Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > September > 18 > Entry
Teaching: What really makes it great?
So over the past several days, I’ve posted data about local teachers here at Get on the Bus.
But here’s a question — does any of this stuff matter?
So far, I posted data for:
Let’s take attendance out of the question, since teachers in our area come to work at a high rate across the board anyway.
But of the other factors — certification, education, experience — what factor really matters most? Or is it a factor not even on my list here that makes the most difference to developing a great teacher? What factors or attributes should parents most want from their child’s teachers?
Everyone can weigh in here, but if you’re a teacher, I’d especially like your take on it.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Mary
September 20, 2006 8:10 AM | Link to this
Let me try to clarify what I was trying to say. For me or my children, I did not care as much, but still cared, if the teacher had a degree, master’s or PhD in education. I cared more that the teacher had a degree in something and what that might be, perhaps experience in the field of math, science, languages, etc or whatever subject was being taught. As you know, the current system is biased toward teachers who have an education degree and no experience in the field. Sounds too pedagogical to me.By Oldprof
September 19, 2006 11:24 PM | Link to this
In all of these discussions, I’d caution that it doesn’t matter what one says about one’s self. So you like for your teachers to be a certain way—so you think you and your colleagues are the greatest—fine, I won’t argue, but it’s clear that you’re not the champ until everyone recognizes you as the champ. In this case, it is tempting to pull all of the data, put it into a spreadsheet, and run correlations (or get a real statistician to do a full factor analysis). After a time, some factors would start to stand out as important. Oh, BTW, education, experience, certification, and the other stuff that keeps “bureaucrats happy and employed” (how odd, I never met a happy bureaucrat!)—true, those things do not guarantee a good teacher, and their absence does not guarantee a bad one. But if you had to bet, would you choose (a) an undereducated, inexperienced, unlicensed one or (b) someone with years of teaching and full qualifications? If you honestly chose (a) then we MUST play poker sometime :-)By Gemma
September 19, 2006 12:40 AM | Link to this
There are two things that all the great teachers I know have: 1. passion for their subject area passion for the students they teachBy Annonymous
September 18, 2006 7:13 PM | Link to this
As a teacher, I would honestly say that none of the four are the most important. I work with the best group of people I have ever met. Most do not have a master’s degree. Some have come from other areas of the business world and have a license through an alternative licensure program, and the majority of the teachers at my school have under 5 years experience. Yet I have never met a more dedicated group of people. If students need extra help outside the school day, we stay. If one teacher gets too stressed and asks for help, we help. If paperwork needs completed, we do it. The most important trait of any teacher is their willingness to work hard for the students. The students are the reason we teach. If all you look at is quantitative data (such as attendance or how qualified a teacher is on paper) you will not get the best teachers. I’m not saying that attending workshops or having experience is bad, not by any means. But none of that will help if you aren’t dedicated to your job.By Mary
September 18, 2006 5:33 PM | Link to this
Not a teacher, but have been a customer as student and parent. The thing that matters most to us is passion and interest in the material. The certification and other aspects keep bureaucrats happy and employed. Quality of education of the teacher matters more than level of education. A degree in education matters less than knowledge of material and talent for passing that knowledge on to the students. Unfortunately, that is hard to quantify so bureaucrats can’t handle it.