Momok
- Submitted by: ultra
- Views: 601
- Category: Other
- Date Submitted: 03/08/2012 08:05 AM
- Pages: 16
- Report this Essay
Five Factors for Effective Teaching
New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, Volume 4, Issue 2, 89-98, 2007
PHILIP GURNEY
ABSTRACT: In the course of a teaching career a teacher does not often have the opportunity to consider the very basic principles of his/her craft in the classroom. This article is such an exploration. In searching for the elusive ‘Holy Grail’ of Good Teaching, the article suggests five key factors that could contribute to an effective and worthwhile learning and teaching environment. All teachers do good things some of the time, and all good teachers do bad things some of the time. The differences among teachers lie not only in the proportions of the good and the bad, but also in their awareness of the effects of what they are doing and their readiness to share this awareness with their students. (Smith, 1995: 590) INTRODUCTION At the beginning of this year I set myself a goal and that was to try to establish an understanding of the concept of good teaching. I wanted to see if it were possible to encapsulate the qualities of a good teacher and good teaching in a good learning environment so that one could hold these qualities up as a benchmark for all teachers to see and to aspire towards achieving some kind of excellent standard. In my quest for this educational ‘Holy Grail’, I have discovered a wide range of very diverse interpretations of teaching theories and philosophies, of very different starting points that will clearly influence the teacher's actions in the classroom and of many different approaches to what actually happens in the classroom and how teachers relate to what they do in the confines of the four walls that they define as their teaching environment. I have also sat in teacher's classrooms for hour-long periods or for short 10 minute visits, I have spoken to 30-year veterans – some jaded, some still passionate, and bright-eyed first year teachers filled with Teachers College enthusiasm and attention to strands and...
New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, Volume 4, Issue 2, 89-98, 2007
PHILIP GURNEY
ABSTRACT: In the course of a teaching career a teacher does not often have the opportunity to consider the very basic principles of his/her craft in the classroom. This article is such an exploration. In searching for the elusive ‘Holy Grail’ of Good Teaching, the article suggests five key factors that could contribute to an effective and worthwhile learning and teaching environment. All teachers do good things some of the time, and all good teachers do bad things some of the time. The differences among teachers lie not only in the proportions of the good and the bad, but also in their awareness of the effects of what they are doing and their readiness to share this awareness with their students. (Smith, 1995: 590) INTRODUCTION At the beginning of this year I set myself a goal and that was to try to establish an understanding of the concept of good teaching. I wanted to see if it were possible to encapsulate the qualities of a good teacher and good teaching in a good learning environment so that one could hold these qualities up as a benchmark for all teachers to see and to aspire towards achieving some kind of excellent standard. In my quest for this educational ‘Holy Grail’, I have discovered a wide range of very diverse interpretations of teaching theories and philosophies, of very different starting points that will clearly influence the teacher's actions in the classroom and of many different approaches to what actually happens in the classroom and how teachers relate to what they do in the confines of the four walls that they define as their teaching environment. I have also sat in teacher's classrooms for hour-long periods or for short 10 minute visits, I have spoken to 30-year veterans – some jaded, some still passionate, and bright-eyed first year teachers filled with Teachers College enthusiasm and attention to strands and...