5. Self-esteem

In class the teacher is bound to meet the ‘good achievers’ and the students who do not score high marks. In this case if the teacher decides to sustain the class as it is, the ‘achievers’ and the ‘non-achievers’ will finish their course with the same high or low self-esteem. A teacher must know that all students have some strengths. Not all of their strengths, however, are visible or felt.

On the one hand, the seven characteristics that may pave the road to success for the ‘high achievers’ are intelligence, perseverance, creative thinking, resourcefulness, openness to new experience, the desire to learn, and the drive to excel. On the other hand, the ‘non-achievers’ may have other strengths such as creativity or flexibility and these must be first discovered by the teacher and praised so that the ‘non-achievers’ are encouraged to foster the desire to learn and set goals thus narrowing the gap between the ‘high achievers’ and the ‘low achievers’. In this way and by boosting their self-esteem, a teacher can transform the class into a class that will accomplish their goals to the maximum.

6. Gender stereotypes

In a class where females feel outperformed by males because of fixed ideas and stereotypes, the teacher’s role is to eliminate this attitude. It is known that learners tend to act in ways that are in-line with social identities such as gender. This unfortunately can be sustained in education if one follows the same line. For the equity teacher everyone must be equally treated thus reinforcing equity in gender. To do so, first of all, the teacher must know about these stereotypes that can affect the female learners. Additionally, the teacher must be free of these fixed ideas and see the class with the same potential in all subjects. Body language is also very important because no matter what theory a teacher can support, his/her body language will betray his/her real attitude. To achieve an equity gender class, a teacher must equally distribute tasks to males and females and assign projects with the same difficulty. Regarding projects, the teacher can in turns appoint leaders males and females and pay equal attention to them.

7. Inherent patterns of teacher behaviour

The perception of international education and how this is interpreted in pedagogy can affect adult education especially in multi-cultural groups where learners come from developing countries and from developed countries. Some teachers reveal inherent patterns of behaviour when teaching a multi-cultural class which can affect the interaction between them and their individual learners. In most cases this can be detrimental for the learners who come from developing countries not because they cannot learn in the same way but because of the behaviour and attitude of their teachers. Consequently, an equity teacher must think in terms of international education and apply techniques that will involve all the learners in an international context and not discriminate them.

8. Reinforcement of short-term goals

Each individual learner comes to education with some short-term or long-term goals. Many, though, lose their goals during the learning process due to various reasons. It is the duty of the teacher to help the learners sustain their short-term goals and every time these are achieved to help them set new short-term goals until they achieve them all and feel they have developed personally.

The psychological aspect of achieving their goals is of paramount importance in the learning process; a learner who lacks goals is uncertain about his/her presence in the course and, consequently, does not make any efforts to learn. An alert teacher who follows certain standards and assessment criteria cannot fail to notice this. To encourage a learner to set new goals or to set again the original goals, a teacher must have good rapport with the learners.

In a student-centred education it is easy for the concerned teacher to notice the sustainability or not of the learners’ goals. An open discussion with the class can help a lot if the teacher has succeeded in making his/her class a team. An open discussion where both parties, the teacher and the class, can assess the class progress, predict the outcomes, identify the weaknesses and set new goals is an important new beginning and can decide on a new milestone that everyone will want to reach. Having goal directed learners is the dream of all teachers because this can ensure the accomplishment of their aspirations and will add to the teacher’s job satisfaction.