DP Blog #4. What makes a great teacher?

Abstract: In my group work for development we are looking into Save the Children and their education programs. In preparation for my research I revisited Blackwell’s Philosophy of Education, “In this important survey, an international group of leading philosophers chart the development of philosophy of education in the twentieth century and point to significant questions for its future.” Education is the tool that mobilizes development. It allows individuals to move forward, the create innovative paths to development both personal and in the community. This blog entry is in response to a class discussion we had on our teachers and What makes a great teacher? This blog is not in relation to my previous blog where I am investigated the failure of national indicators and assessment of an indicator that accurately accesses a nation.

A great teacher is one that is kind, caring and insightful that drives them to be academically and morally attentive.

There are no strict guidelines for what personal qualities a teacher must possess in order to be a good teacher. Each student is different, each student’s personal attributes must be accounted for in order for a teacher to further their individual learning process. The personal qualities a teacher must possess that I view as crucial may be bias to my personal educational career and what I found necessary in order for me to learn, however, I do believe that all teachers must have an academic and moral devotion that will give them the ability to successfully teach. A teacher must take the time to reflect and be insightful to both the curriculum and the students who are receiving it. A teacher must be creative and intuitive to the learners needs. The teacher must have charisma and creativity so that they may produce a dynamic learning environment for the student. A teacher must teach the material in a variety of ways so that it will be accessible to the variety of learners. A good teacher is one that assumes and fully commits themselves to their responsibility to the student. The teacher must have both an intellectual and moral attentiveness to their students. “Educational ends are neither, clear, fixed, unitary nor evaluatively straightforward, and are not achieved (primarily) through technical means/ end processes which can be mastered through scientific or technical knowledge and skill.”(360) A teacher who is to master the profession is one who lives the profession in all areas of their lives; a good teacher is also a good student.

David Hansen in his article Understanding Students , writes that a teacher must be reflective to both the curriculum and the student. A good teacher must work with the student to learn the curriculum and then guide the student to formulate his or her own conclusions. A good teacher does not work within a 9-5 framework but instead is constantly working and learning so that they are better equipped to coach and lecture the student. Hansen suggest that teachers are to acquire a “intellectual attentiveness helps orient teachers’ moral sensibilities.” (355) My teacher’s stability and commitment to my learning fostered and encouraged my academic self. I was able to achieve academic success from the variety of teachers that possessed reflective insight into my educational needs. Through my teacher’s own reflective accord teacher’s sought out to foster my moral self first and foremost that consequently led me to becoming more intellectually attentive. Nel Noddings proposal is that “schools and teaching be redesigned so that caring has a chance to be initiated in the one caring and the completed in the cared for.” (376) A teacher must care for the student. If a teacher is to combine the reflective insight that McLaughlin attest with Hansen’s intellectual and moral attentiveness you have the means of becoming a good teacher. If a teacher is to embrace Nodding’s testimony for a care and love then you will have a great teacher, a teacher that has all the personal qualities to be a great teacher.

Terence McLaughlin’s Beyond the Reflective Teacher, he writes that a teacher must love what they are teaching, by loving the subject matter their enthusiasm will demand respect from the students and encourage curiosity. A “teacher must have knowledge and understanding of wide ranging sorts, the ability in the light of that knowledge and understanding to make rational practical judgments about what to do in particular circumstances, skills to carry out what is decided and dispositions (motives and tendencies) to actually do what is judged appropriate.”(359) A teacher must employ a wide range of interpersonal skills so that they may to their best of their ability portray the academics in an accessible manner. A teacher must never stop learning and reflecting, they must constantly work towards enticing children to learn and grasp academics. A teacher’s enthusiasm is contagious to the learner and will make teaching natural instead of forced. “Artistry is an exercise of intelligence and a kind of knowing, revealed in arts such as problem framing, implementation and improvisation.”(361) A teacher is to be creative and must set no limits on what is to be learned and should instead work with their classroom to develop a curriculum that further educates to moral and academic student.

