What is the most important characteristic of a good teacher?
” I can answer this for myself, [name omitted], but I’m quite sure I can’t answer it for you or anyone else. There are many important characteristics exhibited by good teachers: authenticity, compassion, clarity, a love of the discipline, rigour, honesty, sensitivity to the needs of students, and the list goes on. The answer lies somewhere inside of you, and the challenge is to find it and articulate it for yourself. There are at least two readings I would recommend to begin the job of figuring out what is most important to you as a teacher-the first leans toward the philosophical, and the other toward the practical: i. Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach. ii. Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do Both of these books, and several others are available at the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness. I recommend dropping by and browsing through their collection. In the end, I think you’ll find that it is a collection of characteristics-not a single one-that best captures what
