1.3 FEATURES OF TEACHING
1. Good Teaching is Stimulating:
Stimulation and inspiration are of fundamental importance in teaching. A good teacher will try to stimulate his pupils for work, for otherwise, they become passive and disinterested in studies. Without adequate stimulation of pupil activity, no worthwhile learning takes place,
2. Not a matter of pouring in, but of drawing out:
Good teaching is not a pouring-in process. It is, in fact, a drawing-out process. An act of good teaching provides proper situations for the child to bring out what is hidden inside him.
Prof. J.H. Panton also says that modern teaching dose not stress "the pouring-in of knowledge but the pupil's own contribution to the learning process, and it seeks, to obtain his cooperation and active participation in the work in hand."
3. Not a passive act, but an active process:
Good teaching is not a passive act; it is an active process. It is dynamic. Although the learners are at the receiving end, they are active participants as well.
4. Mature Skill:
Good teaching is a mature skill. One acquires this skill with the passage of time. Experience also counts in maturing the skill of teaching.
5. Good Teaching Involves Skill in Guiding Learning:
The pupils need guidance to do the right things, in the right manner and at the right time. But guidance is not to be imposed on the child. It should be given skillfully through suggestions, examples and appropriate environmental situations.
6. Good Teaching is Well-planned:
A good teacher organises and plans the subject matter in advance. Without proper planning, effective delivery of the lesson is not possible However, planning must provide scope for necessary changes due to unexpected situations that may arise in the class-room.
7. A means of adjustment:
Good teaching takes both the child and his environment into consideration. This means teaching "is the means whereby society trains the young in a selected environment as quickly as possible to adjust themselves to the world in which they live." (Yoakam and Simpson)
8. Organisation of learning:
This book Successful Teaching, Mursell relates good teaching to good learning. He regards teaching as organization of learning. The organization of learning means giving appropriate learning experience for which selection of proper methods and desirable content is necessary.
9. Good Teaching is Suggestive and Cooperative:
A good teacher will not impose anything on the child. Rather he will seek his cooperation and suggest activities, ideas, materials, etc. It is a psychological fact that suggestions take deeper root in the minds of children whereas direct advice is generally repulsive to the child. For example, to inculcate the qualities of courage and fortitude, life-stories of brave personalities may be told.
10. Good Teaching is Kindly and Sympathetic:
A good teaching is always kind and attends to his pupil's difficulties and doubts sympathetically. They feel that the teacher is their well wisher and thus, whole-heartedly cooperate with him. On the other hand, a harsh teacher can never elicit warm response from his pupils.
11. Good Teaching is Democratic:
Good teaching should be based on democratic principles. The teacher should have due regard for the rights and individuality of the child. Methods of teaching the subject matter should be selected from this view point.
12. Equipping the child for future:
Good teaching is a kind of human relationship. The purpose of this relationship is the development of the child from all angles and in all phases. In this way, the child is enabled not only to acquire knowledge but also to use it judiciously. Thus good teaching enables the child to become self-reliant in his future life. In other words, good teaching enables the child to become "fit to live, and fit to live with."
13. Good Teaching is both diagnostic and remedial:
The teacher must study and assess the inborn qualities of the child individually. Their limitations, handicaps and difficulties are to be discovered and remedial measures suggested. Like a doctor, the teacher's job is to diagnose the maladies first and then prescribe treatment for it.
14. Good Teaching is Correlative:
A good teacher does not put various items of knowledge in water tight compartments. He tries to link the new.
knowledge and experiences of pupils. He also tries to correlate his subject with craft, their physical and social environment.
15. Good Teaching Liberates the Learner:
Good teaching develops in the child habits of initiative, independent thinking, self-reliance and self-confidence. It enables him to learn for himself and reduces his dependence upon the teacher. That is to say, the child is liberated from teaching.