Good Teachers - The Components of Effective Teaching

What makes a good teacher?

There are certain things that make up a good teacher. These are:

Mastering teaching skills: – effective instruction (teaching) is a matter of one person with more knowledge than another transmitting it to the other. It is important for a teacher to:

* task-motivate their student * merge the classroom * assess prior knowledge of the students * communicate ideas effectively * take into account the characteristics of the learners * assess learners outcomes

* review information

Good teaching can be taught. It has to be observed and practiced, but there are principles of good teaching that teachers should know. These can then be applied in the classroom. These major components are:

* Knowledge of the subject and teaching resources * Critical thinking and problem solving skills * Knowledge of students and their learning

* Teaching and communication skills

Outstanding Teachers:

There are certain things that make a teacher outstanding at what they do. One of these things is called intentionality. Intentionality means doing things for a reason, or on purpose. Intentional teachers are those who are constantly thinking about the outcomes that they want for their students. They think about how each decision they make moves their students towards this outcome. They realize that being a good teacher and teaching a lot to a student does not happen by chance. They constantly ask themselves:

* What goals they and their students are trying to accomplish?
* Whether each portion of their lesson is appropriate to the students knowledge, skills and needs? * Whether each activity or assignment is clearly related to a valued outcome?

* Whether each instructional minute is used wisely and well?

An intentional teacher uses a wide variety of methods, experiences, assignments and materials to be sure that their students are achieving all sorts of cognitive objectives. Along the way a teacher will make sure that a student is learning knowledge, creativity, application of knowledge, and affective objectives such as love of learning, respect for others and personal responsibility. The way that a teacher can become an outstanding teacher is related to teacher efficacy. Teacher efficacy is a teacher thinking that he or she is making a difference, and is at the heart of what it means to be an intentional teacher.