7 ms·

What Makes a Good Teacher? (2001)

96 points by jasim 6y ago

thomk 6y ago
Great teachers come meet you where ever YOU are at in your knowledge. Once they are next to you, they guide you to take the very first step, nothing more. Then just the second step, nothing more. Then the third etc. If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. Soon you both see YOU have more confidence. That confidence is called learning and the best teachers know when to pull back and let you go on your own. Great teachers do not judge you. If you are embarrassed in front of a teacher because you do not know something; the problem is the teacher. The best teachers let me be myself and just showed me how to take the next step.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
  It’s not always that simple. Context matters. I work in metal fabrication, and more than a small fraction of the people who end up in this trade are here because they have learning disabilities, typically undiagnosed, or if they are they don’t advertise it. Many of us are in this trade because we are too dull to have chosen something higher paying with better conditions. Additionally, may of the tools and equipment we use are inherently dangerous, so teaching might involve repeatedly showing and correcting, watching, scrutinising, and coming back again and again to review and refresh. Kindness certainly helps though :)
- irjustin 6y ago
  Love and agree with most of the thoughts, but strongly disagree with: > If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. This is the case a lot of the time, but if it's applied as stated above, it misses the fact that some subjects are literally unlearnable for certain individuals and is not the teacher's fault. Probably a statement more in spirit is: "If you are not understanding what is being taught: The good teacher asks what methods can be changed to further learning."
  - kd5bjo 6y ago
    > Some subjects are literally unlearnable for certain individuals and is not the teacher's fault. This feels like a controversial starement to me. There are certainly some subjects that are currently beyond some individuals’ ability to learn, but that seems to reflect more on a lack of prior required learning than a fundamental inability to learn that subject. It’s certainly much harder for some people, possibly to the point of economic infeasibility, but impossible seems a stretch.
    - irjustin 6y ago
      I used literally, literally, because my wife is a special needs teacher. Many higher level subjects fall into unlearnable for students with severe needs where no amounts of time or care can get past the physical barrier. It could be viewed as contrarian, but putting the blame/responsibility for a student not learning solely on a teacher's shoulders removes the human which the spirit of this post and thread embodies.
      - kd5bjo 6y ago
        True, my objection was primarily to the idea that we should completely write-off any potential learner. A teacher’s job is not to do research, but to choose the best available known method for the situation. If that doesn’t produce results, it’s not the teacher’s fault; instead, it’s a call for researchers to search for new methods.
    - red_admiral 6y ago
      The focus on the social model of disability and how disabled people are first of all people and never assume someone can't do something just because they have a disability etc. has a lot of good things going for it, and it's compassionate and makes the world a better place. It doesn't remove the fact that some people have disabilities that mean they will simply never be able to complete certain tasks, including ones of the learning kind.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
- ajuc 6y ago
  > If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. That's obviously false. If you don't pay attention or don't do your homework or skip classes eventually you will fall back enough not to understand what is being taught. Teacher can't repeat basics forever because there are other students in the class too, maybe they do pay attention and do their homework and would like to learn - wasting their time because one person doesn't care is absurd. BTW I think online remote learning (which was implemented in my country because of COVID-19) could help with this issue. There's no reason for kids to be divided into classes according only to their physical location. It's possible to organize classes from all over the country divided by results of some placement tests, where every student has problems with the exact same concepts. This shouldn't completely replace normal school, but it could be useful tool for keeping struggling kids up to speed (let's say there's 1 hour a week of remote math class where every kid is put into appropriate countrywide group of kids with similar problems).
  - throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
    I agree with you both. I like to think I'm a good teacher, and if they don't understand then it's down to me not them. But I was given an 'apprentice' to teach. He was very willing to learn, very interested in the subject (programming) but only insofar as I poured the knowledge into his ears. He would not do any work I set him so pretty soon I threw in the towel. I really enjoyed teach, he really enjoyed learning, but his dismotivation finished it, what a waste.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - thomk 6y ago
    I appreciate your perspective but I still stand by my comment, with a slight caveat. If you are in a situation where you are open to learning and you can not then the problem is the teacher. Even if you have a learning disability it is going to be the responsibility of the teacher to recognize that and move you somewhere else where you can be more productive.
- greggman3 6y ago
  > they guide you to take the very first step, nothing more. Then just the second step, nothing more This sounds like it doesn't match this research which someone posted yesterday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ
powerbroker 6y ago
Someone who pisses you off enough to get better, but not enough to make you leave.
blhack 6y ago
A good teacher finds the kernel of knowledge at the center of something, and teaches you that so that you can synthesize/derive the rest of it. Doing that isn't easy, and it generally requires a very rich understanding of the domain. If you find a teacher that can do that sort of thing, you're very lucky.
rahimnathwani 6y ago
If you're interested in math teaching in particular, you may like: - How I wish I'd taught maths (Craig Barton) - How to solve it (Polya) The former is written by an already-successful math teacher, who applied others' research to further improve his teaching. The latter is about the stages of solving a math problem. I've had an interest in math teaching for quite some time, and recently joined a company (Yup) that provides 24/7 on-demand online math tutoring. Our tutors are trained to first figure out where the student is in their process of solving the problem or understanding the topic. Only then can they take action to help the student continue their learning.
- _mathtutor 6y ago
  Craig Bartons book is very good - he has a podcast as well "Mr Barton Maths". About online tutoring: I work in the UK as an Adult maths tutor. I get GBP 24 per teaching hour which includes an allowance for prep time. It's alright as tutoring jobs go. I had a quick look at Yup as it seems interesting. But Glassdoor reviews state tutors get ~ $10-$15 an hour. (some say $11 an hour) Ah c'mon. I find that depressing. They're looking for high quality flexible tutors and pay that? I could work in Tesco stacking shelves for that. Even Amazon in the UK pay more (and I've worked there as a picker) I find it cynical that so much quality is demanded from certain online companies and the pay is derisory. I suppose the flexibility they offer is worth it for some people... and the chance to work from home... Anyway had to get that off my chest... I think teachers are under-valued and under-paid anyway!
a-ve 6y ago
From Paul Graham's RAQ: http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html I'm about to become a teacher. How can I be a good one? The best teachers I remember from school had three things in common: (1) They had high standards. Like three year olds testing their parents, students will test teachers to see if they can get away with low-quality work or bad behavior. They won't respect the teachers who don't call them on it. (2) They liked us. Like dogs, kids can tell very accurately whether or not someone wishes them well. I think a lot of our teachers either never liked kids much, or got burned out and started not to like them. It's hard to be a good teacher once that happens. I can't think of one teacher in all the schools I went to who managed to be good despite disliking students. (3) They were interested in the subject. Most of the public school teachers I had weren't really interested in what they taught. Enthusiasm is contagious, and so is boredom.
- mikekchar 6y ago
