How to spot a (possibly) bad teacher

I wrote this blog because there has been a lot of discussion about teachers lately and I know many students spend their hard earned money on English teachers, only to be let down.

Let's get straight to business. There is no definition of a "good" teacher, because personality plays such an important part for any educator. Good teachers can come in all shapes, sizes and personality types in my opinion.

However, while it's also impossible to give a strict exposition of a "bad" teacher - as opposed to an obviously awful teacher - there are certain things to look out for and I will describe them here.

But first, be very clear: there are very good teachers in Thailand. A whole damn lot of them. Some are fully qualified, some partly qualified, a few unqualified. Wherever you are in Siam, look in the right places, ask the right questions and you will find them. I make this point because part of me feels like a traitor whenever I criticise the state of foreign teachers in Thailand, but sadly it needs to be done. I could go on at length about the attitude and approach of bad teachers but it would not help.

What will help is this; my list of 'warning signs' for possibly bad teachers. Bear in mind this guide is aimed at adult students. While much of it would naturally apply to a teacher for any age group, some things will differ for obvious reasons. I also want to stress it's aimed at teachers of English language, which is not my own full time profession.

1) Look at appearance.

Not too much needs to be said here as Thais are hot on appearances anyway. While I know some very good but overworked teachers who can be a little scruffy, it's generally a warning sign. Shoes are a particular signal. Teachers are not rich of course, we don't strut around in Armani leather soles but a glance at a teacher's footwear can often be a surefire giveaway to their attitude. Which reminds me, I must buy some more polish ;-0

2) Ask a very basic grammar question e,g:"What's the difference between the past simple and past perfect?".

It doesn't matter if you want to study grammar or not, a teacher who cannot answer such a question is like a pilot who doesn't know where the cockpit is. During my stint as head teacher at a certain school, I had an applicant teacher fill out our test form. One of the instructions was: "Name all the tenses". He answered: "Past, now, tomorrow". He was not employed.

3) Ask him if he's ever taught TOEIC or IELTS.

If you get a puzzled look, he's probably not a very experienced teacher. That doesn't make him bad, of course.

4) Ask a general question that has an open answer e.g: "What do you like about teaching?"

This has two purposes and is especially important if you wish to be a private student. First, you can actually listen to an answer to an important question. Secondly, you can test how much you understand of your potential teacher when he speaks. If he talks at a native speaker's pace and for a long time, he is probably not a very good teacher. I've only ever met one exception to this rule in my career.

5) Ask if you can watch him teach a class.

I don't know many people who jump for joy at the thought of a stranger watching them work but a teacher should be understanding and readily accepting of this. If he makes excuses as to why you can't, he is almost certainly a poor teacher.

That's all. Some people may be wondering why I didn't tell everyone to ask after a teacher's qualifications. Well it's simple: the bad ones will lie. Unless you are prepared to take the time to check the qualifications for yourself, you will achieve little. Following these steps should be enough to let you take a guess at his qualifications anyway.

Finally, the question of money. I avoided this because I think it's wrong to equate a person's wealth with their value but it is generally true that a cheap teacher is not such a good teacher. Keep this in mind when you go to the "shopping mall schools". That's not to say you can't find good teachers at the cheaper places , certainly you can, but your chances lower with the cost. It's like any type of shopping, you might strike a bargain, but you have to look carefully. I'd go as far as to say this is the most frequent mistake made by Thai students; they hunt for the cheapest private teacher without asking themselves why that teacher is cheap.

As usual, I never claim to be a good teacher and I'm certainly no authority on pedagogy. I have students that rate me very highly, a couple that probably don't like me (Thai students rarely say such things to your face) and most are somewhere in-between. I have never broken any of the above laws except on days when I forget my tie or shoe polish. I do not teach English myself, I teach grade nine and ten (and, next semester, eleven) Social Studies. My colleague in this is an ordained man with two masters degrees so to keep up with him, I must be doing OK.

I would be happy to give advice on teaching or checking teachers of young children or teenagers if people ask, and I invite other teachers to add ideas to my list.

Classroom discipline

Today was one of the most unpleasant in my four years plus of teaching.

Perhaps the ominous warning of strange things afoot came when one PE teacher lost his sanity in front of onlooking parents, teachers and students during sports day practice. The teacher flew into a rage (apparently because the students had not heard him blow his whistle) and trashed the chairball equipment before storming off in front of a crowd stunned into silence.


But my problem had nothing to do with the mighty game of chairball. My problem was discipline. You see, I've been teaching for over four years and until today I had only received two complaints. One was from a girl who said that I spent too long on games in the class - apparently twenty five minutes out of three hours was too much - and I was ordered to stop. Needless to say, the girl did not win any friends amongst her fellow ten year old students! The other was from my very first adult class, who felt my lesson was too grammar focused. I took note of the constructive criticism and tried to improve.


