the instructor and students meet in a class room.
It establishes the buisness relationship of "fee-for-service". That is, the student pays the fee, and the instructor provides the service to achieve their educational goal successfully. Ofcourse, it goes a bit deeper, with all the various methodologies to be applied toward student success.
By becoming "buddies" with the students, they may feel as if no matter how badly they do in the class, they won't fail. On the flip side, the instructor may feel badly for giving his/her "buddy" a bad grade. In addition, being friends with a particular student or group of students creates negative morale in the students who are not part of the group. Students need to feel as if they are all playing on level ground.
