10 Ways To Get Your Students To Trust You

Students thrive in an environment where they are comfortable, and trust is an essential part of this environment. Although it takes time, strategy, and communication to gain your students’ trust, it’s worth the effort and trouble.

You can gain your students’ trust by first winning their affection by being friendly, patient, empathetic, and open-minded. Take this further by earning their respect by maintaining high standards and being competent and organized.

Building trust with students should be the utmost priority of every good teacher. I’ll discuss these points extensively in this article.

Table of Contents

1. Be Open-Minded

No two students are the same. All students have different experiences, backgrounds, lifestyles, and mindsets—and so do you. It would be wrong for you to impose your ideas and ways on the students.

As a teacher, to gain your students’ trust, you must be open-minded to learn about the peculiarities of each student and understand them—so you know how to work with them.

Students can trust a teacher who accepts them for who they are and value their opinions. They love a teacher who doesn’t look down on them or insult them because they are different from the norm or have individual perspectives

2. Be Friendly to Your Students

A teacher that always wears a smile is the students’ favorite. Students will easily trust a friendly teacher rather than a harsh one.

Some teachers believe that to gain dominance in the class—they must be strict and harsh with the students. The best such an attitude can fetch is fear and sometimes anger.

Here’s how to be friendly with your students:

Smile often: As I mentioned, students love teachers who smile a lot. A smile is charming and endearing—and students get drawn to teachers who smile often.
Be warm: To show yourself friendly, answer your students’ greetings. Be cordial and encouraging when they talk to you, ask you a question, or give a wrong reply in class.
Be hospitable: As a teacher, you must be generous. Don’t always give excuses why you can’t attend to the needs of your students. It is always best to provide them attention when they come to you,

Make your class fun: Students will feel stimulated and engaged in a fun class. You can make learning more practical with some illustrations and demonstrations.
Be sensitive: Be sensitive to your student’s needs. Please pay attention to them when they talk to you and see beyond their words and actions. Some may cover up deep-seated pain by acting out and misbehavior.
Encourage and appreciate them: You should encourage and enjoy your students privately and publicly. If anyone does something exemplary, respect the person publicly.

Build them: As you interact with your students, look out for their interests, strengths, and talents and teach them how to develop them.
Build their self-confidence: Try to make your students feel valued as much as possible—you can say it to them too. Try not to be so harsh that they only see your harshness and not your good intentions.
Give every student a chance: You shouldn’t write off any student, whether they appear too dull to understand or too stubborn to learn. See the potential in every student and work towards reaching their full potential.

Here is an excellent video on how to make your class more fun:

3. Be Patient With Your Pupils

Patience is a virtue every teacher who wants to gain their students’ trust MUST possess. You’ll meet students with different attitudes in class. Students don’t always wear their best behavior; sometimes, they can really push your buttons.

Here are a few tips to help you stay patient.

Understand the reason behind the action: Some students go through hell at home or suffer bullying at school. They will find it difficult to trust anyone—some students may even become nasty to hide their emotions of hurt.
Take note of each student’s personality: As a teacher, you should take note of each student’s character. For instance, if you know a student is unruly, you won’t get so angry when they misbehave.
Seek ways to help them: If you notice a shy or struggling student, try to find ways to get them to talk. Try to be patient while doing it, with the right mindset that every student has a shot at greatness.

Hear their side: You shouldn’t throw a student under the bus before listening to their side of the story. That’ll make them feel you hate them and become more rebellious because they will no longer care about what you think.

4. Be Tolerant of Your Student’s Opinions

People see things from different perspectives, and so do your students. As a teacher, you should learn to tolerate your students’ opinions, ideas, culture, status, etc.

How can you do this?

Listen to their ideas: Your students have bright ideas and may want to share them with you, so be open to listening to them. Don’t underrate their views; instead, help them fine-tune them.
No racial discrimination: You can’t discriminate against a child just because of their color or creed. You have to treat every child equally.
No status discrimination: Some students may come from wealthy homes, while others may not. You shouldn’t prefer one child over another or treat one child, especially from another.

Encourage relationships between students: You should foster relationships between your students by pairing them for projects and activities.
Celebrate the culture of others: Aside from celebrating your traditions and holidays, you can also observe that of other cultures. It’ll make the students feel loved and proud of their culture.

5. Be Smart and Organized in the Classroom

Students respect clever and organized teachers. They don’t just love academically bright teachers but also those who are innovative in all they do. You can’t gain your students’ trust if you can’t teach intelligibly.

You should be able to pass your lessons to your students so they will understand them. Students don’t just get drawn to a teacher because they are intelligent but because they are knowledgeable and curious about the world.
Show pride in yourself. Your desk as a teacher shouldn’t be scattered. You should dress smartly and beautifully. You’re a role model to your students, so act like one.
Don’t fail to give assignments. Also, after giving them, collect them and score them before passing them back to the students. If you’re not serious with your projects and tests, your students will not take you seriously.

