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  • Author Author: Sarribas
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What makes a great teacher?

Ready to go back school? Even the ones who left the school ages ago, September means a sort of an early "New Year", when a lot of us want to take up new courses to improve our professional skills; or learn something new that doesn't have anything to do with our profession... or just go back to the gym!

 

Also Teachers' Days celebrations are approaching so we were wondering: what skills make a great teacher? What abilities do you think a good teacher should have? Vote for the one you consider more important to comment below if we may have missed it!

 

Let us know your thoughts!

  • i vote others.

    understanding students.

    make them feel you care about them.

  • I believe the most important skill is conveying the knowledge to the recipient.  That's a heavily loaded statement because it implies understanding how the student learns best.  A great teacher can adjust their presentation style to get that "Ah! O-o-oh. Cool." moment from any student that wants to learn.

  • Create a safe learning environment with reasonable expectation and a defined process on how to achieve success.

    Sean

  • in reply to 14rhb

    Passion of the subject should apply to anything we do in life.

  • in reply to spraus

    It sounds laudable, and I'm sure I would have responded to it, but to my knowledge I've never had a teacher who took any interest in me, with the possible exception of a grade 8 math teacher who once made me take a special test to see if I was a math prodigy. (I probably wasn't as it was the only time she talked directly to me)

    It wasn't all their fault - I like to learn, but I could not be described as a diligent student when it came to assignments.

  • in reply to spraus

      wrote:

     

    I personally feel the most important thing about being a teacher is being able to not just be understanding but identifying your students strengths and weaknesses and putting themselves in their position.

    Here's a great example of what not to do.  According to legend, the mathematician Kenneth Iverson -- best know for co-creating APL (A Programming Language) -- was doing a proof for a class and said "and it is obvious that..."  A student raised his hand and said: "Excuse me, Dr. Iverson, but that's not obvious to me."  Iverson replied: "Well, it is to me" and continued his lecture.

  • I personally feel the most important thing about being a teacher is being able to not just be understanding but identifying your students strengths and weaknesses and putting themselves in their position. As many know and agree everyone learns in a different way, now im not just talking kinetic or linguistic but I mean the ability for someone to pickup things in the act or be self motivated.
    The best teachers I have ever had in any subject have been able to identify these traits in myself and other students resulting in slightly different methods of conveying their point in all positions. In the case of my entry level Physics teacher in college, he realized for myself (whom had a large interest in Optical Physics) he could spark my interest in acoustics by asking me to do some side research into optical destabilization through multiple mediums including air. This caused me to look into how it would be able to relate to the density of air and different waveforms due to acoustics.

     

    In summary... I do not believe there is just 1 correct teacher but there may be 1 correct teacher / style for a student... A great teacher must be versatile and able to adapt to any student.

  • Showmanship

     

    This includes enthusiasm for the subject and a sense of humor.  The best teachers I remember had great showmanship and deliberately set up lectures so that you'd want to be there because it was fun as well as educational.

     

    The best teacher I ever had was the late Henry Guckel at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  He taught semiconductor physics and design, and founded the IC fabrication lab using surplus equipment donated from industry.  He gave frequent tours of the lab, a good opportunity to show off his wicked sense of humor and his Goldfinger-like German accent:

    We use two kinds of poison gas to dope semiconductors.  One of them will kill you in five seconds, the other one instantaneously.  So come around to the lab some time... we are always looking for volunteers to help us change the poison gas flasks.

  • Gotta believe that you are making a difference and sharing knowledge with those with similar goals with the same passion as those learning from you.