It's notable that both those complaints came from private school students. In my two and a half years of state school teaching, I never received a single indictment. Last year, I moved to a well known bilingual school and began to teach grade seven and nine students from privileged homes. By then I was a confident and capable teacher, but a class of thirty hormonal students can test the best of us.

After a few weeks of trial and error, most classes were falling into place. However, there remained a small group students who just didn't want to know. Each day they would simply spend their time reading comic books, sending sms messages or even disrupting the other students.

In the end, I took them to the teachers' room during their lunch break to finish their work. Today, the parents of one darling little Somchai contacted the school to complain that I had "stopped Somchai from having his lunch". (Somchai doesn't look like missing a couple of lunches would do him any harm) What's more, Somchai had complained that I was showing favouritism to a female student in the class! The undertones of the second part of the complaint was what upset me.

Nobody likes dealing with complaints, especially malicious ones, but there is a strong chance they will happen to anyone who teaches long enough. In my case I knew I could rely on the full support of my admin staff and the Thai support teacher in the classroom (more on this in a moment). Somchai was eventually coaxed to admit the truth (he hadn't lifted a finger in months and the 'favoured' student had done everything). It was probably a bigger deal to me than anyone else, but at times like these, I always question my own use of discipline.



How does one deal with difficult students? Well, it depends very much on who you ask. In theory, every foreign teacher should have a Thai teacher in the room for support. The reality - as any teacher will tell you - is that Thai teacher support is a lottery. Some will be very supportive, most will do absolutely nothing and a minority will even encourage disruptive behaviour, either inadvertently or otherwise.

I always seek to strike a good rapport with my support teacher whenever possible, for they can be pivotal in the progress and behaviour of the class (not to mention the fact that they are usually asked to report on you, even if they can't understand a word of English). But again, any teacher will tell you that a minority of support teachers have decided they don't like you before you even start. You are an unqualified farang who has walked into the job and receive a higher salary for doing it. I can understand the sentiment, if not the reaction.


So let's say you have a delinquent horde of teenagers and a Thai teacher who simply wants to sit at the back and play Sudoku. What's the next step? How tough should you get?

One school of thought that is prevalent amongst TEFL teachers is to simply do nothing and ignore the disruptive kids. The rationale behind this varies but is often stated as "I'm the only that gets bothered by it, so why care?" or "Getting angry doesn't help".

Whilst I agree with both of these philosophies, I don't agree that they are applicable to good teaching. For one thing, as the person responsible for the education of the students, a teacher should be the one who is "bothered". To say "What is the point in getting bothered?" is equivocal to "What is the point in giving a monkey's about my job?". Fine if that's your attitude, but don't inflict it on those of us mad enough to actually think that even in the TEFL world one lone student might take some kind of benefit from a teacher who makes an effort.

The second line of "Getting angry doesn't help" is also correct. But again, I find some (usually new or just poor) teachers mistakenly link classroom discipline to loss of temper. This is, in fact, an oxymoron. Anyone who cannot control their rage should not teach, period. Good discipline - including a raised voice - is done in a controlled, precise and understandable manner.


Whilst many educators can and do use very laid back styles of discipline - or none at all - for good reasons, my experience has shown me that many use the aforementioned rationales as a smokescreen. That ostensible reasoning tends to hide a lack of assuredness that manifests itself as either a lack of confidence in using any kind of discipline or a fear that the kids will "hate" a teacher and see them as "serious" , the latter being the ultimate anathema for the farang.

Now I don't know about you, but even when I was a hormonal teenager, I had a well developed sense of right and wrong. Adolescent or not, I knew when a teacher was punishing me for something I had done wrong (how I wish I could track down some of those teachers and apologise for my behaviour) and which ones were just obnoxious (I recall one teacher who shook me by my ear until it tore and bled when I was ten years old. I had got out of my chair for break two minutes early).

Teenagers, on the whole, are fair. If a teacher is reasonable in warning students of their behaviour (or translating if the students' English is weak) and explains any disciplinary action and empathizes it is not personal, they will respond positively.
Indeed, many students come to respect this manner far more than the out and out clown style of teaching. I can think of at least one class where stern behaviour made me far more popular with the majority of these students who had become frustrated at the troublesome group in the class disrupting the lessons for everyone. Once the students know where the line is, you can lay back, enjoy far more jokes and games with them and have fun and productive lessons for everyone.


But just where exactly should a teacher draw the line? Is any copying allowed in the classroom? Should I ask little Jittiporn to turn that ghettoblaster down? Should I break up the boys' fight or wait until one of them is knocked out? Is an impromptu classroom football match acceptable? Should the teacher join in?

Limits and rules (if any) can only be reached through trial and error. Different teachers will work best under different circumstances. There is no single correct way to use discipline in the classroom but there are certainly some good rules to adhere by:


1) Never strike kids. Even if you have just seen a Thai teacher doing his WWE impression and smacking a kid with a chair. They can do it, we can't (and hopefully don't want or need to).

2) Always give students the benefit of the doubt. The first time you see them using their phone, give them a very friendly warning. I always give at least two friendly warnings for any student.


