By definition, a classroom is the place where learners meet to study the same subject. A teacher takes a leadership responsibility for leading debates and getting students involved in the learning of taught subject, and controls this environment. Nowadays, the role of the professor in the US classroom environment has been overturned. Students are permitted to take the leadership responsibility in leading and creating discussions. Just as responsibilities of the students and teachers have advanced in the classroom over years, so have the relationships between international students learning in the US and their professors. Many years ago, as we have heard and read, student-teacher relationships were quite formal and unfriendly, with the professor's judgement recognized. This difference occurs because everyone has got a different character and background. Therefore, it is rather difficult to articulate how a professor should relate to and communicate with a foreign student in the US or vice versa. However, student-teacher relationship ought to be professional, yet not so authoritative that students will fear to approach it. Student-teacher relationship should be formal, yet it has to remain inviting. Modern teacher-student relationship is certainly not disapproving, and it consents the teacher on his or her part to take time to understand the student (Jeffrey, 2000).
Student-teacher relationship in the US has been formal but well-intentioned. Being formal is to be polite and to follow the stated rules of the school or college. This does not comprise authoritarian behaviours and strict fashions that once were utilized as the model of education. Nowadays, there is mutual understanding of what is required from students or the teacher in order to finish the course successfully. Ms. Gillman, a mathematics teacher who taught the class once, was an excellent model of who the professor should be. She laid down rules to be trailed by her students, and encouraged learners to share those standards with others. Additionally, she was prepared to understand those who were ready to put in time and find out what she actually needed, whether it was for term papers or projects. Therefore, this is the kind of professors who make a change on students; who carry on talking about them even after their graduation and after years have passed (Jeffrey, 2000).