  My biggest piece of advice: It's all about the student and nothing about the material. Remember that and you'll be fine.
- kd5bjo 6y ago
  > They had high standards. Like three year olds testing their parents, students will test teachers to see if they can get away with low-quality work or bad behavior. They won't respect the teachers who don't call them on it. A related anecdote: I was a TA for a course in which the students were required to write weekly essays. The first ones had grammar so bad that they were excruciating to read. Despite not being allowed to deduct points for such things, I copyedited all of them to fix the worst mistakes and returned them covered in red ink. By the next week, they had all figured out how to write in complete sentences, making my job much easier for the rest of the semester.
hyperpallium 6y ago
Diagnose before prescribe. Student is lost with only you on a walkie-talkie. You need to know where they are to know what instruction to give. Gaps and misunderstandings must be identified to be corrected. It's debugging. This is all very intensive, customized, one-on-one teaching. But there's no reason it can't be automated... in principle.
danieltillett 6y ago
I will take the cynical side and say good students.
watwut 6y ago
Having to see kids learning up close, actual pedagogical knowledge matters.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  True, but education in pedagogy doesn’t. The effects of degrees in education on teacher effectiveness are not reliably distinguishable from zero.
  - danielscrubs 6y ago
    All the best teachers in my school either where fresh graduates or didn't have a teachers license. My conclusion was simply that teachers burn out after a decade and should switch which is very hard if they have a five-year degree in pedagogy and not much else.
raleighm 6y ago
Obligatory link to Donald Knuth mishearing this question as "What Makes a Good T-Shirt?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=74BfHoE66rc&feature=youtu.be&t=42m17s https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=74BfHoE66rc&feature...
- simonebrunozzi 6y ago
  What a great find. Made me smile for a few minutes! Thanks for sharing.
makach 6y ago
Same stuff that makes a good leader. IMO; They will engage you, make you curious, inspire you to become a better version of yourself and help you work towards your goals and objectives. A good leader will also be there for you to guide you when you need extra attention and most importantly let you have room to fail. To the good teachers and managers I've had, and I am currently having. Thank you.
friendlybus 6y ago
Someone who truly understands what they are talking about from bottom to top and can fit the information into a larger worldview without introducing game breaking conflicts all over the place. Someone who stakes a claim on the value of what they teach and personally self correct when flaws are found. He or she can debate the merits or justify the work being taught. The same person burns a path or spends the time to make somebody be taught something important and valuable.
aaron695 6y ago
Most, if not all, of these comments on unicef.org are bullshit/wrong. Some literally are contradictory. So what we have is, a lack of understanding what makes a good teacher in the broader community? Or are we looking at the differing misinformed opinions as a way of understanding local cultures?
Daub 6y ago
It is clear that secondary and primary level education is being addressed by this list. If it were tertiary, the list would sound very different, I hope. Interestingly, and perhaps related... love is mentioned 14 times and friend 17 times, yet mastery and skill are each only mentioned twice.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
addHocker 6y ago
Good teachers provide you with meaning. They find out what drives you in live, and help you understand that what they have to offer, will get you there. Which creates intrinsic motivation, which will turn you from a pupil (tought at) into a student (sb who sets out to get knowledge). This is hard. And requires talent. Not everyone can do it. Which is why alot of mediocre teachers, regularly decry it as not part of their job. This is the job of society or the parents. No, it is not. Society and parents entrust you to kindle that flame, and if you cant do that, you should change profession.
lihaciudaniel 6y ago
A good teacher is someone who has encourage your child to discover talent and find himself by having down to earth conversation. Not superficial character by being so cold and distant pretty much that's my opinion.

