The Three Pillars of Effective Teaching: Rapport, Communication, and Passion

Maguire and Anderson (2024) conducted a qualitative descriptive study of teachers pursuing doctoral degrees and found that effective teaching hinges on three core characteristics: rapport, communication, and passion. These elements encompass building trust and relationships, ensuring clear and engaging communication, and demonstrating enthusiasm for both teaching and the subject matter.

Key Takeaways

• Effective teaching is defined by three main attributes: rapport, communication, and passion.
• Rapport centers on cultivating trust, empathy, and meaningful connections with students.
• Communication involves providing clear feedback, being accessible, and conveying ideas with charisma.
• Passion is reflected in active engagement, dedication, and visible enthusiasm for the subject and the teaching process.
• The study employed qualitative descriptive design, using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis.
• Results resonate with existing literature on effective teaching but are limited due to the small sample size.
• Future research should strive for larger, more diverse participant samples and experiment with alternative methodologies. ?

Effective teaching is influenced by a variety of factors. These include the teacher's personal attributes, subject expertise, and teaching skills, which are intertwined with their teaching process and characteristics. Teachers’ ability to build rapport with students, characterized by empathy, care, patience, flexibility, trustworthiness, and open-mindedness, also plays a critical role. Effective teachers engage students, challenge them to think critically, and motivate them to perform beyond their expectations. They foster positive teacher-student relationships, use real-world experiences in teaching, and personalize instruction based on learner needs.

Other important factors include their pedagogical approach, which balances teacher-centered and student-centered techniques, and their application of andragogical principles for adult learners, such as self-directed learning, experiential education, and relevance to current roles.

Based on the study's results, how might educators strike a balance between maintaining strong rapport with students and managing the challenges of availability and self-care, without compromising effective communication and passion in the classroom?

Maguire, K. R., & Anderson, A. M. (2024). Effective teaching as described by teachers who are also doctoral students: A qualitative descriptive study.?Journal of Scholarly Engagement,?7(2).