Is a good teacher the one that gives your child high scores? Is a good teacher the one everyone likes? Is a good teacher the one that favors your child? Of course not, but people are fooled all the time by these experiences.
Is a good learner one who makes few mistakes? Is a good learner one who adapt quickly? Is a good learner one who scores well? It could be easy to say, yes, but the truth is not necessarily.
In my opinion....
A good teacher brings more to the educational experience, yet the learner is responsible for a large part of the reciprocity. Together many types of intelligences come into play in that relationship, some of the teacher's and some of the student's. Fortunately, neither must possess all to have an effective exchange and measurable growth from the relationship.
Those intelligences are:
linguistic
logical-mathematical
spatial
bodily-kinesthetic
musical
interpersonal
intrapersonal
naturalistic intelligence
existential intelligence
emotional intelligence [EQ] and
transformational intelligence
A teacher is only as 'good' as the student's receptiveness; and a student is only as 'good' as the teacher's giving. A good teacher can impart knowledge in a variety of ways, while a student's avenue for receiving information and processing it is more limited because of inexperience.
What a teacher gives can only be useful, if it is received then incorporated into the student's existing pool of knowledge. What a student receives is determined by his / her 1) trust, 2) openness and 3) capacity to process it. Therefore, it is up to the teacher to be sure the student has or can create those three traits / fertile ground for learning to grow.
A good teacher inspires the courage, curiosity and commitment to learn in each student by addressing how they learn which varies from student to student and day to day.
The world cannot and should not adjust to the individual at every turn, but helping students identify their strengths and weaknesses with empathy and humor will build trust in how to process and produce with less fear and more joy.
Reading the atmosphere, anticipating and following the student's face and body language give the alert teacher many clues to the receptiveness of any student and indicate the most effective strategy in reaching that student.
A good teacher becomes a better teacher not from experience alone, but from the desire to reach and give to students. The combination of experience and desire foster further growth in the teacher. One more key to a teacher's betterment is the absorption of what students give back. Some give more than others, but all give something. A good teacher facilitates increasing amounts of 'give back', a reflection of a student's growing confidence.
Goodness is not a finite definition of either the teacher or the learner. It is a launching point for betterment. It starts and continues as a two-way street.
