The Challenges and Qualities of a Good Teacher
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the qualities of a good teacher.
- To identify the challenges of teaching profession.
- To examine the relationship between teachers and students in school
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
What Does the Good Teacher Look Like?
It must have been a bittersweet day on June 6th 2012 for the faculty and graduates of Occidental College in Los Angeles California, as they held their last new teacher graduation ceremony. The program was closing likely due to monetary reasons, and this would be the last time a notable figure would give new teacher graduates at OCLA advice before officially entering the profession. The importance of teachers, good teaching and teacher education, would be the topic of Associate Professor Lynn Melby Gordon’s speech, as she gave the keynote address. The following excerpt has been taken from Gordon’s (2012) speech entitled Good Teaching Matters, Teachers Matter, and Teacher Education Matters: Teacher effectiveness studies show that:
- a) Highly effective teachers are smart. They have deep content area knowledge and excellent verbal skills (elaborate vocabularies). Together these seem to lead to lesson clarity.
- b) Highly effective teachers are well-prepared. They know about lesson design and plan well-structured daily lessons. They have effective time management skills, are masters of student motivation, and know to meet the needs of students with special needs, English learners, struggling readers, other students at risk, as well as high-achievers.
- c) Highly effective teachers possess certain positive background qualifications, sometimes called dispositions, personality attributes, or attitudes. They possess something called high teacher efficacy, a belief in their ability to cause change with students. More effective teachers are also caring, enthusiastic, energetic, have positive attitudes, and high- expectations.
- d) Highly effective teachers have excellent classroom management skills. Although all teachers encounter students with issues and discipline challenges, highly effective teachers know how to get the students on their side, earn their respect, and minimize disruptive behavior. Good classroom management is largely the result of the first three factors identified being smart, well-prepared, and possessing those itemized positive dispositions/attitudes/expectations. (p. 2)
Other academics point to similar traits when defining the effective educator. The master teacher, one who has acquired the competencies and attributes required to succeed as an educator, has been described as being a person who can communicate and develop relationships with children, who understands how to teach the curriculum while also teaching to the child, and who genuinely loves the process of learning, and enjoys sharing their passion for teaching (Harding, 2011). It has been said that the effective teacher has a variety of instructional strategies to refer to when teaching students, as well as, the knowledge of how to properly assess student learning. Good teachers are able to identify the crucial learning goals and are able to set success criteria that demonstrates the obtainment of such learning goals. They are well informed when it comes to teaching resources, and have experience in accessing and utilizing such resources (Harding, 2011). Furthermore, on the topic of the competencies of good teachers Kelly Harding (2011) has said: They learn a variety of pedagogical practices to engage learners. They know how to mediate, negotiate, and invite students to actively participate in their own learning. They hone their philosophies of teaching, come to value formative assessment, and learn to make research informed interventions. They understand the importance of relationships, collaboration, community, and the influence they can have with the children they teach. They learn that content is merely a vehicle; knowing how to learn and how to think critically are essential outcomes of education (p. 52). There is a great deal of literature that corroborates Harding’s points in the above excerpt. Generally speaking, research suggests that successful teachers exhibit knowledge of pedagogical practices or techniques, they get to know their students both on a personal and academic level, that are continuously monitoring and evaluating their students learning and progress, they are involved in the school community, reflect a healthy relationship with society, they are greatly familiar with curriculum and subject content, they practice and exhibit the behaviors and skills that they teach to their students such as collaboration, problem solving, and communication (Zhu, 2013). Furthermore, successful teachers often exhibit an understanding of the social and cultural contexts of the schools they teach in, they demonstrate emotional competency, such as being empathetic and understanding, and are therefore in tune with their students needs, moods and circumstances, they are typically life-long learners and are continually familiarizing themselves with new technologies that can enhance their lessons (Zhu, 2013).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study the challenges and qualities of a good teacher
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information on the challenges and qualities of a good teacher. 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Uyo local government of Akwa Ibom state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain the challenges and qualities of a good teacher
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of a good teacher
Summary
This study was on the challenges and qualities of a good teacher. Three objectives were raised which included: To examine the qualities of a good teacher, to identify the challenges of teaching profession, to examine the relationship between teachers and students in school. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected secondary schools in Uyo local government of Akwa Ibom state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up principals, vice principals adm, senior staff and junior staff were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The results of this research study are beneficial in that they contribute to the greater body of research conducted on the core-competencies and attributes of an effective teacher, as well as the challenges facing teacher education programs as they try to develop such a teacher. This research study furthers knowledge of teacher effectiveness, a topic of such incredible importance in the field of education. The result of this research study indicates the possibility of teacher candidates not acquiring the core-competencies of an effective educator upon graduation. Considering such a possibility, this study may also act as a call for scholars to conduct further research in this area.
Recommendation
- Teacher education programs should explicitly communicate to their students the core competencies and attributes of an effective educator.
- Teacher education programs should consider expanding practicum lengths in order to increase the chance that teacher candidates will acquire the core-competencies and attributes of an effective educator.
- Teacher education programs should consider standardizing their curricula, similar to law schools and med schools, in order to better ensure that the core-competencies and attributes are being developed.
- Teacher education programs should consider evaluating the quality of associate teachers in order to ensure that teacher candidates are partnered with effective educators.
REFERENCES
- Zhu, Chang. Wang, Di. Cai, Yonghong. Engels, Nadine. (2013). What core competencies are related to teachers’ innovative teaching? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 41, No. 1
- Gordon, Lynn Melby. (2012). Good Teaching Matters, Teachers Matter, and Teacher Education Matters. Alumni of Occidental in Education, Occidental College, Los Angeles. Harding, Kelly.
- Parsons, Jim. (2011). Improving Teacher Education Programs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. Vol. 36, 11.
- O’Connell Rust, Frances. (2010). Shaping New Models for Teacher Education, Teacher Education Quarterly.
- Collins, Cherry. (2004). Envisaging a new education studies major: what are the core education knowledges to be addressed in pre-service teacher education? Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, Vol. 32, No. 3.
- Goodwin, Lin A. (2004). Exploring the Perspectives of Teacher Educators of Color: What Do They Bring to Teacher Education? Teachers College, Columbia University, Issues in Teacher Education.
- Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers in diverse classrooms. San Fransico, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Levine, A. (2006) Educating school teachers. The Education Schools Project. http://www.edschools.org/teacher_report.htm.
- Cochran-Smith, Marilyn. (2003). The Multiple Meanings of Multicultural Teacher Education: A Conceptual Framework.
- Teacher Education Quarterly. J. Walker, Robert. (2008). Twelve Characteristics of an Effective Teacher. A Longitudinal, Qualitative, Quasi-Research Study of In-service and Pre-service Teachers’ Opinions. Educational Horizons. Darling-Hammond, Linda.
