What is a good teaching ?

What is Good Teaching?
We teachers can only help the work going on, as servants wait upon a master.
— Maria Montessori

Consequently, a good teacher may be said to help learners develop their mental capacity to produce new knowledge through their own investigation and critically evaluate what they have produced. But how will a teacher accomplish such a task? In this age of information technology, lectures can be videotaped, downloaded on demand through computers and made easily available to students, along with the lecture transcripts, additional explanatory notes, and other readings. If so, do students need to attend lectures and tutorials? In fact, are university lecturers necessary?

However, unlike a video-tape,

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a teacher can answer your individual questions.
If you haven't understood something, you can ask a teacher to explain again. A good teacher enables students to seek clarification during class and through channels such as email and notes in the mail box.
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a teacher asks questions and directs students' thinking.
A good teacher often asks questions in class to find out what students already know, so that he or she can pitch the discussion at the right level. The teacher's questions will also encourage students to think through problems.
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a teacher invites students to challenge him/her.
Stimulated by students who contest what they are taught, a good teacher encourages students to challenge him/her, so that both teacher and students learn from the exchange.
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a teacher facilitates group discussions among students in class.
A good teacher often promotes group activities for students to learn through the exchange of views.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
— Albert Einstein

Thus a teacher-in-person engages in a form of teaching that allows students to interact with one another and with the teacher, cultivates students' thinking abilities, and thereby promotes independent learning. By empowering students to learn on their own, good teachers make themselves redundant as quickly as possible. By arousing students' intellectual curiosity and openness of mind and making learning exciting and pleasurable, they thereby prompt life-long learning.

However, no single teacher is likely to be equally strong in all of these characteristics of a good teacher. Some teachers excel in enhancing critical thinking, others communicate complex ideas well in clear and simple ways, and yet others are exceptional in making learning a joy. Therefore, the greater the number of desirable qualities and the greater the strength of each of them, the better the quality of teaching.

Adapted : http://www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/ufm/orient/226_c.htm

How to be an inspirational teacher

This article will show that any teacher can be inspirational. Inspiration, by definition means: The action or power of moving the intellect or emotions.


Steps :

1. Have Empathy.
Probably the greatest quality a teacher can have. Creating empathy is about bonding with your students. Cry with them, laugh with them. Try to be on their wavelength. Get to know their emotions and understand their feelings. Young people are easily stressed and sometimes under great pressure, but all you might see is anger, aggression, bad attitude or impatience. At this time you need to be compassionate and understand some bad stuff is going on in their lives. Search for the real person underneath and when you find them they will open up to you.


2. Develop a Positive Mental Attitude.

Teachers are human like anyone else; however, the stresses of working with young people especially those with attitudinal and behavioural problems can sometimes be immense. This is the time you need to be strong. To keep a smile on your face when things get tough. To see the bright side of things. To seek to find the positive in every negative situation. To be philosophical. Why? Because your attitude is contagious. You have the choice to bring a light into your classroom or cast a shadow.

3. 'Grow' your Verbal Skills.

Every great teacher is a great orator. If you can keep your students focused and interested just by talking to them then you are doing a great job. When was the last time you spoke about something and you could hear a pin drop? 'Just talking to them' means using passion, emotion, great eye contact, animated body language, voice modulation and feeling. Talk with conviction. Believe in what you say. Take your students on a wonderful journey every day.

4. Show Respect.

Respect every human being that is in your classroom. Talk to them like you would talk to your closest friends. No one is more important in this world than anyone else. A great inspirational teacher is a human being who respects everyone no matter their attitude, colour, religion, creed or country. Every one of your students has a place on this earth. You can help them make a positive impact on it too. You have the power to change their lives. The Law of Reciprocity (you reap what you sow) will ensure that the respect you give out will come back to you a hundredfold.


5. Remember that your students are Individuals.

Know your students inside and out. Do not pick on reward/punishment for all students, because they are all different individuals. Talk to your students and be involved in their lives. Use different teaching styles and strategies within the classroom, because everyone learns differently. Have options for big projects or presentations within your class. Most importantly, let your students be creative, do not limit them. Also, do not judge them. Do not have your own thoughts about them before they walk in your room, or after they leave. Look for the deeper meaning behind actions, instead of getting angry or upset.

6. Know that teaching is a noble profession.

The day a teacher realizes that they have been given a great gift - the power to change lives, is the day an inspirational teacher is born. You have a choice either to believe you are a mediocre teacher teaching a boring subject to boring kids. Or, a human being helping other human beings to realize their full potential and go on and make a positive difference in their world. Your beliefs create your world.

Source : http://www.wikihow.com/Be-an-Inspirational-Teacher

Am I a good teacher ? An inspirational one ? Urmmm....


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