Roles of the Teacher
Classroom teachers are expected to carry out various functions or roles within the classroom. These roles change depending on the expectation you have of students.
The focus of this PDF is on the 5 most important roles a teacher undertakes within the classroom, they are identified below:
The following 5 Teacher Roles are available for purchase as a single PDF ($4.99) or as part of a bundled set containing five other Classroom Management and Discipline based resources ($19.99). If you wish to purchase the bundled set, please click on the button below.
Planning
A great deal of this planning takes place outside the confines of the classroom prior to classroom interaction. However, the relationship between planning and implementation is a dynamic one and planning for immediate future activities may well take place in the classroom virtually as implementation occurs.
A flow chart indicating planning tasks may be found within the Teacher Roles PDF.
The Planning Role includes an introduction to planning, the major aims of planning, and strategies for implementing a plan covering 6 distinct principles to assist in understanding this role.
Organizing
The organizing role involves teachers in making arrangements and developing an orderly structure, which will unify all elements in the classroom into a coherent and functioning whole.
Sound organizing is closely linked with systematic planning. Whereas planning is concerned with the identification of appropriate activities, organizing is concerned with making arrangements and structuring the classroom to implement planned activities. In fact, the organizing role of the teacher links planning with all the other roles of communicating, motivating and controlling.
The Organizing Role includes an introduction to organizing, the major aims of organizing, and 6 distinct principles designed to assist in understanding this role.
Motivating
Motivation is a vital factor in the teacher’s management of learning and behavior in the classroom.
The motivating role of teachers encompasses attempts to create conditions within a classroom which will energize, direct and sustain students’ performance. This role is important for promoting morale and climate and involves the sustaining of enthusiasm and positive attitudes towards school goals and learning tasks, both those assigned and those self-generated by the students.
The Motivating Role includes an introduction to organizing, the major aims of organizing, and 6 distinct principles designed to assist in understanding this role.
Communicating
Learning and teaching in the classroom predominately take place through interpersonal communication between teachers and students.
Effective student learning depends largely upon the strong and positive management of classroom communication in all its forms and situations. In turn, effective classroom management and the roles of planning, organizing, controlling and motivating depend upon the management of effective communication. Communication is at the heart of classroom processes.
The Communicating Role includes the major aims of communicating, types of communication covering three important forms of communicating.
Controlling
Controlling is the process by which teachers ensure that the learning activities and behavior of children in the classroom are consistent with the objectives, expectations and plans of both teachers and school. Controlling is closely related to planning.
It must be emphasized that the controlling process is essentially a positive one, its basic purpose is to facilitate and ensure attainment of instructional objectives. In the past, however, the terms control and controlling have generally conveyed the negative connotations of discipline and punishment which constrict student freedom and introduce teacher dominance, order and inflexibility in classrooms. Resources dealing with discipline as a separate issue is included in this website.
The Controlling Role includes an introduction, the major aims of controlling, and 6 important principles in the implementation of the controlling role.
