How should teachers teach?

I came across Kenneth's post on how should teachers teach. I find this very interesting so I am post about it. How should teachers teach? By strictness? By humour? By being fierce, students would be well-behaved and thus pay attention in class? By being humorous, would students love the class and thus be keen to learn and be interested in the subject?

I agree with Kenneth that teachers should teach with humour. This makes the lesson more lively, thus causing lesson not to be boring.. (or sianzz..). Being humorous also means that the teacher looks more easier to approach, thus we could consult him or her when we face any challenges. We would be more active in class participation, thus learning more through this process. A friendly teacher would certainly help if we have a hatred to the particular subject. We would start to enjoy the lesson more and more. This is especially important as we would be "loving what we do" rather than "do what we love".

However, I have to agree that being friendly or less strict have its own disadvantages. Students tend to place a lesser importance of the subject because the teacher is easy-going and negotiable. They would also not treat the subject seriously, thus causing grades to deteriorate. We would have the mentality that there is no need to do this or that because the teacher would not scold. If this is to continue, we would also be rowdy and rude because we have no respect for the teacher anymore. This is especially the case if the teacher was teaching to a group of more than 100 students, even more than 400 when there is an assembly. Since there are many more students, the voice produced would be much louder. Hence, if the teacher is not fierce and not strict, the situation might go out of control.

How about being strict then? This would be the opposite of what mentioned above. Let's take a look at the advantages. The students would be very well-disciplines as they were scared that the teacher would be pin-pointing at every mistakes they do. Thus, the whole class would be quiet and thus making learning a more conducive environment for all with no disturbance. The class would be more serious about work, thus producing better standard of assessment.

However, there still disadvantages in this. I mentioned about the class being quiet, but sometimes, it might be TOO quiet. Nobody would dare to make a sound, let alone participation in class discussions. Even the most obvious questions would take sometime for any response. Even if there is an immediate response, only a few "brave souls" were the ones that gave the response. With a strict and fierce teacher, there would be "hatred" for the teacher, and the subject. There would be and "inaudible" groan, or even complaints if that lesson was in the next period.

From what I have said, having teacher with humour has a lot of disadvantages, as well as having one who is very strict. So, what do I think a teacher should be? Well... I think that it have to depend on the situation. I think that a teacher should be humorous all the time, with a few times being strict when one does not meet his standard. This would allow other students to know that there would be punishment if we do not finish our work on time, or give a low-quality work.