Passion as it is about reason. It’s about
not only motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to learn, and
doing so in a manner that is relevant, meaningful, and memorable. It’s about
caring for your craft, having a passion for it, and conveying that passion to
everyone, most importantly to your students.
Substance and training students as consumers of
knowledge. It’s about doing your best to keep on top of your field,
reading sources, inside and outside of your areas of expertise, and being at
the leading edge as often as possible. But knowledge is not confined to
scholarly journals. Good teaching is also about bridging the gap between theory
and practice. It’s about leaving the ivory tower and immersing oneself in the
field, talking to, consulting with, and assisting practitioners, and liaising
with their communities.
Listening, questioning, being responsive, and
remembering that each student and class is different. It’s about eliciting
responses and developing the oral communication skills of the quiet students.
It’s about pushing students to excel; at the same time, it’s about being human,
respecting others, and being professional at all times.
FLEXIBLE not always having a fixed agenda and
being rigid, but being flexible, fluid, experimenting, and having the
confidence to react and adjust to changing circumstances. It’s about getting
only 10 percent of what you wanted to do in a class done and still feeling
good. It’s about deviating from the course syllabus or lecture schedule easily
when there is more and better learning elsewhere. Good teaching is about the
creative balance between being an authoritarian dictator on the one hand and a
pushover on the other. Good teachers migrate between these poles at all times,
depending on the circumstances. They know where they need to be and when.
Style should good teaching be entertaining? You
bet! Does this mean that it lacks in substance? Not a chance! Effective
teaching is not about being locked with both hands glued to a podium or having
your eyes fixated on a slide projector while you drone on. Good teachers work
the room and every student in it. They realize that they are conductors and the
class is their orchestra. All students play different instruments and at
varying proficiencies. A teacher’s job is to develop skills and make these
instruments come to life as a coherent whole to make music.
Humor this is very important. It’s about being
self-deprecating and not taking yourself too seriously. It’s often about making
innocuous jokes, mostly at your own expense, so that the ice breaks and
students learn in a more relaxed atmosphere where you, like them, are human
with your own share of faults and shortcomings.
Caring, nurturing, and developing minds and
talents. It’s about devoting time, often invisible, to every student. It’s also
about the thankless hours of grading, designing or redesigning courses, and
preparing materials to further enhance instruction.
Strong and visionary leadership, and very
tangible instructional support resources, personnel, and funds. Good teaching
is continually reinforced by an overarching vision that transcends the entire
organization from full professors to part-time instructors and is reflected in
what is said, but more importantly by what is done.
Mentoring between senior and junior faculty,
teamwork, and being recognized and promoted by one’s peers. Effective teaching
should also be rewarded, and poor teaching needs to be remediated through
training and development programs.
Having fun, experiencing pleasure and intrinsic
rewards…like locking eyes with a student in the back row and seeing the
synapses and neurons connecting, thoughts being formed, the person becoming
better, and a smile cracking across a face as learning all of a sudden happens.
It’s about the former student who says your course changed her life. It’s about
another telling you that your course was the best one he’s ever taken. Good
teachers practice their craft not for the money or because they have to, but
because they truly enjoy it and because they want to. Good teachers couldn't imagine doing anything else.
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