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What Makes A Great Teacher?

What makes a great teacher is a question that has an exceptional value for the learning

process, as it defines the prerogatives of both the teacher and the learner. In this work, we are

going to present our personal view as to the question of what qualities are essential for a great

teacher, and what learning strategies should they apply in order to meet the needs of effective

educational process. As far as education is closely connected with socialization and further

development on an individual, it is of a great importance that a teacher creates environment

that contributes to forming values and skills in the learners for their participation in social life.

To our mind, the most important thing that any teacher should acquire is the ability to

create atmosphere encouraging students to fulfill their potential and broaden the horizons of

their knowledge:

“Teachers’ beliefs in and about human potential and in the ability of all children to

learn and achieve are critical. These aspects of the teachers’ mental models have a

profound impact on the learning climate and learner states of mind that teachers create.

Teachers need to understand students’ feelings and attitudes will be involved and will

profoundly influence student learning” (Caine and Caine, 1997, p. 124).

It is important to realize that different students have different abilities to learning.

Here we can talk in terms of differentiated learning strategies in order to achieve success with

a great variety of learners. Differentiation is a philosophy that teacher or learning community

implements in order to meet the unique needs of different learners. The main point of

differentiation is that it helps the teacher to plan strategically the learning process according

to the diversity of learners in classrooms (Gregory, 2008). Our opinion is that it is a very

important point that should be the highest concern for all the teachers, as it helps to

understand the essentials of the learning process, which is the first step for its improvement

and effective development.

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In order to encourage students to participate in the learning process, a teacher has to

make them feel that they are free to learn, and their studies are relevant, effective and

meaningful. Therefore, it is important to consider their motivations and the complexity of

tasks so that they are challenging enough but not overwhelming. Maintaining high level of

motivation throughout a learning process is important and can be achieved by setting

different goals in order to keep the learners interested at all times.

Another thing of no less importance is teacher creating environment conductive to

learning. What we mean is that every student has to feel included in the learning process and

encouraged to express their individual thoughts and ideas as to the subject of learning. It is

important that the emphasis is put on the process of learning rather that the students’ IQ, so

that they feel safe in the climate created in the classroom. Teacher’s attitude is the feature that

defines the relationship between the teacher and the students and encourages the learners to

achieve more and challenge themselves.

Creating a classroom climate and positive atmosphere is essential for the effective

learning process. Friendly environment, such as proper lightning, cleanliness, pleasant music

tunes and laughter stimulate the participants of the learning process and, despite the

differences of the learners, create supportive environment where anybody feels safe to learn

and develop.

In conclusion, we would like to say that there might be many different features

possessed by a teacher, however, if they do not acquire those mentioned above, it is unlikely

that they will be able to make the learning process effective. As we have already said,

differentiated learning is the first step in order to create the environment that would be

conductive to learning and encourage students to participate in the learning process.

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References

Caine, R. N., and Caine, G., 1997. Education on the edge of possibility. Alexandria, VA:

Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Gregory, Gayle H. (2008). Differentiated Instructional Strategies in Practice: Training,

Implementation, and Supervision. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.