Becoming a better teacher is less about finding a single technique or hack, and more about building a professional habit: designing purposeful learning experiences, noticing what happens in real time and adjusting with care.
I teach undergraduate and master’s classes, supervise the field experience work of student teachers, and mentor speech and hearing student clinicians’ practicals. My teaching contexts range from lecture rooms with more than 50 students to one-to-one clinical fieldwork, so I’ve learned that effective teaching has to be adaptable, measurable and deeply human.
Great teachers pair heart with structure
Great teachers often teach with their hearts, but that heart is paired with structure. Students can feel when a teacher genuinely cares, yet they also need clarity, consistency and fairness. Teaching with your heart shows up in small decisions: explaining why an activity matters, creating psychological safety and responding to confusion without embarrassment.
- How to become a better teacher
- What is an authentic teacher and how can you become one?
- Good teachers need to be good learners
How to review effectively
Students learn not only when new material is introduced but also during review. In fact, reviewing the material is often how learning is embedded deeply. A great review is not a rereading – it is a performance of meaning. I design sessions with:
- a short preview and purpose (“By the end, you’ll be able to…”)
- frequent activation (pair or group discussion, mini-demonstrations)
- takeaway practical tips students can apply immediately.
Even when I rehearse the lesson mentally, I focus less on performing perfectly and more on energy and momentum.
How to assess and improve your own performance
To assess myself, I use three sources:
- Students’ ratings and course feedback: what helped, what confused them, what felt unrealistic
- Students’ performance: patterns across assignments, participation and application tasks
- Student reactions in class: the “unwritten feedback”, such as eyes on you versus drifting attention, productive struggle versus silent confusion.
To improve, I make one or two high-impact adjustments in a semester, rather than trying to overhaul everything at once. One example of the change I made was to divide an assignment into two parts. I provided feedback after students submitted the first part during the first half of the course, allowing them to consolidate and refine their work for the final essay.
Understand student progress beyond test scores
Assignment scores offer only one snapshot. I watch for change over time, such as:
- greater confidence in explaining concepts
- improved ability to apply skills in practical tasks or in the field
- responsiveness to feedback – do students adjust after coaching?
In practical lessons and field experience, students’ growth is especially visible. I can see how they progress through practice, reflection and feedback, not just their exam results.
How to put education research into practice
Education research can feel distant if it stays theoretical. I translate research into small tests I can run within a semester or clinical block. For example, if evidence supports active learning, I embed low-stakes in-class practice weekly, such as think-pair-share, case analysis and brief demonstrations.
The key is implementation with reflection: try it, observe effects and refine.
How to break out of a teaching rut
You can get into a teaching rut when a course becomes familiar to you, but isn’t “alive”. The key is to incorporate one new element at a time, like a new case, activity format or rubric criterion, and ask yourself: “What should students practise more of next time?” rather than “What should I explain more of?”
Writing meaningful assessment rubrics
Rubrics should guide learning, not simply grade performance. Meaningful rubrics are:
- specific: observable behaviours, not vague labels
- criterion-based: aligned to learning outcomes
- student-friendly: clear language and examples
- feedback-oriented: each level suggests what to do next.
I also ensure rubrics connect to earlier activities, so students learn what “good” looks like before submission. When supervising practical sessions, I focus feedback on a small number of high-leverage skills each week, so students can improve rather than receive too much information.
Strategies for managing multiple-class workloads
Teaching across multiple courses and practica can overwhelm attention and energy. I protect focus by keeping a repeatable lesson structure: introduction → explanation → practice → feedback → recap/emphasis → takeaway. I reuse resources strategically, such as feedback and rubric templates, and prioritise feedback students can act on quickly, like early drafts, formative tasks, targeted comments.
Time management and speaking to a class
Time management works best when it respects the flow of the class. I plan enough to guide learning but leave space for flexibility. I prepare slide and activity essentials first, and then polish later. I use marking checklists to speed up consistent feedback and review marking patterns after each task to adjust teaching more efficiently.
How I speak shapes the classroom climate. I aim for a friendly tone, share relevant experiences and include hands-on activities when possible, so students participate physically and cognitively, not just by listening. When students hear, try and reflect, learning becomes embodied.
Teaching habits that disrupt learning
Two disruptions I guard against are being sidetracked by minor incidents, especially during illustrations, and losing flow and drifting away from the plan. I quickly note questions and concerns, address them after the core segment and return to the learning trajectory.
A note on office hours
Finally, office hours should be sustainable for teacher and student. I prepare myself first with restorative activities or small treats to reset energy. When I arrive grounded, students experience office hours as a calm space for clarification, mentorship and realistic planning.
Becoming a better teacher is a continuous cycle: care and structure, design and feedback, research and practice, reflection and adjustment. Whether teaching a large cohort undergraduate lecture or supervising speech and hearing clinicians in practicals, my goal is consistent: help students learn in ways they can apply beyond the classroom. With intentional planning, meaningful assessment, attention to student progress and sustainable adaptability, teaching becomes not only effective but genuinely rewarding.
Karen Yu Ka Man is senior lecturer in the department of special education and counselling at the Education University of Hong Kong.
Disclaimer: AI was used to help edit and polish this article.
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