A good teacher to me

In our management class, we have changed two teachers so far, and last week came the third one. The reason for changing might be the necessity of this module, I don’t think it’s because of their teaching problems, they are all quite good and professional. However, their teaching styles are very different and I found my learning interest from these three vary too.

When the first lecturer introduced himself he said he is from an island somewhere in the north of Scotland, I can’t remember the name. But from his accent, I can tell it is pretty north. He used PowerPoint in the lecture and looks quite professional, but the way he talked and the accent problem didn’t drew much of my attention. Also with subject like management which is full of technical terms it’s better to have examples, but he just kept giving what’s written in the books and I found they are quite difficult to get into my mind.

The second one is a German lady. She is very passionate and always smiling. I felt having her lecture was like watching a drama, the way she talks and walk was very interesting. Our class is small group with 5-6 people, so she often picked up somebody and asked ‘what do you think?’ which kept our attention and made the class more dynamic and integrated. Although she has a bit accent, but I can understand pretty much what she was saying, at least better than the first one.

What makes me wants to write this is because of the third lecturer. His talks calmly, clearly and at a right speed – not too fast or too slow. But what’s more important is game activities were involved in the class. Last week’s class, in order to explain ‘the pursuit of knowledge’, he gave an example of learning how to juggle with instruction or without instruction. And this week he actually brought some juggle balls and let us practices in the class. By doing this, I found it’s easier to learn and remember those theories and important points we need to learn. Also, I didn’t feel board in 90 minutes lecture, he always kept us focused.

Although a good teacher need to be knowledgeable and professional in certain fields, but a professor title doesn’t make a good teacher. What I see a good teacher is not all about how much s/he knows or how many books s/he published, but how well s/he can transmit those complicated knowledge into students’ minds and motivate them to learn more.