This recent article from The Wall Street Journal, “Four Ways to Spot a Great Teacher,” underwhelms. The author cites the following elements of “superb teaching” among K-12 teachers:
- Have active intellectual lives outside their classrooms
- Believe intelligence is achievable, not inborn
- Are data-driven
- Ask great questions
In my view, superb teaching (K-12 and beyond) is more broadly defined and includes (not in order of importance):
- Subject matter knowledge
- Knowledge that surrounds the subject matter (to make connections)
- Ability to explain relevance in different contexts
- Continuous improvement of course content and delivery
- Respects students
- Enthusiasm for subject and for teaching
- Guides conversations to interesting places (by asking questions)
- Fair but rigorous evaluations
- Adjusts to changing times (short-term and long-term)
- Makes few teaching errors
This describes the best K-12 teachers that I had.