96 points by jasim 6y ago

Great teachers come meet you where ever YOU are at in your knowledge. Once they are next to you, they guide you to take the very first step, nothing more. Then just the second step, nothing more. Then the third etc. If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. Soon you both see YOU have more confidence. That confidence is called learning and the best teachers know when to pull back and let you go on your own. Great teachers do not judge you. If you are embarrassed in front of a teacher because you do not know something; the problem is the teacher. The best teachers let me be myself and just showed me how to take the next step.

TheSpiceIsLife 6y ago
It’s not always that simple. Context matters. I work in metal fabrication, and more than a small fraction of the people who end up in this trade are here because they have learning disabilities, typically undiagnosed, or if they are they don’t advertise it. Many of us are in this trade because we are too dull to have chosen something higher paying with better conditions. Additionally, may of the tools and equipment we use are inherently dangerous, so teaching might involve repeatedly showing and correcting, watching, scrutinising, and coming back again and again to review and refresh. Kindness certainly helps though :)
irjustin 6y ago
Love and agree with most of the thoughts, but strongly disagree with: > If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. This is the case a lot of the time, but if it's applied as stated above, it misses the fact that some subjects are literally unlearnable for certain individuals and is not the teacher's fault. Probably a statement more in spirit is: "If you are not understanding what is being taught: The good teacher asks what methods can be changed to further learning."
- kd5bjo 6y ago
  > Some subjects are literally unlearnable for certain individuals and is not the teacher's fault. This feels like a controversial starement to me. There are certainly some subjects that are currently beyond some individuals’ ability to learn, but that seems to reflect more on a lack of prior required learning than a fundamental inability to learn that subject. It’s certainly much harder for some people, possibly to the point of economic infeasibility, but impossible seems a stretch.
  - irjustin 6y ago
    I used literally, literally, because my wife is a special needs teacher. Many higher level subjects fall into unlearnable for students with severe needs where no amounts of time or care can get past the physical barrier. It could be viewed as contrarian, but putting the blame/responsibility for a student not learning solely on a teacher's shoulders removes the human which the spirit of this post and thread embodies.
    - kd5bjo 6y ago
      True, my objection was primarily to the idea that we should completely write-off any potential learner. A teacher’s job is not to do research, but to choose the best available known method for the situation. If that doesn’t produce results, it’s not the teacher’s fault; instead, it’s a call for researchers to search for new methods.
  - red_admiral 6y ago
    The focus on the social model of disability and how disabled people are first of all people and never assume someone can't do something just because they have a disability etc. has a lot of good things going for it, and it's compassionate and makes the world a better place. It doesn't remove the fact that some people have disabilities that mean they will simply never be able to complete certain tasks, including ones of the learning kind.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
ajuc 6y ago
> If you are not understanding what is being taught: the problem is the teacher. That's obviously false. If you don't pay attention or don't do your homework or skip classes eventually you will fall back enough not to understand what is being taught. Teacher can't repeat basics forever because there are other students in the class too, maybe they do pay attention and do their homework and would like to learn - wasting their time because one person doesn't care is absurd. BTW I think online remote learning (which was implemented in my country because of COVID-19) could help with this issue. There's no reason for kids to be divided into classes according only to their physical location. It's possible to organize classes from all over the country divided by results of some placement tests, where every student has problems with the exact same concepts. This shouldn't completely replace normal school, but it could be useful tool for keeping struggling kids up to speed (let's say there's 1 hour a week of remote math class where every kid is put into appropriate countrywide group of kids with similar problems).
- throwaway_pdp09 6y ago
  I agree with you both. I like to think I'm a good teacher, and if they don't understand then it's down to me not them. But I was given an 'apprentice' to teach. He was very willing to learn, very interested in the subject (programming) but only insofar as I poured the knowledge into his ears. He would not do any work I set him so pretty soon I threw in the towel. I really enjoyed teach, he really enjoyed learning, but his dismotivation finished it, what a waste.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- thomk 6y ago
  I appreciate your perspective but I still stand by my comment, with a slight caveat. If you are in a situation where you are open to learning and you can not then the problem is the teacher. Even if you have a learning disability it is going to be the responsibility of the teacher to recognize that and move you somewhere else where you can be more productive.
greggman3 6y ago
> they guide you to take the very first step, nothing more. Then just the second step, nothing more This sounds like it doesn't match this research which someone posted yesterday https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1ib43q3uXQ

powerbroker 6y ago

Someone who pisses you off enough to get better, but not enough to make you leave.

blhack 6y ago

A good teacher finds the kernel of knowledge at the center of something, and teaches you that so that you can synthesize/derive the rest of it. Doing that isn't easy, and it generally requires a very rich understanding of the domain. If you find a teacher that can do that sort of thing, you're very lucky.

rahimnathwani 6y ago

If you're interested in math teaching in particular, you may like: - How I wish I'd taught maths (Craig Barton) - How to solve it (Polya) The former is written by an already-successful math teacher, who applied others' research to further improve his teaching. The latter is about the stages of solving a math problem. I've had an interest in math teaching for quite some time, and recently joined a company (Yup) that provides 24/7 on-demand online math tutoring. Our tutors are trained to first figure out where the student is in their process of solving the problem or understanding the topic. Only then can they take action to help the student continue their learning.

_mathtutor 6y ago
Craig Bartons book is very good - he has a podcast as well "Mr Barton Maths". About online tutoring: I work in the UK as an Adult maths tutor. I get GBP 24 per teaching hour which includes an allowance for prep time. It's alright as tutoring jobs go. I had a quick look at Yup as it seems interesting. But Glassdoor reviews state tutors get ~ $10-$15 an hour. (some say $11 an hour) Ah c'mon. I find that depressing. They're looking for high quality flexible tutors and pay that? I could work in Tesco stacking shelves for that. Even Amazon in the UK pay more (and I've worked there as a picker) I find it cynical that so much quality is demanded from certain online companies and the pay is derisory. I suppose the flexibility they offer is worth it for some people... and the chance to work from home... Anyway had to get that off my chest... I think teachers are under-valued and under-paid anyway!

