• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

How important is a good teacher?

Yama

Permabanned
Joined
Dec 1, 2014
Messages
7,684
MBTI Type
ESFJ
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
Thread title explains itself. Throughout your history in education, how much has having a good teacher affected you? "Good" is to be interpreted however you want, but in general it means something along the lines of "having a positive impact on your education, grades, subject interest, and/or general well-being." Why, or why not? If you think it's important, what about the teacher do you consider "good?"

To me, it is critical that I have a good professor. It is arguably more important to me than my pre-existing interest for the subject matter. If I hate math, but have a good math teacher, I'll find the subject matter to be decent. Or at least I won't hate it, which is good enough for me. If I have a good teacher in a subject I already like, it's a super win.

I have one professor in particular who I have found that I really like. She teaches two of my classes this semester. She is very clear in her explanations, very thorough, and always prepared. She has a passion for what she does that piques my interest in the subject area even more. Often there is no confusion about what we are learning about because of this, but if someone has a question she is quick to explain it in any possible way she can so that it makes sense to the student asking. She does not claim to be a master in her subject and appreciates that the classroom should be a co-learning process--she learns new things every day, often from us students inquiring about the things we are learning and delving in to questions no one has delved into before (which she tells us would be great to start a study on, if we are interested in a career in the field). Her teaching style between the two classes is consistent--the way she sets up her powerpoints, the way she teaches/lectures, and the way she engages the class. Which is great, because I love her teaching style. She is teaching two different classes next semester, and I signed up for both without any hesitation whatsoever.

I have two other classes where the teachers are... not so great (and another where my opinion on the teacher is neutral). They are erratic in their teaching styles, there is little day-to-day consistency, they don't follow a syllabus (or even attempt to at this point), and they are not clear with their directions. In one of these classes the professor explained a theory that made no sense to me, but a couple weeks later my "good" professor explained the exact same theory and I had absolutely no trouble understanding then, as compared to my not-so-good teacher. I'm able to pass their classes, but not do as well as I want to do. It is bad enough that I will avoid ever taking classes with these teachers again if I can help it.

In short, having a professor whose teaching style is clear and consistent is very important to me and reflects the way I best learn. It is with a "good" teacher that I not only survive, but thrive. With teachers that I don't consider "good," all I care about is passing, not learning. My "good" teachers throughout my life have fostered my interest in their subject areas and helped me not only to learn, but to enjoy doing so.

What is your experience?
 
Last edited:

geedoenfj

The more you know..
Joined
Oct 6, 2015
Messages
3,347
MBTI Type
ENFJ
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
It's so important, I remember the high scores I got was in subjects that have a good teacher or professor, even if I find it to be difficult, but bad teacher would make me hate the subject and never be able to get the point of that even if it's not that difficult..
 
Joined
May 31, 2015
Messages
181
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
7w8
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
There are several factors that make the learning process effective. In my opinion the #1 is interest shown by the person who wants (or has to) learn something. If you are really interested in something then you don't even need a teacher (although an experienced helper can give you a lot of help). When it comes to teaching stuff by teachers the very first thing they should do is trying to ignite some interest in the student in some way.
 

highlander

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Dec 23, 2009
Messages
26,562
MBTI Type
INTJ
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I have two other classes where the teachers are... not so great (and another where my opinion on the teacher is neutral). They are erratic in their teaching styles, there is little day-to-day consistency, they don't follow a syllabus (or even attempt to at this point), and they are not clear with their directions. In one of these classes the professor explained a theory that made no sense to me, but a couple weeks later my "good" professor explained the exact same theory and I had absolutely no trouble understanding then, as compared to my not-so-good teacher. I'm able to pass their classes, but not do as well as I want to do. It is bad enough that I will avoid ever taking classes with these teachers again if I can help it.

In short, having a professor whose teaching style is clear and consistent is very important to me and reflects the way I best learn. It is with a "good" teacher that I not only survive, but thrive. With teachers that I don't consider "good," all I care about is passing, not learning. My "good" teachers throughout my life have fostered my interest in their subject areas and helped me not only to learn, but to enjoy doing so.

What is your experience?

It's all in how you look at it. Everybody likes a good teacher. If you can manage to not get discouraged with a bad one, you can turn it into an advantage in terms of grades. The reason is that so many other people will get frustrated and it will affect their attitudes and performance in the class. If you look at in a positive light, as an advantage in terms of competing with other students for a good grade, you can make this work in your favor. That's what I used to do.
 
Top