These are the qualities of a great teacher
In late March, Bill Humbert, former band teacher at Chandler High School in Glendale, Arizona, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. When former students heard of the diagnosis, they quickly established a GoFundMe.com account, which has raised more than $15,000 to pay for the Humbert’s accumulating medical bills.
When asked about the reasons for their actions, former students said they were happy to help a man who had played such an important role in their lives as a high school teacher.
“He’s the one that taught you those life lessons, and those things you look back on and say I am using that now,” said Kit Kough, a former student to Fox 10 News in Phoenix.
But that’s not the only thing that makes teachers like Humbert so great.
According to author and historian Ken Bain, great teachers aren’t defined by what they do, but by their ability to “understand their discipline” and connect with their students.
“(Great teachers) understand the history of their discipline and know that everything that they believe can be questioned,” he said. “They are accomplished scholars, artists and scientists. They know how to simplify and clarify complex subjects. They may not have studied human learning but they grasp important insights into how human beings learn and how to foster that learning through practice.”
Over the course of a 15-year study, Bain analyzed the teaching techniques and efforts of nearly 100 college teachers nationwide. The results of his study were published in his book “What the Best College Teachers Do.”
Last week, in an interview with NPR, Bain shared some of the qualities he’d noticed that every great college teacher possessed. Although Bain’s study focused specifically on college teachers, the implications of his research can be applied to a teacher at any grade level.
“The best teachers…treat their lectures and discussions as serious intellectual endeavors,” he said. “The best teachers also think about how they’re going to give students feedback. This involves some basic questions: What do I want my students to do intellectually as a result of taking my class? How can I help them?”
Beside the ability to make complex subjects simple to students, Bain noted that all great teachers he studied went to each class prepared with specific goals and standards for student performance.
Moreover, Bain said the difference between an average teacher and a great one was the ability to create an “environment in which students believe their work will be considered fairly and honestly.”
“The best teachers allow students to try, to fail and try again. They allow students to collaborate with one another in tackling the most intriguing problems,” he said. “They treat their students with decency and respect, no matter how much a student is struggling.”
But great teachers should understand that their efforts will only take a student so far. Rather than forcing a student to learn, great teachers serve as a coach or a guide, he said, helping to cultivate their desire to learn.“A good teacher is there to inspire and guide the individual but ultimately to help them work on their own and take personal responsibility for their learning.”
