What makes a good teacher great?

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to find out the characteristics of a good

teacher in a specific course at a higher education institute
from the perspectives and evaluation of the learners. This empirical
research has been done with surveys and an interview to get participants’
perspectives about the teachers’ characteristics at University of Gda sk.
From the participants’ viewpoints, a wide range of characteristics have
been found during this research in identifying the good teachers at the
research context. These characteristics indicate the image of a good teacher
in their beliefs which are related to many different orientations from
personal traits to teaching. These students’ perspectives contribute but not
limit to the general understanding about a good teacher.
Keywords: characteristics of a good teacher, good teacher, portraits
of a teacher, good teachers at University of Gda sk, effective teaching.

Introduction

The mediocre teacher tells.

The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.”
-By William Arthur Ward1

This paper start with one of the famous quotes from William
Arthur Ward about the values that a great teacher can bring to the
educational world. Each teacher has his or her own characteristics and
teaching philosophies; however, only those who inspire students can be
qualified as the great teacher. This quote shares the similar understanding
with the characteristics of teachers in Vietnam. However, the challenging
globalization and technology development have brought the current
generations of teachers to chaos about teaching; and the image of teachers
are strongly to current educational crisis in Vietnam.
"what makes a good teacher?"
From an Asian perspective, good teachers possess a variety of traits.
Teachers are the ones who can inspire and emancipate the actual and active
learning. Learning the experiences from good teachers which will strengthen my knowledge
about what characteristics a teacher should have inspire, and emancipate students is also the
concerns to the concept of a good teacher. In addition, having different mindsets and educational
involvement of various systems has affected the methodology to conduct research in the context
of Poland. Having good teachers is one of important criteria for quality commitment of
University of Gdansk. In a research conducted in 2010,
421 students from all faculties of UG evaluated that about 24.3% of teachers are “to wietni
nauczyciele”2 – excellent teacher. The traits of these good teachers may share the knowledge
and awareness to other teachers in similar contexts.
Theoretical backgrounds. Each individual has his or her own characteristics. Being a teacher may
be easy but being a good teacher can be understood differently by various people. For that
reason, the common characteristics of a good teacher have been researched in many contexts. In
some cases, good
teachers have shared that they have two-ways communication and plenty
of roles to be associated with qualifications of effective teaching. Good
teachers have also been attached to a great deal of professional qualities,
knowledge, or the lecturing skills. Therefore, the concept of good in teaching has been used as
effective, competent, qualified, great, productive,
or successful.

Prior knowledge and beliefs from Vietnamese perspectives provide

the traits of a good teacher with knowledge, the love of teaching, some
special characteristics, and the art of being a good actor or organizer in the
class. Along with these characteristics, a good teacher need to analyze and
meet the needs of students, constantly keep information up-to-date,
motivate learners, and get them involved in the class activities and lifelong
learning process. In Vietnamese culture, it is not easy to become a good
teacher. The teachers should understand about the learners’ demands, have
different skills of flexibility, creativity, and capability of “an ignorant
teacher”. One special characteristic which may not exist in other context
is enthusiasm. Vietnamese teachers can be seen as good if they have this
quality because the job requires teachers more than what the society can
compensate. If a teacher just does what have been listed in the mandates,
teaching is simple the action of “pouring knowledge” no matter who are
the students, why they learn, how to see their progress. Vietnamese
traditions of teaching careers allow teachers to believe that good knowledge
of the teaching fields, of teaching methods, and of daily life can lead
students to “the right ways” with good knowledge. The new strengths of
educational globalization nurture the idea of classroom is a place for skill
development, not transfer of knowledge.

If these new things are not recognized by others, there will be troubles. People are not very open
to believe what they have never experienced before. So, if a teacher wants to facilitate students’
skills development, he or she sometimes must be “ignorant” to also ignore the rules. 4 As the
models of morality. 5 Traditionally, people need knowledge and their children to be able to
read and write. Before 1975, only 5% of the population was literate. Knowledge will
decide and the notions of skills are recently adopted traditional teaching of transferring
knowledge, a hybrid of traditional teaching and massive propaganda philosophies of
communism, and
contemporary teaching of what is good for students’ development with the
balance of all elements in knowledge, skills, morality, and freedom in
education and emancipation. Much research has been conducted about common characteristics
of a good teacher. Different terms have been used as “good characteristics”6, “qualities”7,
“effective teaching”8, “qualified teacher”9, and “productivity”10. Actually, every teacher is
academically responsible to instruct students into the right way. An effective teacher is required
not only professional qualities, but also knowledge and the lecturing skills. Two-way
communication and the facilitation of the learning process

