What makes a good teacher???

I think this a question which has been bothering people for a long time , even for those who are not in the teaching profession. And it is a question which has no quick easy answers. Inspite of the progress which has been made in pedagogy and training of teachers, we still believe that good teaching still more of an art.

I read a very good article written by Malcom Gladwell of the tipping point and blink repute on teaching. The article came in his column in the new yorker, and for the follow-up comments by the author one can also visit his regular blog. The title of the article is "Most Likely to Succeed". In the article gladwell draws an analogy between the selection of a football player with that of selecting a teacher. I will highlight a few points of the article which I found interesting and for people more interested can access his whole article, link.

In the article he emphasises that trying to identify people with the potential of becoming good teachers may be the most important thing, but the problem with this is the fact is that no one knows what to look for. And studies have shown that a good teacher can influence teaching more than a good school. And he goes on further to share the findings that good teaching or rather ingredients of a what makes a teacher good is far too complex to be listed and identified before hand. The solution is maybe to try out teachers before letting them start full time teaching.

Though the context of the paper is school teaching , but I think the implications are there for teaching at all levels. The article essentially brings out the points which every one has wounder ed about at some point or the other. And anyway the question is still unanswered, but the message seems to be that good teaching is some thing which is ingrained in a person so one has to to identify people with those traits. Infact one of our senior professors here was recalling his early teaching days in a university where they would confirm a lecturer after two years and he said it would be clear within two years if one could teach or not!!!!

Teaching as 'Give and Take' and Similarly with Sales Profession ....

Typically when one thinks about teaching it is seen more as a process of giving , usually 'gyan' being transferred from the teacher to the students. Though the case method would be different with the emphasis more on student to student transfer of knowledge...

But coming back to the older paradigm , I have felt that even in a typical lecture it is a two process. Two way in the sense that the participation level of students in the class both in terms of prior preparation as well as receptivity of the participants would influence the delivery. Participation need not necessarily be only verbal, it can be non-verbal cues that a teacher is looking for when he is teaching.

Though one factor which would influence the students willingness to participate in the class would be the rapport which the teacher has with the students..... 

I teach Sales Management , and feel that teaching and sales management are also closely related, one parallel would the fact that both of them sell for a living, as a teacher you are selling your course or yourself as a teacher, but other thing in common is that in both sales as well as teaching results are known immediately. As a salesman one need not be told through a review process whether he has done well, at the end of the day he would know on his own. Similarly a teacher would most of the times know how he has done in the class by the time it ends, though formal feedback system does help....

Most Difficult Job for a Teacher???

If one were to ask an instructor which is the most difficult part of his job...It would involve things like class control (especially for a new instructor), time management, preparation, mental effort and so on....

But I personally feel that the most difficult part of the job is evaluation, and when I am saying evaluation in mean not the physical aspect of checking and grading, but the mental aspect where you actually have to rank you students and say that one is better than the other. Maybe for some people the job might be easy, but for an average person this part is the one which would make him uncomfortable. This discomfort would increase with as the familiarity and time you have spent with the students increases, because then you have to be doubly sure that none of your biases are creeping in …. 

Maybe a quanty Prof might have an easier job evaluating  .....

Inspiring Others

It is a sort of continuation of my previous post on the ability of a teacher to influence . Most of us who watched the "Last Lecture" on youtube and or read his book would acknowledge the influence that Prof Randy Pausch has had on many of us.

I first heard about his last lecture through the a newspaper article written in the local newspaper where it said that a lecture by an unknown Prof was getting viewed times on the youtube. Yes, it is true that two years back he was a unknown Professor, but today through his lecture he has touched so many people across the world that .................

Unfortunately he lost his battle with cancer on the 25th of July. New links

But then he would go on to live through his last lecture and the influence he has had on so many of us..........

I don't know if one were given a choice of living two years in which one is able to influence the lives of so many versus staying on and living till 80 years ...........

Are Teachers Powerful ?

I for one have felt that we as teachers are very powerful, I have not qualified the word powerful but want to believe it is powerful in the positive sense, in our ability to influence the life of the students we teach. Most of us would be able to relate to this positive power of a teacher, more so in the early days of our schooling , at the school level ..........

This power has implications for a teacher, as it is a sort of double edged sword. It is because of the fact that students most of the times would put a lot of faith on our judgment and ability to evaluate, and even a stray remark from a teacher can lead to a lasting impression on the student.

To see how a teacher can positively influence a student I would recommend two movies for everyone aspiring to become a good teacher . One which I watched today is based on a true story " Freedom Writers" . The movie is about a new teacher who inspires her class to move beyond their differences based on races and learn to apply themselves, inspire them to pursue education beyond school.... There is a foundation which has been set so that the experince could be replicated, the Freedom writers foundation. It is worth a visit..

Another movie which inspired me was "pay it forward" (Was recommended by my friend with its linkage for a teacher). Though this movie is a work of fiction but still I could see that there were many take-aways for a teacher...........

