Qualities of a Good Instructor

Good instructors are more than just college educated individuals placed in front of a group of students and regurgitating facts and figures. A good instructor must captivate his audience and not only give them the information, but encourage them to learn, and ultimately get them excited about learning. A good instructor must have at least three main strengths in order to be effective: good speaking ability, knowledge of the subject, and an enthusiasm for the subject.

Good speaking ability is essential in order to keep the students interest (Smart, 2008). Oral communication is something that can come natural for some, but must be learned by others. Classes are available in oral communications which provide the basics in speech, but practice, and an awareness of how one comes across to an audience is essential. If the instructor can speak well and entertain the audience, the job is half way done.

Though it is not impossible, the ability to teach a subject that the instructor does not know well is less likely to be successful. Instructors that rely on the book to teach the class is far less effective than a knowledgeable instructor that can guide the students through the material and explain the subject matter. An instructor can never know too much about the subject they are teaching, and learning must be an ongoing process to keep on top of technology and changing subtopics within the subject they are teaching (McGraw). If an instructor isn’t on top of the latest data on a given subject, he cannot be effective.

Instructors must be enthusiastic about the subject they are teaching (McGraw). An instructor that doesn’t love their subject cannot be effective, and cannot pass their enthusiasm for the subject onto the students. Students can pick up the love or dislike of a subject from an instructor, and an effective teacher will be able to motivate the students with his own enthusiasm for the subject matter. By being excited about the topic they are teaching the instructor will go beyond the text books, raising the material above and beyond the level of curriculum that the course expects the instructor to teach. Enthusiastic instructors breed enthusiastic students, and enthusiastic students get better grades, and will try harder and go farther than those students bored to death by a subject.

Garbage in equals garbage out can be applied to many things, but the analogy is so true when it comes to instructors and students. No one can argue that a knowledgeable instructor in essential to teaching students, but as this paper has noted, it goes much farther than that. An instructor must also have good speaking qualities, and an enthusiasm for the subject as well. With all three, an instructor will be an effective teacher, and the students will be better learners.

References
McGraw, C. In Search of a Master Teacher: What qualities make a good teacher? Retrieved on May 8, 2008 from http://www.partnershipforlearning.org/

Smart, M. (Feb. 28th, 2008). Reflections on Teaching Quality. Retrieved on May 9, 2008 from http://www.toymn.org/reflections-on-teaching-quality.htm