The Good Teacher Focus Questions: How would you define a good teacher? – What characteristics do you think this person has to make them so? What Paradigm does your teacher fit under? Has the representation of Hollywood teachers affected your thoughts about the type of teacher you aspire to be?

Ancient Historical Teacher Plato ( BC) Socrates ( BC )

Teaching in the Middle Ages by Religious men Elizabethan teaching - ( )

Victorian Teaching ( )

Historical representations of male teachers

Today’s thoughts about male teachers Older man, grey hair and glasses Very strict and either grumpy or insane Teaching academically complex or physically demanding subjects

Historical representations of female teachers

Today’s thoughts about female teachers A young attractive woman, who is friendly, caring, kind, energetic and approachable

The Hollywood Teacher The way we know what a “good” and “bad” teacher looks like…

What is it and why is it important? Populist Image – A representation of the way society views what a teacher should or should not be. They come in many forms, shapes and sizes – usually on a crusade or with a mission to make a change in some positive way.

The hero Complex… Often accompanied by an issue - Race - Sexuality - Gender constructs - Religion - Oppression of some kind The curriculum space of crisis The curriculum space of redemption

Someone generally always needs saving…

Hollywood Vs Reality Do I see myself in these characters? What do I desire as a teacher? What am I allowed to desire? Actors are not reduced to the normative/reductive spaces of being a teacher in the current educational climate  Hollywood will probably get you fired!! Real students don’t all need saving – they need educating You don’t need to give up everything else in your life to be dedicated to your profession

Taking what we know about education from a professional training point of view – does it change your opinion? – “teacher as friend” – “popular teacher” – “teachers in social relationship” What else do Hollywood teachers do to our profession?

What does it mean for teachers… Let Hollywood teachers teach us about teachers Beware of the romanticised Be interested in the mistakes, the accidents, the detours and the unintelligibilities of identities Remember what is Hollywood and what is reality!

Good Teacher?

Give the people what they want!

mystify teaching an over concern with one’s own performance and‘high profile’ personal attributes over student development and progress a devaluing of careful planning and constructive feedback an attempt to emulate what is clearly unrealistic and unattainable within a normal school environment An unhelpful separation of the‘practicalities’of teaching from the ‘practice’ Moore A., 2004, p.69 Charismatic Teachers

The communicative teacher: The communicative teacher is defined more by presentation and communication skills Understanding of how learning takes place Sees education as a joint learning experience They are approachable to their students

Continued… Has genuine interest in their student’s opinions, knows when to listen and when to interject or interrupt There is no set formula for a good teacher in reality. A good teacher to one person may not be viewed as such by another.

Activity: Individually think about you favourite/best teacher and note down some characteristics. As a group which were the most popular character traits? Where would you put the teacher in which paradigm? – Write your teacher’s name in the Venn Diagram

What Makes a Good Teacher? - Student Q&A