[color=green]“The only important criterion by which to judge a prospective teacher is his/her ability to get along with the widest possible variety of students.”
To begin with, teacher is not just a word associated with a profession only. This word is capable of making a life long effect on a person’s life. A teacher is the second most important and utterly responsible person in a child’s life. He/she is adept of moulding and nurturing the aptitudes and personalities of the minds of the future generation.
In my opinion, the commercial aspects of this one of the oldest and most respected profession, comes only after the proficiency of a teacher, to mesmarize his/her students with the power/virtue of efficient two way communication. A capability, that not only instills the love of his/her respective subject in the students, but also makes a deep, life long affect on the personality and characteristics of those students. Ability of a teacher to prove that he/she is capable of developing and maintaining this effective pathway, is the only important criterion by which a prospective teacher could be judged.
Firstly, a teacher is meant to be a person who can proficiently examine the grasping power of its students, then genuinely demonstrate his knowledge in an understandable manner, and finally take instant and factual feedback from the students. Only after the feedback, he/she can exactly tell that how much knowledge have been transferred, which is the basic purpose of teacher-student relationship.
Observing closely, one can notice promptly, that the second two stages of the process are much easier and could be monitored with little effort. The actual test is the first step of the process. To determine the nature of a student, his learning ability, his strength and weaknesses, his those capabilities which he himself has never discovered, and finally the best manner of addressing his mind, so as to make him learn maximum, is the real scrutiny of a teacher.
Moreover, making a gaudy lesson plan, giving a mind blowing lecture and giving out frequent tests and assignments, cannot ensure that a student is really interested in the subject, and has open his eyes and mind to intake the knowledge given in the classroom. A thriving teacher is one who observes his students intently, take personal interest in their likings, endeavor world from the eyes of his/her students, and do every effort to develop an articulate communication with his/her students.
Through my personal experience, I have seen in my student life, teachers who themselves were highly qualified, but were still unable to transfer that knowledge effectively to their students. The reason was, they were not bend upon endeavoring the required time and effort, to understand obstacles that a student is facing in learning that subject. The result was; lectures surely end on time, even examination showed a normal result, but their students rarely try to take that subject as their majors in future. A fear and hatred was rooted in the heart of these students for the respective subject, that remained with them for the rest of their lives.
On the contrary, there are teachers who are although not as much qualified, yet so skilled in their profession that students always yearn to listen to them and greedily devoured each and every word they speak.
It may appear that some people are born with these qualities. However, this is not an appropriate excuse for others who are in the teaching profession, yet have never tried to cross the imaginary line that restricts effective communication between teacher and students. The key is that a teacher should pay more attention in understanding his/her students. He/she should always keep in mind that each and every student is an individual personality and hence, has his/her own way of understanding matters. Not that the teacher will have to make all twenty-five or thirty types of lectures to address each student. It is just a matter of understanding the approximate level of students and then questioning oneself that how would he like to understand this concept if he/she is in the place of that student.
Last but not the least, when teachrs are unable to communicate well, the term ‘weak student’ arrises in the scene. If a teacher effectively handle the learning process, it is often seen that even slow pace students also start taking interest and show remarkable improvement. The same students reacts utterly different with different teachers.
In brief, it is thus proved that the only important criterion to judge a prospective teacher is his ability to understand, accomodate and work with a variety of students.
TOEFL listening lectures: What does ‘monotreme’ mean?