WHAT MAKES A GREAT TEACHER: PEDAGOGY OR PERSONALITY?
By Dr Stephen Whitehead
By Dr Stephen Whitehead
Photo by Raghav Modi on Unsplash
My first tentative steps into teaching began not in a classroom but on the running track.
Stopwatch in hand, muffled up against the cold east wind blowing across Leeds Athletic Club running track, I would urge my small squad of Yorkshire runners to even greater effort.
And it paid off, both for them and myself.
One of my athletes went on to become an Olympic marathon runner, while I became a UK Senior Athletics Coach lecturing to budding coaches about the art and science of sports coaching.
A Diploma in Sports Coaching from the renown Carnegie College taught me the science but the art took a little longer to acquire.
Was I a ‘natural’ coach? Probably not, but what I lacked in charisma I made up for in planning and application.
Years later, lecturing to trainee teachers at Keele University, I often reflected on the mix of art and science which makes a ‘Great Teacher’. I cannot say I have always had the answer to which matters most, art or science, but it is a question worth asking.
No doubt you’ve asked it yourself.
It is also a question close to the heart of Ariel Sacks*. As she observes:
‘The idea that a great personality makes a great teacher is fantasy. Most of us have seen brand-new teachers or guest speakers who come in with what seems like the right energy: They’re confident, caring, and creative. But without relevant teaching skills, most aren’t effective with students…When a teacher is successful, we can’t just attribute it to personality. Teaching methods are critical to educational outcomes for students, and not all methods or curricula are equally effective.’
A teacher can be soft-spoken, not someone we’d describe as extroverted or funny, but still create an excellent learning environment. What really matters is the ability to demonstrate compassion and emotional constancy, the cultural competency needed to develop trust and understanding with students, and the courage to, as Brené Brown writes, take risks and be vulnerable.
These “soft” skills make a strong teaching persona that can support the delivery of a sound method. And when teachers with compelling personalities are successful, let’s not forget that they’ve got some real skills driving those outcomes.
So, informed by the thoughts of Ariel Sacks, perhaps we can get close to listing the traits that make a Great Teacher. Here goes:
Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash
Self-awareness: If you are mature and reflective enough to know yourself, recognise and accept your own strengths and weaknesses, then you’ll more likely be able to recognise them in others. As the ancient Greeks put it, “know thyself”.
Take Chances: You may be stuck with a boring curriculum but it doesn’t mean the delivery needs to be mind-blowingly tedious. Push at the limits of what is possible, always thinking to yourself, ‘will the students enjoy doing this?’.
Build Connections: Your students are human too, so engage with them. Listen to them, hear what they say, or don’t say, and do so with interest. Encourage their opinions in all things.
Awareness of the Learner: Your class is made up of individuals, each with their own personality mix. Become adept at spotting the different personalities early on and working with them accordingly. Respect their individuality — don’t try and change it.
Be Prepared: Planning is a vital component in good teaching. But don’t overdo it to the point that the lesson is overloaded and out of balance. Allow time for the students to engage, think for themselves, and sparkle.
Excite Your Students: Don’t be boring because that will come back and bite you very quickly. OK, no need to jump on tables (though I’ve done this once or twice) but be enthusiastic. If you are not, then your students most definitely won’t be.
Professional Development: It never ceases. Take every opportunity offered for advancing your professional skills and knowledge
Compartmentalise: The time you are in the classroom with students is protected time. Everything else in your life is momentarily shelved. Even if you’ve just had a fall-out with your Principal, or your partner, the teaching space and time is sacrosanct.
Avoid Too Much Teaching: Yes, I know its counter-intuitive, but the teacher’s role must nowadays be more orientated towards coach, mentor, guide, enabler. Don’t give up teaching altogether, just don’t always interpret it literally.
Manage Your Emotions: Teaching can be a brilliant experience and it can be one of the most stressful. Often, we experience the brilliant and the stressful in the same week, if not in the same class. Keep your own emotions under control at all times while being emotionally aware enough to realise you are doing so.
Looking back on my 38 years in education, from sports coach to university professor, I’d say there are two equally ‘most important’ qualities in Great Teaching. The first is enthusiasm. For me, that had to be there in my work, whether I was sports coach, school teacher, college lecturer, university lecturer or school consultant. I always gave it my best effort and enjoyed it all the more as a consequence. Once the enthusiasm dropped, then time to move on. You cannot conceal lack of enthusiasm when you are facing a classroom full of students, or a squad of ambitious athletes.
The other equally important quality, and it relates to the enthusiasm factor, is knowing oneself. And Ariel Sacks agrees with me:
What jumps out at me most, though, is that awareness of self is as important in the framework as the awareness of learner or the awareness of teaching process. Generally in teacher preparation and professional development, the focus is on teaching practices and how we can understand our students as learners. But we are rarely called to look at our own identities.
So, are teachers born or are teachers made? Most definitely they are made, but not all the same way. Which is a great blessing. Because if anything will keep the teacher robot at bay it will be the uniqueness of the human teacher.
Ariel Sacks (@arielsacks) is a middle school language arts teacher and curriculum coach. She is the author of Whole Novels for the Whole Class: A Student-Centered Approach.
Dr Stephen Whitehead (opinions are author’s own)
For those interested, Dr Whitehead’s latest book, Toxic Masculinity, can be found here.
This article originally appeared in EDDi: Educational Digest International.