3) Use humour whenever you can, it takes the tension out of the situation. This works particularly well with students who are usually good but are having an off day. Instead of telling Somchai to stop or you'll give him homework, tell him to stop or you'll make him listen to Westlife singles for the rest of the week.


4) Don't ask things of the students you cannot deliver yourself. If you are late for class, it is totally unfair to punish students who do the same. Likewise, if you are delivering a lesson that is not going so well, don't expect the pupils to be on top form either.

5) Bear in mind that each class will develop its own personality, often defined by the strongest personalities or the behaviour of the smartest students. Try to get these students "on your side" whenever possible.

6) In a similar fashion, consider that different students respond to different approaches. Some need praise, some simply need attention and some will simply have behavioural problems that will not be helped by punishments.

7) Be clear and even handed when explaining punishments to students. Be calm when doing so and make a point of telling them you don't dislike them, you simply want to help them learn.



And that last point is what it all comes down to. After all, even if you believe you are just a hired clown, don't you want the kids to be watching when you do your tricks?

Well it was always going to happen sooner or later.........

My afternoon class has been difficult. It was designed for teenagers but was actually a mixture of adults, teenagers, and a thirteen year old that could debatably be classed as a kid. The lessons are three hours long which is a drag for the keenest of pupils, and the assigned course materials are not the best either.

Yes I know, a workman always blames his tools. I must be honest, I've been doing little to no preparation for these classes, but I honestly believe I've done Ok in the circumstances. I've taught classes like this before and they've been a disaster. Now I'm more experienced, I've done Ok (so I thought) and some of the students like me.

But these two certainly didn't.

Bow and Pye were their names. Both of them had attended one lesson with me before. Yesterday Bow and Pye were both absent. I had decided to play things light, I even got some of the kindergarten kids from next door in to sing some songs for us and lighten the mood, they did so with gusto.

Today I decided to get down to some work. The subject was food - a sure hit with Thai people - and the question was "What's your favourite food?" It went something like this:

The students walk in. They're a serious bunch it must be said. Not my kind of students but you don't pick and choose.

"Hello Bow!" I say with a smile as she walks in. She's not bad looking so my smile is genuine.

"Uh" she says and sorts of gives me a half nod.

"Hi Pye!" I say as the young teenager walks in. "Hello" she says quickly and hides away in the corner.

The other students enter, chat a little, then settle down.

I ask Bow: "What 's your favourite food, Bow?"

She looks at me as if I was speaking Swahili.

"What's your favourite food?" I repeat, slowly.

"Ally wa?" She says to the other students. That's actually a little rude. The other students start to translate but I stop them.

"What....... food ............do...... you........ like ..........to.......... eat?" I say as I mime the act of eating.

"Eh?" she says.

This is an elementary class, not a starter class. Bow must have sat some kind of placement test that did not include "How are you?" or "What do you eat?" Still, it's my job to help her.

I let the students translate for Bow and she responds by burying herself in her dictionary and refusing to look up for anyone.

I turn to Pye. "What do you like to eat Pye?" I ask. I 've been demorilised into simplifying the question by now.

"Huh" she looks at me.

Oh no. Here we go again.

"What......food.....do....you....like?" I'm smiling, but I could murder some bastard right now.

"Ally wa?"

Oh no......I'm stuck in some kind of educational Bermuda Triangle!!

I give up and let her friends explain in Thai, which kind of defeats the purpose of learning English but sometimes you have to decide to delay the entire class for one student or sacrifice one spot to save the class. That's the reality of teaching.

I assigned the class a grammar task in the workbook and nipped to the toilet. As I returned, Bow and Pye were walking down the corridor. They mumbled something in Thai and passed on. I went into the classroom thinking they had just gone to the toilet in a pair, as girls do.

"They've gone" said one of the other students. One who actually liked me.

And....in my best Kevin Spacy voice...."Like that.......they were gone". They had paid for the course, and after twenty minutes decided they didn't want any part of it.

I've said before, a good teacher looks at his or herself when problems arise in the classroom. I can sympathise with the girls, especially the younger one. She most likely expected a teenagers course with fun and games. Now I can do those courses and do them rather well, but with adults in the room, they like to actually, you know, learn stuff. Classes of greatly mixed ages are a challenge, you have to strike a balance and they'll always be at least one who feels the balance isn't right for them.

I must admit, the rather unsociable and slightly ignorant attitude of the older girl didn't help. Some people think teaching is a one way thing, the teacher can wave his Harry Potter magic wand and turn the student into a party animal that speaks fluent English. That's not the case. Teaching is a two way commitment and like anything in life that takes time to learn, you have to be willing to push yourself and make an effort. If you don't want to learn, you won't get far.

So I hope Bow and Pye will give it another chance and perhaps I can give them the type of lesson they want. I honestly feel in this situation I didn't do much wrong, but there's always room for improvement in a teacher, and next time I'll try my best to spot the "I'm about to walk out" student before he or she does a runner.