318
are always expected from both sides. A good teacher should not only care
about the teaching contents, but students. With the love of the job,
the teacher focuses on students and adjusts to drive them to the aim
of learning outcomes. In other words, a good teacher knows and varies their
teaching techniques to suit students’ demands. However, the perceptions
about a good teacher are not the same from different perspectives.
Hogan11 describes some practical implications for teachers’
professional self-understanding. These implications indicate a corner
of what a good teacher should do in emancipating one’s thinking and
action. The actions are worth for a teacher to consider in the career
development. Reviewing our attitudes to our own learning and to customary conceptions of
teaching and learning; Seeing learning and teaching as a journey with many stages, but no
final destination;
Coming to see each person as a learner with some kind
of potential(s); Improving our capacity to get students’ learning actively
under way and to sustain it in different circumstances;
Building enduring relationships-of-learning with students
and colleagues. In a different work of sharing teaching experience, Alatis utilizes the
definition for good teacher as competent teachers with non-
discouraging personalities using non-defensive methods and techniques,
who cherish their students and hold them in unconditional positive regard,
are the best teachers” 12. Hativa et al13 found that all dimensions of effective
teaching were not used at all time by excellent teachers.
In Patricia Miller’s (1987) work, a proposal of ten characteristics
of a good teacher gets many teachers involved in their professional
retrospect for their teaching adjustments which result in the increase of
effectiveness in their teaching situations. The top three most important
features are enthusiasm, creativeness, and having paced and humor. It
could be a shock to any teachers when having good knowledge is at the 8th
place on the list. In addition, Young and Shaw (1999)14 conducted
questionnaire to twenty nine faculty members and 912 students in 31
classes in a study at an 11.000-student university about effective teacher.
The focus of the questionnaire was about twenty five characteristics
of a good teacher.
They are (1) knowledge about the subject matter,
(2) effective communication skills, (3) enthusiastic about teaching,
(4) well-preparation for each class, (5) providing a comfortable learning
atmosphere, (6) the ability to adapt to student needs, (7) capability of being
tolerant of others’ ideas and views, (8) respects, (9) being warm and
friendly, (10) a good sense of humor, (11) motivation students to do their
best, (12) self-confidence, (13) the instructor genuinely enjoyed teaching,
(14) having concerns about student learning, (15) the ability to explain
material clearly, (16) identification of important ideas, (17) having good

examples to explain concepts, (18) the instructor’s accessibility outside

of class, (19) the appropriate amount and level of assignments,
(20) the appropriate evaluation methods, (21) the increase of interest
in the subject matter, (22) well-organized course, (23) the updated and
worthwhile materials for the course, (24) the improvement of
understanding of concepts in the field, and (25) the value of the course to
learners.
Ways of increasing knowledge about teaching have been searched
by educators and researchers. One of the supposed good ways is “to learn
from outstanding teachers about how they think about teaching, about their
pedagogical knowledge, and about their instructional behaviors”15.
Hativa et al. reviews a list of characteristics of exemplary teacher as
follows:
“… exemplary teachers are highly organized, plan their lesson carefully,
set unambiguous goals, and have high expectations of their students.
They give students regular feedback regarding their progress in the course,
make specific remediation recommendations, and assume
a major responsibility for student outcomes. They make course content
relevant to students by giving examples and connecting course goals
to the expectations and experiences of their students. They treat students
as individuals in the classroom, encourage them, challenge them
intellectually, use a variety of teaching strategies to add interest, and create
a positive classroom environment. Exemplary teachers enjoy teaching,
show enthusiasm for the subject, have excellent command of the language
and good delivery, inject humor, and introduce dramatic elements. They
make an earnest attempt to promote students’ learning, and actively

15 As in Hativa et al. (2001).

321
involve them in the learning process through questions and discussions.
They offer clear, organized, and interesting presentations, and they
communicate positive regard to students and motivate them…
In sum, exemplary university teachers are well-prepared and organized,
present the material clearly, stimulate students’ interest, engage them,
and motivate them in studying the material through their
enthusiasm/expressiveness, have positive rapport with students, how high
expectations of them, encourage them, and generally maintain
a positive classroom environment.”
In brief, effective teaching requires not only the teachers’ belonging
qualities, but also the students’ demands on satisfying with their learning
outcomes as well as all connected with the goal16 of each lesson. In this
study, I would like to define my own term of good teachers as “A good
teacher knows his or her students well; facilitates the successful learning
process; provides effective supports during and after lessons with the love
of teaching, the lecturing skills, inspiration and knowledge; and is able to
self-study and change for educational purposes. Good teachers have the
characteristics associated with different orientations: (1) personal
orientation, (2) expertise orientation, (3) student orientation, (4) teaching
orientation, (5) communication orientation, and (6) professional
orientation.

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