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Aristotle aptly described teaching as the highest form of understanding. It may be easy to get into the profession of teaching, but being a good teacher is not easy. Normally, it takes a long time to acquire the characteristics of a good teacher. Sadly, experience does not make everyone a great teacher. However, it is important for everyone in the teaching profession to try to excel, as civilization could not sustain itself in an absence of good teachers.
Great teaching demands many things from professional educators including subject knowledge, caring attitudes, classroom techniques, commitment, and desire to make a difference in the lives of young people. No wonder it is hard to find great teachers.
Here are some characteristics of great teachers:
Clear Objectives
Good teachers are well organized and have clear ideas about their daily teaching plans, assignments, and grading policies. Their structured lessons and assignments offer many opportunities for students to learn new skills.
Command over Subject
Those seeking excellence in teaching continue to gain additional knowledge of their subjects and instill this desire in their students, too.
Great Expectations
Without holding a grudge against underperformers, good teachers always push their students to strive for their goals. They will always motivate them to trust their own abilities, take chances, and experiment with different approaches.
Wider and Deeper Views
By asking wide-ranging questions, good teachers implore their students to probe things further, analyze matters more critically, and look beyond the obvious. It is an achievement for teachers if they can instill in their students the habit of finding solutions for
themselves.
Care and Concern
Great teachers are accessible to their students even outside of their classrooms and after school. Their concern for their students is not confined to their own subjects but extends to the extracurricular activities in which their students are involved as well. Their good communication with students and parents helps them understand students' concerns and insecurities. For good teachers, teaching is not much different from parenting.
Positive Attitude
Instead of complaining about students' lack of abilities and manners and teachers' long work hours, good teachers accept all of these as challenges. They know that humiliating students or intimidating them is not in their students'—or their—best interests.
Parental Firmness
Excellent teachers don't allow excessive leniency to affect their work. Tough assignments are necessary to bring students out of their comfort zones.
Student Evaluations
Student assessments help good teachers evaluate their contributions to students' progresses and improve.
Objectivity
For great teachers, all students are equal. They maintain consistent behaviors and distance themselves from partiality.
Everyone knows that it is difficult to define and practice good teaching, but at the same time, we must realize that no society can progress without it.