6. Be Empathetic to Your Students

Everyone loves an attentive ear, but very few people know how to listen. Students go through many heartbreaks, trauma, family, identity, and other issues. They would appreciate a listening and empathetic teacher.

Tips on increasing your empathy in the classroom include:

Listen to them: Students can be open once they see a teacher who is willing to listen to them. When they are talking, put everything aside and listen. If possible, take them to a quiet location.

Be sincerely interested: You need to be sincerely interested in what they say. Your sincerity will reflect in your gestures and the things you say.
Show sympathy: You don’t have to be strict or always want to proffer solutions to their problems. Show compassion and comfort them instead of going straight to dishing out blame or offering solutions.
Try to understand the issues: There’s always a reason behind a student’s actions that may not seem evident from the outside. So, when they confide in you about doing something wrong. Try to understand why you can solve the problem from the root.

Find solutions together: In proffering solutions, let there be a joint agreement. Don’t just dish out answers; engage your students in making solutions.
Check up on them: Teachers fail at this sometimes. After talking to a student on a private matter, check up on their progress privately. It’ll help create a bond between you two.
Share your personal experiences: In being empathetic, you want to show your student that you genuinely understand. You can share your personal experience on the subject matter and how you handled it.

7. Be Trustworthy as a Person and a Teacher

Students love privacy. It gives them a feeling of security and dependence. A student will not only trust but will also feel attached to a teacher who can keep their secret, no matter how irrelevant it may seem.

To be trustworthy, here are some things you must do:

Keep their secret: You need to keep any matter students discuss with you a secret, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. They may talk to you about what they hate about themselves or their families. Please keep it to yourself.

Don’t taunt them: Never use their weaknesses against them. Try never to use what they tell you as a weapon to control them.
Keep your word: You shouldn’t be someone who says something and doesn’t do it. If your students notice you always say things but hardly ever do any, they lose interest in you and do not take your words seriously. You can’t build trust that way.
Be transparent: You shouldn’t lie to your students to cover up for your inadequacies. If you’re unsure about an answer, don’t give the wrong one. Instead, tell them you’ll get back to them with the answer.

Be truthful: You should always tell your students the truth as they come to you for advice. You shouldn’t cover up their irrational attitudes because you want to be sympathetic.
Correct them: Students trust teachers who correct them when they are wrong. They may not openly attest to it at first, but deep down, they know you’re right. However, respond to them fairly and calmly—so you don’t push them away.
Understand them: Teens lose trust in adults because kids this age feel adults don’t understand. That’s because adults judge teens from their mature standpoint. Learn the reasons why your students act the way they do.

Relate with students on their level: As a teacher, you have more experience than your students, so they can’t think and act like you. You must learn to relate with students and correct them at their level.

8. Be Firm but Fair (Set Boundaries and Enforce Infractions)

As much as you want to create a cordial relationship with your students, you must set boundaries. It’s best not to allow students to act in disruptive or unproductive ways around you.

Students respect a teacher who creates boundaries and stands by them.

Set rules in the class and enforce them. All students must abide by them, with no preferential treatment.
Be open to valid reasons why a student may not follow a rule.
Have a consequence for disobeying any regulations, and enforce it if it is justified.

Be a punctual teacher.
Be predictable and consistent in all you do and say. Your word should be your bond.

9. Be Inclusive

As a teacher, you need to identify students with special needs. Some may have learning challenges or physical disabilities. Some others may have something that keeps them isolated, while others constantly suffer bullying.

Here are ways to help students with special needs.

Draw them close: Give special attention to those with special needs. Become friends with them and draw them close. The closer they get, the more comfortable they’ll begin to feel. They’ll then trust you that way.
Encourage your student to come out of their shell: Once you become friends, you can get them to leave their boxes. Give them tasks that’ll bring them out and make them talk. Take it one step at a time.

Visit them: You can go the extra mile by paying visits to their homes on special occasions.
Call them: You can also put a call across to them from time to time, especially during the holidays. It makes the bond more substantial and more personal.
Encourage other students not to bully them: You should encourage a healthy relationship between your students. Teach them that bullying is wrong and they should respect their fellow students.

10. Be Trusting of Your Students

Despite what some teachers might believe—trust in the classroom is a two-way street. It would help if you also tried to trust your students. How do you do this?

Assign projects: You can group your students and give each group different projects. Be available to answer their questions, but allow them to do the tasks themselves.
Organize intellectual games competition: Games are a fun way of learning and building team spirit. It’s also great to show the students that you trust their academic abilities.

Make your expectations clear: Ensure you make your expectations for every project clear. Don’t accept anything less. It’ll make them put in more effort so they can prove themselves.
Encourage self-expression: Allow your students to express themselves and their talents. Make the lessons interactive and sometimes competitive. Doing so will keep them on their toes.

Sources

Wiley Online Library: Trust Between Teacher And Student In Academic Education At School