What is the most important characteristic of a great teacher?
That is the question I posed a few days ago on social media. (A huge shout out to those who participated). In an article in Edutopia Magazine (2013), Maria Orlando EdD. described nine qualities she felt were essential for teachers to possess. So it comes as no surprise that everyone agrees: A great teacher cannot be described with one characteristic. It is a combination of many qualities that make a teacher "great". Even though we agreed that it is not just one characteristic but a combination of many, the results show these two qualities rank highest:
1. Has their own love of learning and inspires students with a passion for growth. Over 46% of us believe that this is the most important quality of a great teacher. When teachers demonstrate that they place such a high value on their own growth and learning, students are motivated to themselves become life-long learners.
2. Over 30% of us believe that being warm, accessible, enthusiastic, and caring is most important. Undeniably a combination of these qualities is absolutely essential. Students need to feel valued and loved. When teachers listen, show compassion & empathy, and concern for a child's needs, they create a safe learning environment for their students.
Somewhat surprisingly, the remaining seven qualities received less that 25% of the combined votes. This is not to say that these characteristics are not important. In fact, a teacher that does not respect her students is going to earn very little respect herself. Likewise, being flexible, creating a sense of community, and setting high student expectations go a long way in building a classroom of compassionate, invested learners.
I did find it interesting that being a skilled leader and collaborating with colleagues earned just 1% of the votes. I know no one was suggesting that these are not important qualities, but when it comes to creating a learning environment built on trust and respect, these may not been viewed as the most vital elements. As Orlando states in her article,
"Teaching is hard work and some teachers never grow to be anything better than mediocre. They do the bare minimum required and very little more. The great teachers, however, work tirelessly to create a challenging, nurturing environment for their students. Great teaching seems to have less to do with our knowledge and skills than with our attitude toward our students, our subject, and our work."I'm curious. Is anyone surprised by these results? Any other thought or comments, I'd love to hear them.
I am not surprised. My favorite teachers were those that inspired me! I think that collaborating with colleagues and being a skilled worker was not as important because they are not traits that are visible to students.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think back to my "favorite" teachers, I remember them sharing their love of learning and that always inspired me too!
DeleteI know that even though I selected what I felt was the most important, the degree of separation between the nine choices was, for me, very, very small. I suspect that may have been true for others as well. This poll would be interesting to see if it was set up for people to rank their choices. That might give you some better insights.
ReplyDeleteGreat point, Lisa! It was the first time I used PollDaddy. Can you set it up to rank the choices?
DeleteThis was my first time with PollDaddy as well. It seems to have lots of options so possibly? Google Forms would work too.
DeleteDefinitely hard to pick a "most important" from the list! It just goes to show how complex teaching really can be and why we have such a hard time quantifying successful teaching.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the blog idea to take a poll and then revisit it with results in another post, had not thought of that as an option. Though, with your example, I realize that many of the more popular blogs I read do have that type of reader engagement.
I had so many people on Twitter ask me to tag them with the results when I sent out the poll, that I knew I had to write a follow up:). Although now I love Lisa's idea of having the choices "ranked" instead of just choosing one.
DeleteThis is definitely one of those quizzes that makes you go, "but I think it's ALL important!" haha...but I'm actually quite happy to see the results. I love that the majority truly care for the students first - that's super important. Kids know when their teacher is excited about learning and cares whether or not his/her students learn.
ReplyDeleteIt is encouraging to see that so many people value the teacher's love of learning, however, I had to keep in mind that the majority of the people responding to the poll were my "teacher friends" who are in continuing Ed.
DeleteI think these results are spot on! I find that while my goal is to teach content and literacy skills, more overwhelmingly I am hoping to inspire my students to have a love of learning and continue to seek new information and skills throughout their life!
DeleteMe too Danielle!
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