how to be a good teacher

——What a Qualified Teacher Would Be
[1] James Bryant Conant   The Education of American Teachers   p165   line4

[2] James Bryant Conant   The Education of American Teachers   p166   line4

[3] John Locke   Some Thoughts Concerning Education   p73   line36

[4] John Locke   Some Thoughts Concerning Education   p74   line1

[5] James Bryant Conant   The Education of American Teachers   p166   line16

[6] James Bryant Conant   The Education of American Teachers   p167   line18

[7] James Bryant Conant   The Education of American Teachers   p169   line22

[8] Robert Maynard Hutchins   The Higher Learning in America   p175   line21

[9] John Locke   Some Thoughts Concerning Education   p74   line37

[10] John Henry Newman   The Idea of a University   p105   line35

Nowadays, education is one of the hottest topics in our daily life since it is generally believed that only good education can truly improve the overall quality of the entire people of the nation, and in a way develop the comprehensive national strength. However, it will take us a long time to achieve this kind of education in a real sense. In this process, qualified teachers no doubt play an important role. What would a qualified teacher be? In my opinion, he would have intellectual ability as well as teaching ability, and at the same time he needs to build up a good relationship with his students.

“I have heard a great deal of talk during the course of my study about upgrading the teaching profession. I have heard little discussion of the minimum level of scholastic aptitude to be required of candidates for teaching positions.”[1] “Is there a minimum level of intellectual ability we should set in this state for future teachers? I believe the answer should be yes.”[2] In The Education of American Teachers, James Bryant Conant, an American educator, points out this meaningful suggestion associated with teachers’ intellectual ability. Image what will happen if a teacher’s academic ability is low. First, it may be a difficult task for him to enhance his own while working. Then he may not be professional enough to teach his students. Certainly, these problems will have a negative effect on students’ learning. In Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke also mentions the similar idea, “The tutor should know the world well.” [3]“Nor is it requisite that he should be a thorough scholar, or possess in perfection all those sciences which' tis convenient a young gentleman should have a taste of in some general view, or short system.” [4] In other words, Locke suggests that a teacher should have a wealthy reserve of knowledge, that is, he had better have high intellectual ability.

Therefore, in his book, James Bryant Conant maintains that teachers should be recruited from the upper third of the graduating high school class on a national basis, because “Such subjects as college mathematics, science, and philosophy, would be too difficult for students whose intellectual ability placed them much below the top 30 per cent, in terms of the high school graduating class on a national basis.”[5] To put in another way, they may have a hard time in gaining real knowledge on a level, and these would decrease the quality of their future teaching to some extend. Thus, Conant thinks that “The improvement of the education of future teachers in many regions of the country must start with first, more rigorous selection of those who enter the collegiate programs.”[6] What’s more, he considers the improvement of the high school programs as the second key point. “Judging from what I have found, I believe that far too many students intending to become teachers enter college without sufficient academic preparation. For future teachers, I believe that the content of general education in school and college should include certain essential ingredients.” [7]The high school programs he suggests for those planning to be teachers include foreign language, English, mathematics, natural science, history and social studies, and art and music. Another American educator, Robert Maynard Hutchins shows his own opinion on the programs for future teachers in The Higher Learning in America. He advises that the prospective teacher’s general education should be the same with that of other occupations, such as lawyer and doctor, etc. “The teaching would be directed to understanding the ideas in these fields, and would have on vocational aim. The student would study all three subject matters, with emphasis upon one.”[8] The three subjects he mentions are namely metaphysics, the social sciences and the natural science, which are necessary for every one in his view.

To sum up, we had better recruit teachers from outstanding students and set up useful programs for them in order to enlarge their knowledge and improve their academic ability.

Besides intellectual ability, a qualified teacher should have teaching ability, too. In terms of teaching ability, we may first think of teaching methods. There are a variety of teaching methods, but a good teacher would choose those which are really suitable for his students. For example, the quality of teaching may be higher if a teacher can add some interesting as well as useful elements to his classes. In Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke points out the identical suggestion, “Learning might be made a play and recreation to children, and that they might be brought to desire to be taught, if it were proposed to them as a thing of honor, credit, delight, and recreation, or as a reward for doing something else; and if they were never chid or corrected for the neglect of it.”[9]In addition, some teachers hope that their students can learn as much knowledge as possible, but I am supposing that there will be some dangers of over-education. If teachers give students a mass of undigested knowledge, they may load the memory of the students. What’s worse, the students might be tired of this learning and even fall behind. According to John Henry Newman, “there is no enlargement, unless there be a comparison of ideas one with another, as they come before the mind, and a systematizing of them.”[10] Therefore, teachers need to teach the students how to refer what they learn to what they know already and group their own acquisition.

Personally, I think a qualified teacher had better get along well with his students. In this way, the students may be more willing to be taught by him. He can also know more about his students, so he might adjust his teaching methods to meet the needs of the students. Certainly, these will improve the quality of teaching in a way. Some measures can be taken to achieve these. He can have face-to-face talks with the students from time to time; he may sometimes offer to help the students out of problems; he can take active part in some activities held by the students; he may try to treat every student in an equal way, etc.

 All in all, if someone wants to be a qualified teacher, he may try his best to make a close correlation between intellectual ability and teaching ability