Knowing When to Stop

Many a times while teaching I have felt that one needs to know when the class has totally switched off and its a time to give the class a break. This happens more when you have either longer sessions or continuous sessions. Though one might have a urge to go on with his teaching and finish his quota of content , but then one needs to revisit the basic goal of why you are teaching, which is not just to finish the teaching for the day but also see that students learn...

There is a lot of theory on the sapn of attention which students can have and there are varying estimates from 40-60mins. Then it would also be a factor of what you are teaching , who is teaching and what pedagogical tool are you using. In a monotonous lecture the span of attention might be lower than when you are using discussion based methods like case method of teaching.

But even then if one finds that the receptivity of the class has gone dramatically in the last few minutes, and you still have a long way to go , it would always be better to give a small break and then go on with the teaching. This would make the teaching and learning both easier...

Maybe knowing when to break, could come with experince or at times with experience one might even become more immune to the receptivity of the class to your teaching???

The virtuous cycle of teaching and enjoyment

When i thought of a blog on teaching, motivation was more of consolidating my own thoughts on many issues which I would think about while teaching. And many a times this thinking is fueled by comments which come from my interaction with people who have been teaching for a long period.

One such instance was a few days back when one of our senior Prof said " One should enjoy his teaching, and his or her students should enjoy the teaching , and this is what makes a teacher enjoy teaching". Which essentially meant that to enjoy teaching (from a teachers perspective) his or her students should enjoy what is being taught............

The context in which the statement was made was the amount of preparation which is needed before a class. With increasing teaching load one tends to make zero or very small incremental preparation for his classes and in the class he goes and reproduces what he told last time , in the process the teacher himself losses interest in what he is teaching and the students also stop enjoying and thus the vicious cycle kicks in .......

It is essential that one is able to prevent stagnation and maintain freshness in classes to prevent loss of interest ....both his own and as well as his students

Time Management While Teaching

When one starts to teach one of the basic worries would be if the material he has with him is sufficient for the duration of the class. The question of how content to be delivered would be driven by the two conflicts objectives, one is to have enough to last the duration of the class (the worst situation most beginners would dread would be that you are thru with your content and you still have a good half an hour to go...) and second to see that you are not overloading the class with too much of content....the choice of the "how much" is very important and so is what to emphasize .

I time management is a skill which one develops as he gains experince by teaching more, though as a beginner what one cannot afford to do less is PLAN. I have know teachers who plan their lectures minute by minute, even the jokes which they use would be prepared in advance....Even though that level of planning might lead to a certain amount of monotony in the lecture , but it is a small price to be paid for a beginner...

At the other end most of us who have been teaching would also have experienced situations wherein one would lose track of time, and suddenly you find that half an hour has gone.......

One of my senior colleagues who has many years of teaching experince gave me a very beautiful analogy when he compared teaching to meditation , he said when you are fully involved in any activity and focusing only on it, it is equivalent to meditating , I guess that is what happens when one looses track of time while teaching .....

From a presenter to a teacher

Most of us, who are new to the profession assume that teaching is equivalent to making a good presentation. This is further reinforced by the ppt culture wherein we end up putting everything we want to speak on a ppt. But teaching is much much more than making a good presentation, though it might be a necessary condition but not a sufficient one . Difference are many but some of them which I found to important as a teacher one of the most important skill is that of listening to your students, asking questions to make them think in the classroom and responding to their questions. Developing these qualities take time and normally not very critical in making a presentation but are vital for a good teacher. The transition from a good presenter to being a good teacher is a gradual one which takes time.

A presenter can afford to be very structured and calculative , a teacher has to be more slow , repeating issues and emphasizing concepts, not because students will not be able to absorb in one go, but because repetition reinforces the message. The transition from a presenter to a teacher also need the confidence of the teacher to increase, I mean to be a good teacher one has to be more confident than being a good presenter. And the transition time also takes into account the time to build the requires competence in the area which he is teaching.


One of our senior professors here told me that it takes only two years to tell whether a person can teach or not , maybe i think it is essential to make the transition from a presenter to a teacher early enough, though I believe it is getting hampered by the ppt culture , versus the good old days of blackboard teaching....

Should a teacher ever get angry?

In my opinion that as a teacher one carries more responsibility than most of us realize. The word and conduct of a teacher can and will influence the morale and confidence of students. And as a teacher one has to be very careful when he comments or gives his opinion on anything related to the student could be his work, his abilities, his behavior because the student when he listens to him doesn’t take the comment as being given by an individual (Mr XYZ) in his individual capacity but sees it as a judgment by the teacher on his student.

The problem with getting angry while teaching is that one usually doesn’t think much when he is angry so what is says may not be totally thought through and could have adverse impact on students. He would end up losing the focus of teaching and would take time to refocus. And the major issue I feel is that in the process of getting angry with one student the teacher also makes the remaining students uncomfortable and thus loss of focus on the part of the students as well.

So all in all as teacher one has to avoid getting angry, though this should not leading to a chaotic situation in the class. So he has to be on the thin line of controlling the class and not loosing his temper.....