What Is a 'Good' teacher'?

 What does a good teacher mean?

Its important to preface this extract by stating that I don't believe that one can 'be' a 'good teacher', a teacher is not a kind of status (new, experienced, expert0 or a badge that can be attained and boxed away ready to be diploid when the need for a 'good teacher' arises.

Rather, I believe a teacher is an infinite process of 'becoming' much like learning, teaching for me is a 'way of being' in the world. Its a way of being that relies on others seeking to be guided as much as it is a self driven journey. Teaching is about crafting with another being or whole class of beings as your join them on a learning journey. The learning journey calls for a correspondence between others. to bring the world into the realm of what can be 'known'.

The key here is the language, Lets start be changing the term 'good teacher'. I prefer the term 'skillful guide'. As mentioned above, in order to correspond with a learner its important that the skilled guide joins the learner on their own journey rather than imposing a set path for them to follow.

Here lies the difference in language between a teacher and a Guide. Where as a teacher may impart knowledge in order to be received and 'banked by the learner. A guide serves only to draw the learners attention to aspects of information that may aid their exploration.

Much like how a tour guide will focus the attention of their tourist group towards particular features of a city scape, ancient monument or historical landmark. The skilled guide will also guide the attention of the learner the invariant features of a subject landscape .

The tour guide may also proffer some facts and fragments of information (Knowledge about) the route. The may engage in storytelling to help shape the tourists ability to navigate the new landmarks they see.

However, its key to remember that while a tour guide may appear to lead the learning journey, each member of the tour party will experience the journey individually, they will each have their own meaningful memories of the journeys they took in this way the tour is always a correspondence between the tourists and the guide, their is always the possibility of know ways of 'knowing' and understanding to emerge.

In this sense being a skillful guide means to allow the learner to be self- determined, giving just enough knowledge at the right time in the journey to support competence and understanding. But allowing for the learner to perceive new affordances on their own.

In this sense each path walked by a learner is also a new journey for the teacher, and the path walked together contains as much opportunities to learn for both parties.

This is not to say that the 'skillful guide' is equal in knowledge equity to the learner. The skilled guide will have explored large parts of the landscape before and developed the adaptability to attune to the needs of novice learner's, they will also 'know' their subject landscape in greater depth, the key waypoints, for them are easier to perceive. Their praxis is becoming always more adaptable to this search space.

Nerveless, the path walked by each learner is laid by new footprints and in a journey that is truly a correspondence between guide and learner, together they can discover new way's of knowing the landscape. They can lay down new trace's on the earth. Perhaps in this sense a 'teacher' is just a more experienced explorer, always open to knew affordances in the landscape they inhabit and driven by the same curiosity and engagement needed by novice explores alike.

To use a familiar language perhaps an amateur's learner and a 'good' teacher are the same way's of being. The love of learning, curiosity and openness to experience burns like a bright light shining on a new unexplored shadow, waiting to be known.