Best Teaching Personality

[Arra]

If you've been a student for a few years of your life, chances are you've encountered a variety of teachers, each with his or her own grading style, personality, level of comfort with the students, difficulty, etc. What personality is your favorite, and why? Which ultimately causes students to gain the most knowledge? Here are a couple extreme examples. 1) This type of teacher believes discipline is the best way to get students to learn. He will fail you if you walk into class a minute late. He's quick to insult people using sarcasm. You find yourself afraid to answer a question, because you fear the consequences of getting it wrong. If you're willing to study hard, you learn a lot, and although you hated him in the beginning, you start to feel as though he was 'testing' you and strive to pass that test. 2) She wants you to consider her a friend. She talks casually, like she's a student herself. She swears in class and discusses everything from subliminal advertizing tactics to quantum mechanics to her own personal problems, even if she's just an English teacher. You know she's trying to get you to open your mind, to learn practical knowledge, but you find that a lot of class time is spent learning things that you doubt are in the curriculum. What is the ideal way a teacher should act? What would result in greater learning benefit gained ultimately? What should all teachers strive to be like?

[Ivan452]

Since, going to 80% of classes on my University is an obligation I met different types of teachers. The perfect type for me is someone who enjoys to teach. You can almost see that energy, enthusiasm around them. Those people are interesting to listen to, will keep you attention the whole time. Most of the time they are not insane strict but also on the other side you need to study to pass. They are never asking for some impossible things, willing to help and point you in the right direction. And I always learned most from people like them. I think that teaching is one of the most important professions, and that not almost everyone should be able to do it like it is the case now. On my University we have lots of professors who really have huge practical knowledge, had worked in that area for decades, but still they are not teaches, they just do not have that power to pass on the knowledge. Their classes are boring most of the time, no matter how hard you try you cant keep listening to them for more then 20 minutes. I dont think they have bad personalities, or that they are doing that in purpose. I believe that they really are trying, but teaching just isnt for them. And then on the other side we have the teaches I mentioned above. Whos classes pass by in a second, and you just absorb everything they say.

[tommo]

The best teachers IMO are the ones who are strict. But not overly strict, like the 1 minute late and you fail thing. They need to push you as far as you can go. If you can do something easily, they need to make you do harder things. And they must always remember not to push you too hard, otherwise you just start getting depressed and/or stressed. So basically they need to keep you learning as much as you can, and also know your limits. They should also help you with general life things, and never put you down; just honest and constructive criticism. There was something else that I've forgotten right now. But also if the teacher is hot it helps a lot. I remember every word my sexy teachers spoke. EDIT: Oh yeah.... Consistency. Being consistent, is IMO, the single most important thing. Nothing is more confusing or hard to deal with, especially with younger children, than inconsistent teaching methods or punishment, praise and emotions etc.

[Xei]

lol sexism. As far as I can tell there's really no point in the first type at university, and I've never encountered such a type there. The only thing I'm graded on is the exam at the end of the year by people I don't know. Also at uni the only thing that can sensibly motivate you is yourself; you're there of your own volition and pretty much all the learning is through self-study. Only teachers that instil enthusiasm will affect this.

[tommo]

lol sexism. As far as I can tell there's really no point in the first type at university, and I've never encountered such a type there. The only thing I'm graded on is the exam at the end of the year by people I don't know. Also at uni the only thing that can sensibly motivate you is yourself; you're there of your own volition and pretty much all the learning is through self-study. Only teachers that instil enthusiasm will affect this. The teachers should still help you if you can't figure something out on your own.

[Xei]

Of course, what else would they talk about except stuff you don't understand fully?

[tommo]

Well you said pretty much all the learning is through self-study lol

[Original Poster]

Meh, I don't like that dichotomy. I don't care how much work they assign or if they're trying to my friend. For me if they can teach a lecture informatively like they know what they're talking about they're a good teacher. If they basically just read their syllabus/textbook/power point and don't provide adequate means for the material to be comprehended then they're a bad teacher. I've had good teachers and bad teachers who fall on both sides of your personality line, for me it all comes down to whether or not they can handle their own material.

[Xei]

Well you said pretty much all the learning is through self-study lol Well, it is, really. How much teaching time do you expect to receive at university? Beyond ironing out the kinks in the content, teachers also introduce you to new ideas and a bigger picture or deeper understanding.

[Darkmatters]

My 3 favorite teachers in college were sort of similar personality types - Public Speaking - he was actually a locally famous playwright and director who staged his own productions. He was engaging and enthusiastic and had a good stage actor's sense of presence and timing and delivery. It did mess me up though when I came in unprepared for a 3-minute book reading we were supposed to have already marked up and ready to deliver, and he saw me going through my book in class during somebody else's presentation and immediately made me go!! Still a great teacher though. Heh - embarrassing - I ended up doing a really really long presentation thinking it was just about 3 minutes. European History - night class - two nights a week for three hours at a stretch, but this guy made it totally awesome and entertaining as hell! He always had us laughing and learning at the same time, and nobody in that course will ever forget his amazing one-man rendition of the killing of Rasputin!! Sociology - this guy was a major character - a real eccentric. He was basically an old hippie and he came up with nicknames for everybody in class. His favorite term for people he didn't like (usually Conservatives) was Redneck Peckerwood. Totally informal and beyond - being in his class was like being at Woodstock without the music or brown acid.

[Arra]

lol sexism. Where is the sexism? If I had given more than 2 examples (which I was going to originally) you would have seen that I was just alternating between he and she each paragraph. I hate writing 'he or she' in lengthy specific examples.

