Promoting a Pleasant Classroom Climate

Abstract

Professor Patron’s lectures are high on the three main effective teaching dimensions that we have discussed so far: organization, clarity, and interest/engagement. His lessons are well organized and quite engaging, and he presents the material in a very clear fashion. However, he sometimes offends a student who asks a question that he thinks is insufficiently clever, and at times he patronizes or demeans students. He is very distant—never smiles, praises students’ answers, or shows interest or care for them or for their difficulties in learning. Considering this entire set of classroom behaviors, is Patron an effective teacher? Does he promote students’ effective learning?