A teacher’s verbal and nonverbal actions affect student’s behavior in a fundamental way. The way a teacher speaks and acts around a student can break them down and discourage them or uplift them and encourage them to do the best they can. The teacher should be reminded that they are the role model in the classroom and should use constant praise to persuade students to be successful. In order for these techniques to be effective, teachers and administration should be involved. Through my research thus far, I have found that the data correlates to the attitude that the teacher has towards the who and the what they are teaching. On the “who” hand: as the teacher is teaching, a few students aren’t paying attention, laughing and talking and, overall, distracting other students. The teacher responds with a harsh, overly loud tone that tears down the students a little more and more each time. Eventually, the student doesn’t want to participate in discussion and when it is time to perform, the student has no idea what to do and doesn’t care because of the way they were treated. This results in negative scores and low expectations from the teacher. On the “what” hand, I have found that if the teacher does not enjoy the subject that they are teaching or doesn’t make it enjoyable to the class, in return, the class will not enjoy learning the subject. Over time, they start to dose off and daydream, thus resulting in a lack of understanding and frustration towards the subject for a possibly lasting period of time.
