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Quest
Mark of a good teacher
P.Raghu Nandan
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Good teachers can bring out the best in every student. They can relate to their pupils and do not find the need to label them "irresponsible", "talkative" or "mischievous". These are teachers who make a difference in the lives of their students.
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All of us will remember a teacher we consider great. Some may be termed as being "good" teachers; and a small percentage may be great teachers. It is possible that we may have learnt under great teachers. What are the attributes that go into making a great teacher? The list may not be complete, nor is it based on formal research. But will hopefully form the basis of further discussion. .
Emotional Attributes
It is teaching that is considered important; money is secondary. It is a non-tangible benefit. This motivates him to spend hours preparing for a class. At the end of his career he counts his success by the success of his students.
Empathy and Patience: He has an unlimited supply of empathy. He understands the need of the student and acts accordingly.
Humility: A great teacher is a constant learner. To say "I don't know" takes courage and humility from the teacher.
Overall Attributes
Passion for the subject: She has a deep passion for the subject she handles, whether it is nursery rhymes in kindergarten or biology in middle school.
Encourage ability to think: This means that she encourages in students the ability to analyse and think. She acknowledges that the students have the ability to comprehend, question and analyse.
Self-statement: The emphasis is on the students understanding, encouraging self-statement, along with the ability to question, think and analyse, improving the student's thoroughness of the subject. Ordinary teachers look for the right answers, great teachers encourage thinking skills.
Tells a great story: Subjects taught by great teachers seem to have a story-like quality to them. They rarely need to use discipline to keep the class under control. Mr. Thomas was an experienced professor. He never took attendance and gave everybody the same grade at the end of the term. Yet every class of his would have a 100 per cent attendance and several students wanted to specialise in his subject. Mr. Vasan, taught geography. He taught them for three years. At the end of it several boys were considering majoring in it.
Side lanes: The "side lanes" and "by-lanes" in the lesson become just as important and he will freely traverse these roads. Mrs. Nath, a primary teacher did a lesson on Dasara Festival in Mysore for her Standard II students. After the class, the youngsters wanted to know where Mysore was. So in the next class she brought a map. The youngsters then wanted to know more about other festivals in India. This led to a term of learning. The children set the pace; she motivated them.
Scheme to motivate: Great teachers scheme to motivate their students to perform. One middle-aged man remembered his maths teacher; Mr. Sampthhad a "scheme" that those who got more than 90 per cent in the tests need not do their homework the following week. To ensure he got his 90 per cent his students had to work hard.
Develops me as a person: This is best summarised by these words of Swami Vivekananda: "The end of all education, all training, should be man-making. Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making, assimilation of ideas."
Facilities: You need a teacher and a student for teaching to take place. Even the shade of a tree is a good enough place for it to happen. Everything else is a facility.
Technical Attributes:
Mastery over the language A great teacher has a clear knowledge and understanding of the nuances of the language being used. The teacher is attempting to explain concepts and abstract thought in terms that the student can understand.
Systematic Thinking: The teacher's skill lies not in his possession of knowledge alone, but in translating them for his student's assimilation.
Subject Knowledge: In a progressive subject, where one lesson leads to the next, the teacher is ahead of his students. These two points though seem obvious have been found to be present to a greater degree among great teachers.
This happens because of her involvement with the subject. If you are a teacher, who is to judge whether you are a great teacher or not?
Mirror yourself and see how you fare compared to the great teacher who taught you and made a difference in your life. See if you can make that difference.
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