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!!!!

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???