Every teacher teaches twice: once through what he or she deliberately says and again through what he or she unconsciously demonstrates.
Students observe how teachers treat people, respond to mistakes, handle disagreement, acknowledge uncertainty and exercise authority. In this sense, teachers become unelected role models. They have not campaigned for the position, and students have not voted for them, yet their conduct can influence how young people understand professionalism, fairness, responsibility and respect.
Hattie’s work is particularly relevant here because teacher credibility matters. His synthesis identifies credibility as connected to students’ perceptions of teacher competence, trustworthiness and care (Hattie, 2009). The teacher’s influence therefore depends not only upon what they know, but also upon whether students believe that their teacher knows them, cares about them and genuinely wants them to succeed.
The implication is significant: role modeling is not an additional activity attached to teaching. It is embedded in the ordinary behaviors of professional life.
A teacher who admits, “I don’t know; let’s find out,” may teach intellectual honesty. A teacher who listens carefully may demonstrate respect. A teacher who apologizes after making a mistake demonstrates accountability. These small actions can communicate values more powerfully than an entire lesson devoted to character education.
Humility is sometimes misunderstood as weakness. In education, however, humility can be a source of professional strength. The humble teacher recognizes that expertise does not mean knowing everything. They remain curious, listen to colleagues and students, reflect upon their practice and accept that teaching itself is a continual process of learning.
This humility connects teaching with many other professions. The finest doctors, nurses, lawyers, engineers, academics, leaders and other professionals understand that expertise carries responsibility rather than superiority. Their authority is strengthened, not diminished, by recognizing the limits of their own knowledge.
Fullan’s conception of educational change reinforces this idea. Teachers are not merely recipients of educational reform; they are active participants in professional learning and change (Fullan, 2001). The teacher who continues to learn demonstrates to students that education does not end with graduation, certification or professional status.
Research into teacher personality similarly suggests that personal characteristics are relevant to effectiveness and occupational well-being, although no single personality profile defines a successful teacher (Kim et al., 2019). Good teaching is therefore not a performance of perfection. It is the disciplined practice of reflection, adaptation and continual improvement.
Ultimately, a good teacher cannot be reduced to a checklist of techniques. Subject knowledge matters. Pedagogy matters. Assessment matters. Classroom management matters. Evidence matters. But beneath these professional competencies lies something more human: the capacity to recognize the student as a person.
Teaching is a vocation when knowledge becomes service; when authority is accompanied by humility; when high expectations are balanced with compassion; and when the teacher understands that their influence may continue long after students depart the classroom.
Fullan’s emphasis on moral purpose and Hattie’s emphasis on teachers making their impact visible point towards a shared principle: teaching is ultimately about making a difference to students. The good teacher combines purpose with evidence, care with challenge, confidence with humility and professional expertise with a quest to continue learning.
The greatest measure of a teacher may not be what students remember from a particular lesson. It may be what they carry forward: a love of learning, the confidence to ask questions, a respect for others, the courage to make mistakes and the belief that they, too, can contribute something worthwhile to the world.
A good teacher therefore does not merely stand at the front of a classroom. They stand as an example of what it means to perpetuate learning, to serve others and to remain humble in the presence of possibility.
Author: Dr. Ean Orlando Alleyne, Manager, Continuous Professional Development, Education Development Institute (EDI), October, 2026
Fullan, M. (2001). The new meaning of educational change (3rd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.
Johnston, O., Wildy, H., & Shand, J. (2022). “That teacher really likes me”—Student-teacher interactions that initiate teacher expectation effects by developing caring relationships. Learning and Instruction, 80, 101580.
Kim, L. E., Jörg, V., & Klassen, R. M. (2019). A meta-analysis of the effects of teacher personality on teacher effectiveness and burnout. Educational Psychology Review, 31, 163–195.
Madero, C. (2021). Because I am called: How a calling to teach emerges and develops in teachers working in Catholic high schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, 103319.
Roorda, D. L., et al. (2025). Teacher-student relationships and student outcomes: A systematic second-order meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin.
