What Makes a Great Teacher?

The Atlantic magazine published an interesting article, "What Makes a Great Teacher?" While their focus was on public school teaching, there are some good points in the article that serious Bible teachers should pay attention to.

The Teach for America group has studied thousands of teachers and identified characteristics of the best -- as measured by students actually learning:

• They tend to set big goals for their students.
• They perpetually look for ways to improve their effectiveness. They constantly re-evaluate what they are doing.
• They maintain focus on things which contribute to learning.
• They plan exhaustively and purposefully by working backwards from the desired outcome.
• They work relentlessly.
• They frequently check for understanding. (This is not done by asking "Any questions?")
  

Do you see the combination of mindset and practice here? Very powerful!

I read this article and thought "I am doing enough goal-setting for the people I teach? Or properly, I should say, am I paying attention to the big goals that God has for my students?"

What questions do you have when you look at that list?

Read the whole article here.