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NPR is starting off a series titled "50 Great Teachers" and is starting with Socrates:
We're starting this celebration of teaching with Socrates, the superstar teacher of the ancient world. He was sentenced to death more than 2,400 years ago for "impiety" and "corrupting" the minds of the youth of Athens.
But Socrates' ideas helped form the foundation of Western philosophy and the scientific method of inquiry. And his question-and-dialogue-based teaching style lives on in many classrooms as the Socratic method.
Most of us have been influenced by our teachers, and some of them may have even been great ones even if, unlike Socrates, they toiled in anonymity. So, I ask this question: Who were (or are) your greatest teachers, why, and what did you learn from them that made them so great?
(Score: 3, Informative) by davester666 on Thursday October 30 2014, @03:19AM
1. Actually know what you are lecturing about. I've had profs who literally worked through a textbook a chapter or so a week, each week making a lecture out of it, and be completely unable to answer ANY questions about the lecture he just gave [oh yeah, also don't save all questions for the end]. So every week, there would be a bunch of questions, he would write them down, then at the start of the next class, proceed to answer them. Completely worthless. Naturally, this prof kept teaching this class, the same way, every year, no matter how low a rating the students gave him]
2. Be interested in what you are teaching. My best university prof was a Dr. Kharighani, who was always super-enthusiastic about teaching us 2nd and 3rd year math. Of course, the university turfed him right away [even though he clearly had the highest student rating of any prof for classes taken by Engineers].
3. Be interested in your students actually learning the material. Dr. K would notice the kind of questions you asked about the work, and would not only just answer the question right away because he knew the material, but also would figure out if you were having trouble understanding the principle he was teaching or just how to apply it in a specific circumstance.
4. He would also make late-comers sit in front, and make them pay attention. Occasionally, chalk would fly.
5. As well, he would notice AND ask about why you missed the last class, in front of everyone. People rarely missed his class [and generally didn't want to because he generally made it interesting].