Nel Noddings, The One–Caring as Teacher, he writes about the need for a teacher to be caring and kind. These qualities are often over looked but are so very important to becoming a great teacher. A teacher encourages the student to look inward, to create their own questions and then seek out the answers. A teacher will then recognize her students as an “ethical agent, will make his own selection from the presented possibilities and so, in a very important sense, she is prepared to put her motive energy in the service of his projects.”(373) Nel Nodding asserts caring in his article, which is paralleled to Hansen’s moral attentiveness. “The special gift of the teacher, then, is to receive the student, to look at the subject matter with him. Her commitment is to him, the cared for, and he is- through that commitment-set free to pursue his legitimate projects.”(373) If a teacher is caring in demeanor it creates a safe environment for the children to learn. There are no “distinctive aims of teaching…distinguish the work from other social endeavors such as doctoring, parenting, counseling, and nursing. Such aims characterize teaching as a unique practice with its own recognizable activities and obligations.”(351) Teaching is one of the only professions that must employ a wide range of personal attributes and pedagogy in order to be successful. To receive the student in a kind and caring manner is being morally attentive and then by working through questions and answers with the student the teacher is academically attentive to the students learning of logic and reason. “so that they may more successfully employ Hansen’s moral and intellectual attentiveness.

Hansen states that there are a wide variety of human dimensions that a teacher must be insightful and reflective into in order to be a great teacher. Academics are the foundation for a learned self but it is the moral attentiveness of the teacher that educates the student in a more humanitarian way. David Hansen states that to understand one’s students, you need not get to know each student intimately. Instead the teacher is to carry themselves in a manner that is accessible to the student and allows the student to feel comfortable to question the material and reflect on their own understanding. A teacher is to master the academics in order to be intellectually attentive. A teacher must also recognize and embrace the moral ideology undertones of the academics and work to illustrate an accurate portrayal of the curriculum. A teacher must never stop learning about themselves and growing as a person in order to encourage such in their students. A morally strong teacher is able to be more attentive to the learning process.

Hansen warns teachers that they present some humility to their love of the material so that they do not inject their own beliefs onto the student but instead is attentive to the child and their learning process and helps guide them to their own conclusions. “The process is intellectual because it presumes the teacher’s familiarity with the subject, including its logic and structure. It presupposes a sense of the values that inhere in subject matter.”(353) They are to offer the facts and then with the student look into the material and allow the child to interrupt and formulate their own opinions and understandings. Beyond the academics there is a greater sense of duty of the teacher and that is the moral attentiveness. “they presuppose that a person’s life will be better rather than worse for learning the kinds of things teachers are charged with teaching: for example, thoughtful reading, writing, numerating, thinking, and problem solving.”(353) A teacher is to set an example for what is means to be a good citizen; they need to embody a humanitarian worldview. The teacher heartens students to accept diversity and questions injustice, “being intellectually attentive to students presumes a certain moral tenacity on the part of the teacher, which translates into not giving up on or prejudging young people.”(354) When a teacher leaves their biases and stereotypes at the door they serve as an example for a civil citizen. A teacher’s patience, respectfulness and humility transcend in their lessons and indirectly submerge the student into ideals of humanity. “Intellectual attentiveness draws on teachers’ knowledge of subject matter, including knowledge of its logic and structure as well as its relevant facts, and knowledge of psychology, culture, cognition, emotional development, and more…Moral attentiveness is perhaps even more demanding because it involves pondering and treating students in a larger frame of individuality than the intellectual.”(355) A good teacher must embrace and live as a moral human being, by leading such a lifestyle they are then more able to successfully teach the academics at hand and indirectly teach the student to be morally attentive.

A good teacher is determined in the eyes of the learner, what works for some students may not work for others. A good teacher must employ a wide range of personal qualities in order to be successful. First and foremost they are to be kind and caring moral human beings as noted by Noddings. They may be the only role model the student has and must work extra hard to serve as a strong example of a citizen. A teacher has no choice but to employ McLaughlin’s reflective skills and leave their worries and concerns at the door and provide a happy, safe, insightful learning environment. When a teacher is caring and reflective is creates an academically and morally attentive self. Moral attentiveness allows the student to be academically involved. A teacher’s must appreciate the student’s coming of reason and help strengthen the student’s moral and academic self so that they may further grow as a student and as a human. “The terms they employ highlight the teacher’s capacity and willingness to pay fine grained attention to classroom contexts and student individuality.”(354) A teacher must be well learned so that they may accurately teach. A teacher is to be fully committed to the classroom, insightful and reflective to all the students’ mannerism and progress. A teacher is constantly teaching, the most important aspect of a teacher is that they constantly set an example for a moral person, the moral attentiveness and kind and caring nature will last longer then the immediate lessons at hand and instead will install the necessary life lessons to the student.

Source: Philosophy of Education, An Anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2007.

4 comentarios / 20 Dec 2011 por Lauren Musiello
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