An often thankless task (What qualities make an excellent teacher?)

Member Name: freediveheaven

Product:	What qualities make an excellent teacher?
Date:	17/10/06 (2587 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyment of working with children

Disadvantages: The sheer workload.

Recently I have spent some time observing various teachers so this category is an excellent one for me to record some of my thoughts about what makes an excellent teacher. In fact it almost reads like a top ten given the things that I have identified.

Opening Activity

Common to all of the teachers that I observed was the fact that every lesson started with some form of task to ensure that all students were engaged in the lesson from the outset. These activities varied in type and style, some reflected the learning from previous lessons in the form of a word search, some were general activities not related to the lesson e.g. a countdown style number exercise, and in some cases amongst older age groups it involved a general discussion. These activities had clear benefits with regards to focusing student’s attention and aiding their learning.

Variety of Activities

The amount of variety in a lesson was also key to aid learning and many teachers and students enjoyed the fact that the number and variety of activities in the lesson helped them work at their own pace. For the teachers I spoke to this also helped them differentiate the learning depending on the student’s ability.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm for, and a clear enjoyment of teaching was another factor that all teachers shared and it was this obvious enjoyment of working with children that helped drive the learning of students. In particular one teacher that I observed and spoke to afterwards readily agreed that all of his lessons were personality driven creating an atmosphere of fun that allowed him to get across the learning requirements of the lessons and maintain student’s concentration.


Classroom Management

Having a clear protocol with regards to classroom management was also evident in all effective teachers’ classes and in particular those I observed delivered by the two NQT teachers. The importance of being consistent at all times with regards to entry into the classroom, the answering of questions and the need for students to show respect to each other and the teacher were very much a part of this. The most profound example of this was witnessing the conduct of a class who I last observed nine months ago when they were completely out of control however the transformation since then has been significant and was attributed in part to the setting and enforcement of clear guidelines to aid learning.

Praise

The use of praise in a number of forms was a consistent feature of the most effective lessons I observed, in some where the confidence of the pupils were low or the class were quite young then the praise was frequent and in front of the whole class whilst with some older students it was much more on a one to one basis. There was also the use of formal structures such as the use of stickers and stamps in work books that proved popular with most students.

Focus on Examination Criteria

Many teachers that I spoke to emphasised the need to relate the students learning back to the requirements of the examining board and to do this they all felt the need to have a good understanding of what the examination board were looking for with their questions. The use of practice papers throughout the course was a common practice and I observed a number of occasions when during the lesson the learning was put into the context of what would be required in an examination e.g. the use of correct terminology and definitions within a GCSE Business Studies exam.




Planning and Personal Organisation

Planning and personal organisation were also in evidence during my time at the school and especially with the two NQT teachers who relied a lot on the ability to time manage their day to allow for the planning of lessons to ensure that their time in front of students was used to the best effect.

Ongoing Assessment

All of the teachers used some form of assessment during their lessons to check understanding and to ensure that the learning was being taken on board. Some times this would be captured in the lessons plenary whilst on other occasions they would circulate while the students were engaged in a task and ask questions of individual pupils and monitor the quality of work that they were doing. The use of open questioning techniques during the lesson was also a common practice to use.

Positive Attitude

Within the classroom teachers always displayed a positive attitude and focused on the positive achievements of the students and did not dwell on any negative behaviour or activities once the issue had been addressed. This positive attitude helped to create confidence within the students and a sense of pride in their achievements which made the learning process more enjoyable and rewarding.

Reflective Approach

The majority of the teachers I observed adopted a very reflective approach to their own teaching, after the lessons each was normally able to identify something that went well and also an area that they would focus on or change the next time they taught the class or particular lesson. Allied to this was a desire to learn from others which was reflected in the schools culture around the development of its staff which had a very clear structure to it and was given a high priority by both senior management and faculty heads.


These are by no means a complete list they are just some of the things that I have observed whilst spending time in schools.

Thanks for reading and rating my review.

Summary: Ideas on what makes a good teacher.