A TEACHER …. GOOD TEACHING. These two words cannot be separated.  It is irresponsible to become a teacher and not to have good teaching. Thus, this topic on Good Teaching by Theodore R. Sizer, a former Dean of Harvard University College of Education had caught my attention.

             Theodore R. Sizer emphasized three characteristics of good teaching: Scholarship, Personal Integrity and Ability to communicate.

            I agree with Sizer that Scholarship is a way of life which is marked by respect for evidence and for logic, by inquisitiveness and the genius to find new meaning in prior knowledge and by the ability to see things in context to relate specifics to broader senses, facts to theories, and  theories to facts. This is what we must strive to develop in our students.

            Through learning, a person can tap his God-given potentials and develop them and use them for a useful and productive life.   This is actually education: to draw out the best in a person.  The end result is the fulfillment of man’s potential in all aspects of human development: spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional, social and physical.  The product of education should be a well –rounded, totally integrated and fully functioning individual who at the same time is a productive and contributing member of his society.

We teachers are also learners. We should continue to learn as we teach following the advice of the eminent educator, Comenius, that he who wants to teach should never cease to learn.  If we continue to be learners, then we can walk hand and hand with our students in exploring the whole creation with an endless sense of curiosity and wonder. There is no limits to learning. Only by continuing to develop ourselves can we become effective guides in helping our students develop to their fullest level of self –realization.

The second characteristics of Good Teaching emphasized by Theodore R. Sizer is INTEGRITY. He gave two separate meanings to this :  First, there is probity: characteristics of honesty, principle and decent  candor.  Another is completeness or unity of character, the sense of self-confidence and personal identity a fine teacher exhibits. This is best described in what is so-called “Knowing who you are or Self -knowledge”. It is true that a fine teacher should have enough self-knowledge. One, who knows her personal history and is able to accept it and therefore able to direct his bad tendencies into something that is useful and productive.

The teacher’s role is not simply to inform and instruct  The teacher is more than a dispenser of knowledge . He is first and foremost a formator  of  character  above all- a model.  The young learn best by imitation and good model.  The reason that young people may sometimes lose their character is because they lack good models.

The third characteristic of Good Teaching is THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE. Some said that “communication is the transplant of ideas” Language is the mirror of the soul. Communication is a two- way process. One who talks and the other listens and vice –versa. As a teacher I have to learn how to listen with all my heart and soul so that I ‘ll be able to enter into the reality of my students. I must be sensitive to the non-verbal messages that my students are trying to communicate because at times they can’t articulate what they really feel or experienced.  This means I have to be at times like them in order to enter their own world and feel how they feel and know their thoughts so I can guide them towards the right direction in life. Of course, with certain boundaries, that in the midst of their being free with me. I still demand due respect from them because I am a teacher. Teaching depends a lot on good communication.  Let us use communication to express ourselves rather than impress others.

Lastly, as Theodore R. Sizer  said Good Teaching is a mixture  of scholarship, integrity and the gift of communicating with the young. This still depends on the person’s style and character.  His words challenged me to confront myself without fear to where I am weak and has to grow more  as an individual person, much more as a teacher.

Reference:

Sizer, T. (1996). Good Teaching. Harvard Education Letter (November – December 1996 Issue)