What makes a great teacher?

By THOMAS EHRLICH
President of Indiana University (Scripps Howard News Service)

Teachers are crucial components, no single model exists.  I suspect that some of your favorite teachers were the least favorites of others.  But here are some guiding insights I have learned from my teachers and colleagues. 

First and foremost, teaching is helping students learn for themselves, rather than filling them with facts.  A teacher is an enabler.

Teachers and students work together in the learning process, and the best teachers allow students to rediscover and recreate the great discoveries and creations, whether of Einstein or Sylvia Plath. 

Great teachers exercise self-discipline and have a fine sense of timing. Too many teachers, as one of my good friends put it, “try to teach great truths instead of undertaking the much more difficult task of teaching simple truths in a great way.”

The best teachers know their subjects well and enjoy them.  I have yet to meet a great teacher who is not nervous on the first day of class and on most succeeding days.  They are nervous because they know how extraordinarily exciting their subjects are, how remarkably important and what pleasure they give, and therefore what a challenge it is to impart that excitement, that pleasure, that sense of discovery.

Great teachers have great expectations about what students can do. But they are careful to let students know what is expected of them.  Students like the rest of us, want to be appreciated, and great teachers show a real interest in their students.

Teaching does not mean having all the answers. Loose ends mean questions raised, and the great teacher wants students to leave the classroom full of questions. One friend put it this way, “To learn is an active verb.  The students’ fault is that many are too willing to expect that someone will teach them so they can forgo the necessity of learning.  The professors’ fault is that many are too willing to tell students what they know, supposing that this constitutes teaching.”

In its most important dimension, teaching is exploring connections. In the real world problems do not come neatly packaged.  The great teacher helps students integrate knowledge and make connections among ideas.  Each field of study provides a set of lenses through which to see the world around us.  Together they enable students to under-stand the complexities they will face in their professional and personal lives.

Finally, teachers must adapt to the abilities of their students, cultivating what one of my colleagues calls “a layered mind.”  Great teachers make sure that the layer at which they are communicating matches the level of their students’ minds at the moment.

What makes a great teacher? My list of guiding principles is certainly not exhaustive. Take a minute and ask yourself who was the greatest teacher in your life.