a-ve 6y ago

From Paul Graham's RAQ: http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html http://www.paulgraham.com/raq.html I'm about to become a teacher. How can I be a good one? The best teachers I remember from school had three things in common: (1) They had high standards. Like three year olds testing their parents, students will test teachers to see if they can get away with low-quality work or bad behavior. They won't respect the teachers who don't call them on it. (2) They liked us. Like dogs, kids can tell very accurately whether or not someone wishes them well. I think a lot of our teachers either never liked kids much, or got burned out and started not to like them. It's hard to be a good teacher once that happens. I can't think of one teacher in all the schools I went to who managed to be good despite disliking students. (3) They were interested in the subject. Most of the public school teachers I had weren't really interested in what they taught. Enthusiasm is contagious, and so is boredom.

mikekchar 6y ago
My biggest piece of advice: It's all about the student and nothing about the material. Remember that and you'll be fine.
kd5bjo 6y ago
> They had high standards. Like three year olds testing their parents, students will test teachers to see if they can get away with low-quality work or bad behavior. They won't respect the teachers who don't call them on it. A related anecdote: I was a TA for a course in which the students were required to write weekly essays. The first ones had grammar so bad that they were excruciating to read. Despite not being allowed to deduct points for such things, I copyedited all of them to fix the worst mistakes and returned them covered in red ink. By the next week, they had all figured out how to write in complete sentences, making my job much easier for the rest of the semester.

hyperpallium 6y ago

Diagnose before prescribe. Student is lost with only you on a walkie-talkie. You need to know where they are to know what instruction to give. Gaps and misunderstandings must be identified to be corrected. It's debugging. This is all very intensive, customized, one-on-one teaching. But there's no reason it can't be automated... in principle.

danieltillett 6y ago

I will take the cynical side and say good students.

watwut 6y ago

Having to see kids learning up close, actual pedagogical knowledge matters.

barry-cotter 6y ago
True, but education in pedagogy doesn’t. The effects of degrees in education on teacher effectiveness are not reliably distinguishable from zero.
- danielscrubs 6y ago
  All the best teachers in my school either where fresh graduates or didn't have a teachers license. My conclusion was simply that teachers burn out after a decade and should switch which is very hard if they have a five-year degree in pedagogy and not much else.

raleighm 6y ago

Obligatory link to Donald Knuth mishearing this question as "What Makes a Good T-Shirt?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=74BfHoE66rc&feature=youtu.be&t=42m17s https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=74BfHoE66rc&feature...

simonebrunozzi 6y ago
What a great find. Made me smile for a few minutes! Thanks for sharing.

makach 6y ago

Same stuff that makes a good leader. IMO; They will engage you, make you curious, inspire you to become a better version of yourself and help you work towards your goals and objectives. A good leader will also be there for you to guide you when you need extra attention and most importantly let you have room to fail. To the good teachers and managers I've had, and I am currently having. Thank you.

friendlybus 6y ago

Someone who truly understands what they are talking about from bottom to top and can fit the information into a larger worldview without introducing game breaking conflicts all over the place. Someone who stakes a claim on the value of what they teach and personally self correct when flaws are found. He or she can debate the merits or justify the work being taught. The same person burns a path or spends the time to make somebody be taught something important and valuable.

aaron695 6y ago

Most, if not all, of these comments on unicef.org are bullshit/wrong. Some literally are contradictory. So what we have is, a lack of understanding what makes a good teacher in the broader community? Or are we looking at the differing misinformed opinions as a way of understanding local cultures?

Daub 6y ago

It is clear that secondary and primary level education is being addressed by this list. If it were tertiary, the list would sound very different, I hope. Interestingly, and perhaps related... love is mentioned 14 times and friend 17 times, yet mastery and skill are each only mentioned twice.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

addHocker 6y ago

Good teachers provide you with meaning. They find out what drives you in live, and help you understand that what they have to offer, will get you there. Which creates intrinsic motivation, which will turn you from a pupil (tought at) into a student (sb who sets out to get knowledge). This is hard. And requires talent. Not everyone can do it. Which is why alot of mediocre teachers, regularly decry it as not part of their job. This is the job of society or the parents. No, it is not. Society and parents entrust you to kindle that flame, and if you cant do that, you should change profession.

lihaciudaniel 6y ago

A good teacher is someone who has encourage your child to discover talent and find himself by having down to earth conversation. Not superficial character by being so cold and distant pretty much that's my opinion.