Wednesday, November 04, 2009

What make a good teacher?

Found this article:

by Laura Greene, Augustana College
from "The National Teaching & Learning FORUM"
Volume 14, Number 2, February 2005
I sometimes think that students must feel as though they live in a world of questions not their own. Teachers often provide students with questions for a reading assignment in advance ("Here are some questions I'd like you to think about for next Wednesday's reading"); even more regularly, they assign questions to be answered in papers or on tests. Reasonably enough, most students conclude that it is the teacher's job to ask, and their job to answer. And if they get the answer right, they've learned something.

Most of us who teach make pretty different assumptions. We know that inquiry lies at the heart of every academic endeavor. The best professors don't want to teach their students the "facts" of the discipline so much as they want to help them construct knowledge by asking interesting questions within that discipline. We want our students to inquire - with energy, commitment, and passion.

Research shown that, by asking question, student's brain will be stimulated.

Questions asked by the teacher will guide a student into thinking and the student will be able to learn on his own for the rest of his life.

But, some students hate the teacher for asking questions on the topic they are learning.

They prefer the teacher to give them the answer directly.

What do you think? Should the teacher compromise or stick to the method that the teacher know best for the student?

Did you come across any good teacher in your life?

What is a good teacher to you?