If you’re looking to hire teachers for whatever reason, then you’ll likely turn to the best online teacher recruitment services for help. They will undoubtedly introduce you to many education professionals with differing backgrounds and experience. From them you can pick the right teachers for your organization or for your personal needs if you’re hiring a tutor for yourself or a child.

But to do this also means we put a great deal of faith in these services being able to determine what makes a good teacher, doesn’t it? What are these key factors that separate the mediocre teachers from the great ones?

1. Great Teachers Can Communicate

A lot of people think that the key to teaching is having knowledge to impart. The truth is that even some of the world’s smartest and most knowledgeable people would not necessarily make good teachers. The reason for that is that knowing something doesn’t mean that you can communicate it well to learners.

Teachers are able to communicate knowledge, ideas and concepts to learners in such a way that they hear, understand and feel confident that they can grasp it. That’s a serious skill that requires dedication, ability and experience to really get right. A great mathematics teacher, for instance, can communicate mathematical knowledge and instil confidence and competence in students who initially are intimidated by the subject.

2. Great Teachers Listen as Much as They Talk

Teachers who like to waffle and monologue for the entire duration of their class are not really great teachers. Communication is a two-way street, and that means great teachers will also listen to others as much, if not more, than they talk themselves. First it means listening to the students with whom the teacher is working. Second, it means listening to the colleagues and school leaders within that institution.

As great teachers listen, they absorb and analyse. As their students are talking, they are assessing and understanding where the particular learner’s strengths and weaknesses are, trying to understand them better so as to know how better to help them. Listening is among the greatest weapons in a teacher’s arsenal.

3. Great Teachers are Engaging

A truly great teacher can take absolutely any subject taught at any level and make it interesting and engaging for learners. Any teacher whose lessons are dry and featureless who then tries to blame the subject for that lack of colour and flair in their teaching is not a great educator. You know a good teacher when they can find creative and innovative ways to connect you to a topic, keep your attention and your focus, and foster a genuine interest in something.

4. Great Teachers Exhibit Patience and Empathy

Two key personality traits that you can invariably find within a great teacher are boundless patience and keen empathy. Teachers need to be able to keep their cool as they deal with multiple learners, not all of whom learn at the same pace and in the same way. Patience is needed to help students stay the course and learn what they need to excel in their education or in their later careers. What’s more, they need to do so without losing or showing loss in patience, which can result in students losing confidence.

As for empathy, a big part of being able to communicate information to students effectively is having enough empathy to understand their feelings, their frustrations with a given subject, and how easy or hard it is for them to understand and/or appreciate a topic. Take a foreign language teacher instructing Australian kids in an unfamiliar language like Mandarin Chinese. The teacher needs a level of empathy that can grasp how students have zero familiarity or connection with this language and work in a way that fosters confidence and curiosity.