[Xei]

I was only being facetious. It's just kinda funny the way the man is the bastard and then you switched to a woman for the sensitive friend. I'd just use 'they'. Ain't really ungrammatical any more.

[Arra]

Using 'they' isn't technically right, is it? I can't tell if you're joking about that. You would get marks off for using it in an essay or something wouldn't you? Honestly, if I'm going to generalize, it seems the instructors of either extreme are most often male, and women are usually about halfway between.

[Unelias]

A teacher who is fascinated by his craft, who has a broad knowledge and is interested to share it with others. Who understands the differences between students and their capability to learn and switches his style if he sees that message is not going through. I do believe that the old saying that there are no bad students, just bad teachers is mostly true. If student has the motivation then it is teachers job to make him understand. From your original choices it is a healthy mix of both. Witty, understands humour and uses it himself, is easygoing yet keeps his authority and doesn't wander too far from the subject at hand. A good teacher first teaches you a good foundation, gets your basics in order. Then shatters it and teaches you to think out of the box and use your own brain. Also, a good teacher should equally spar with the ideas and accept that beliefs are questioned time to time. He has patience for questions and doesn't just say that "It is so because it is so." There are lot of things that make a good teacher. Those came up now. Besides, there should be no need for real discipline when we are dealing with adults. Discipline is for kids. The adults respect skill and knowledge. The strong know-how of your own field. That is how you get your authority with adults. Also, I find it frustrating that so many languages, including English has different pronomines for different genders. I always have to think if I am hurting someone by writing only he. ( I find the he/she combination ridicilous )

[Arra]

This topic has been on my mind a lot lately because, for the first time since high school really, I've gotten one of those teachers I described above. He won't fail a student for being 1 minute late for class. But he will fail a student for failing to attend even one class without a note containing a good excuse. If someone walks in late once, he'll give them a warning. But every time after that, he'll take 5% off of the student's final mark. I've never before heard classroom rules so ridiculous. But for other reasons he's a good teacher. He seems good at getting his point across. The course is in computational logic, and he'll stray a bit off topic occasionally, but not much, and the information is always useful or interesting. He'll start talking about AI, the dangers of robots one day taking over programming jobs, etc. I agree with Unelias that discipline should not really be used on adults. It might work well on adults who don't want to be there and act more like kids. But for people like me who are going to work hard anyway and show up to class every day even if the teacher were extremely lenient, it's a bit annoying.

[cmind]

Male, for starters. I've had a few dozen teachers in my life, and the female ones were always worse than male. They're too uptight, too flustered, they miss the big picture, and they don't connect with the students at all. This is mostly science type classes, mind you.

[Arra]

I actually agree with you in general. But I wouldn't generalize. If every female teacher you've had happens to have been bad, that's fine, maybe you're personally justified in generalizing. But for me, although that's often the case, I've had some pretty crappy uptight male teachers and some amazing female ones who do get the big picture and aren't uptight.

[tommo]

Male, for starters. I've had a few dozen teachers in my life, and the female ones were always worse than male. They're too uptight, too flustered, they miss the big picture, and they don't connect with the students at all. This is mostly science type classes, mind you. The best science teachers I've had were female. Actually the best teachers for any subject I had were female. But especially so in science subjects. In fact I can only recall one good male maths/physics teacher. He was good coz he absolutely loved the subject and he was just enthusiastic about it and kind of weird lol So it kept me interested even though I suck at it.

[Xei]

Out of 16 tutors and lecturers, I have never had a single competent female. Guess why.

[Arra]

Because few to none of them were female?

[Solarflare]

My grade 7 teacher was so good. He lets us look at all the possibilities in a math equation or a science thing without just going by the book and teaching that. Sometimes he would go half an hour teaching us something that isnt the lesson, but helps us understand the lesson. his tests actully required studing (IN GRADE 7 O_O) and sometimes he would say that half of the class failed the test. Now, many of you would blame the teacher, but his tests were fairly difficult and he teaches us everything. I actually dont know if i got the point across, but long story short, he was an awesome teacher. A good teacher does that and is strict when he needs to be and knows all the students weakness and strengths and teaches them accordingly.

[Xei]

Because few to none of them were female? Welcome to the world of mathematics.

[RebelSeven]

The best teacher I have ever had was an English teacher. The chairs in the class were in a large semi-circle and only two desks deep, made the entire class feel present and engaged. There were wide windows so he only had a few lights on and let natural lighting fill the room. His basic principle was to treat the class like they acted. If there was an attendance problem, he graded attendance. If the class was loud/obnoxious he would give us difficult silent reading/writing assignments. If students were non-responsive/unfocused we would be assigned to write out in depth analysis. On the other hand if we were generally on time he didn't care if you walked in a few minutes late. If we were respectful and calm he would let us have our say. If we were engaged in the material he wouldn't bother with redundant assignments. But the best things he did were the days he would just talk, usually about a philosophy or an idea presented in our current book or project. He was very calm and talked his thoughts out loud like we were not there, he wasn't entertaining in a conventional sense, and a LOT of students found him strict and mean. But these were the students who were late and loud/unfocused. He did grade assignments harshly but left plenty of time in class to go over students questions and problems and always had the option to re-turn something in for a better grade. He knew his material and taught me more about literature than any teacher before or after. If you took the time to talk to him after class he treated you like a human, he made students want to shut up and learn. He inspired responsibility and hard work and made you feel pride if you did something well.

[IndieAnthias]

Here's an important factor... not considering teaching to be a side-job to your real career of getting published. I've seen that a lot and I've seen one publishing PhD who took teaching with more seriousness than anyone I've ever met. He was the best teacher I've ever had.