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[Thogin]

Teaching is an art, but it should be a science since teacher/researchers do so much real life studies and their experience/understanding on the matter is galatic.

My question to teachers on Dave's Cafe Form, of non-aggression or non-trolling people and whatever the list was on the newbie form list. (we don't use newbies anymore just to let you know, try, noobs, nooblets, or monkeys)

My question is, what are three skills that you think are essential to teaching. Just teaching, not your personality, I do not want people saying love and having a big heart. We can't measure those or compare it. Well the heart size we can... but not the point.

Comment Please

[spiral78]

I think a genuine interest in teaching/learning language is essential - and leads to continual development of both knowledge and skills.

Focus - on what is going on in the classroom at all levels.

Ability to think on one's feet - to address teachable moments as they come up, which is not always as predicted

[spiral78]

By the way, I'll maintain that both teaching and learning are a combination of Art and Science

[Teacher in Rome]

I think that certain skills are different depending on the situation. Following on from a thread on online teaching, I'd say that listening is perhaps one of the most important skills for that type of teaching. You have to know when to shut up and let the student speak without interruption (otherwise you get a very distracting echo down the headphones) and you need to know when to start speaking to give feedback.

I also teach a lot 1-1, and one of the most important skills is building trust. If your student trusts you, he / she will shed inhibitions and become a lot more creative with the language. I've got this theory that everyone has a fear of something. If you get past the fear by talking about it and sharing it, the student seems to relax and starts trusting you with English. But you can't force it - you can't just ask the student what they're scared of. I've found that it comes up in conversation at some point in the course, the student mentions it, and from then on, you've got a lot more trust with the student. Strange perhaps, but true!

[jdl]

Skills:
Able to: metacognate, problem solve/plan and communicate
Characteristics:
empathy, curiosity and adaptability

[Thogin]

Response to Spiral and TIR
Maybe, teaching is close or similar to martial arts. A science and an art form. I agree with spiral78.

Response to Spiral78
Focus - As a teacher, I believe everyday, we put on a show for our students and the come to see us dance, sometimes really dance. If we teachers cant stay focus, I believe classroom management would break down.

The ability to be flexible, like spiral78 said. I believe Teaching is like a battle, you may have a plan, but nothing always goes 100% according to plan.

Response to teacher in Rome
Listening - I also believe is an important point, teaching works best when the teacher understands the students. Traditional teaching is normally one way and Asian education is still mostly that. Teacher center to a perfection. I can only speak about China, however if I believe so, Japan and Korea are similar if I heard my friends correctly.

An interest in teaching - My not be a skill, but this is true. No matter how smart a doctor is, if he do not want the job, your pretty much in harms way. Same with teachers, I was scare at my grad. on how many of my classmates said they really did not like teaching, but would do it anyways.

Question
The ability to build trust - My question to this skill/ability, are the some teachers that students just want to trust and why? Do students really need to trust a teacher to learn? Or how much should a student trust a teacher for them to accquire the information from the teachers.

[spiral78]

I see Focus as a sort of super-charged listening, where the teacher is aware of and sensitive to both verbal and non-verbal output from students, continually.

[BobbyBan]

[SueH]

Like TiR I'm in Italy and building up trust is certainly important here, as there is often a surprising lack of confidence.

To add to the other contributions I would add, after this morning's primary school classes: _patience_! I'm not a particularly patient person, but I've learnt it teaching: a bit like going to the theatre, the 'willing suspension of disbelief'.
I nearly lost it this morning, but as a local colleague pointed out, the pupil in question thinks he's right in Italian and French as well, even when he's not!

Another point is that you sometimes have to be more outgoing than you actually are. It has its rewards though, and although this morning I arrived at school a bit down, teaching soon made me forget my frustrations (well, maybe replaced them with others!), and we were all soon smiling over a language point they find difficult. I'll check next week whether they really have got it;... so being organised as a teacher is also important.

[JZer]

This is not a skill but I think it is important for teachers from time to time to place themselves in a class as a student.

[WYSIWYG]

I think it's nearly impossible to pinpoint just exactly what good "teaching skills" are. I think there are too many variables involved that really revolve around the individual leading the class. Some make a huge impact on a class while using humor, others the same while being very serious.

It's an individual thing...and I've never seen different people that successfully pull it off using identical techniques.

[roadwalker]

[Laurence]

Good topic,
it's really interesting to see different posters' priorities.

I agree with Teacher in Rome that rapport is very important, which ties in a little, I think, with creating a meaningful context.

I think that the following:
Listening
thinking on your feet
focus
and an interest in your work,
all pretty much go without saying, and don't really constitute a set of tangible skills.



These are three important skills which I have developed teaching EAL, which I think are pretty much completely transferable/non-personality-dependent:


> Creating new tasks/exercises based on course material, which either lead in to or extend from the topic being covered as appropriate.


> Setting tasks in such a way that students will either discover or realise things for themselves, rather than being lectured and expected to follow the teacher's example.


> Adapting teaching style and lesson content to address the variety and combinations of learner types.

[JZer]

[spiral78]

I think that's a cultural thing. Asian (and Middle Eastern) cultures respect 'elders' and teachers kind of automatically have such status, regardless of age. When teaching Asian immigrants to North America, we had to explicitly address this sort of thing - building in critical thinking, identification of bias, and recognizing slanted views were overt parts of our upper-level courses.

My Dutch students, on the other hand, have a (sometimes overly) healthy disrespect for their teachers