The Qualities of Effective Teachers in the Eyes of Turkish Students

Introduction

The main purpose of schools is to enable students to learn. There are many factors that affect learning. These factors may originate from school or student. However, teachers are the most important factor that affect students’ learning (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Hattie, 2003; Nye, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004; Olson, 2008; Stronge et al., 2008; Wenglinsky, 2000). Effective teachers become effective regardless of variables such as students' academic level, class size (Wright et al., 1997). Teachers use their personal skills, subject knowledge, and their competencies in the field of educational sciences to improve students' learning experiences. In addition, effective teachers use all these qualities effectively.

Marson (1990) found the qualities of a qualified teacher such as showing empathic behaviors, being sensitive, having the ability to listen, exhibiting a good teamwork, having counseling skills. Eason and Carbett (1991) emphasized that the best teachers should be the ones who stimulate thinking and arouse interest and encourage students. On the other hand, the teacher should be able to establish good interpersonal relations, to determine the basic principles about the profession, to apply these principles to the student, to take into account the time of the students and to have an effective tone of voice.

Since student development is the primary task of schools, it is necessary to decide what effective teacher behaviors and attitudes contribute student development. Hattie (1999) said that most of the behaviors that teachers do for the purpose of ensuring student development have positive effects. The important point here is to find out which behaviors are most effective. Therefore, it is very important to determine the strongest effective teacher attitudes and behaviors that lead to student success.

From past to present, effective teaching has played an extremely important role in the learning processes of students in all educational stages (Palardy & Rumberger, 2008). Many studies in the educational field show that effective teaching is directly and strongly related to learning and student achievement (Konstantopoulos, 2011; McDonough & Clarke, 2003; Rockoff, 2004; Sanders & Rivers, 1996; Stronge, 2007). Teachers are shown as the main reason why students have difficulties at school and even have to leave school (Lanouette, 2012). For this reason, defining the characteristics of effective teachers, knowing the teaching methods, attitude, behavior, and classroom management styles are very important in terms of improving the quality of education as well as improving the cognitive, social and psychological development of students. However, it is still a matter of debate among researchers what criteria should be taken into account in the measurement of effective teaching, whether it should be evaluated based on the quality of the teacher, the teaching process or the teaching outcomes or all of these components should be evaluated (Stronge, et al., 2011). When the characteristics of effective teachers are analyzed, it is necessary to include all three criteria.

The most important factor in students' school achievement, especially in the primary school period, is the teacher and effective teaching rather than the education system, program, school, management or family (Bright, 2012). In their study, Wright et al. (1996) found that teacher factor at primary school level is the single most important factor in student achievement in the classroom. Researchers have found that the differences in achievement between class size and students in the class can only have minor effects. Sahlberg (2011) emphasized that effective teachers and effective management are the most important factors in Finland's ranking of the most successful countries in education today.