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Old 11-03-2007, 10:27 PM   #9
Walter Martindale
Location: Edmonton, AB
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 802
Canada
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Re: What makes a teacher great?

A great teacher guides discovery and stimulates curiosity and learning beyond the class"room". He or she does not spoonfeed. This is the "mentor," "coach," "sensei," to whom I'll return. Math in grade 10. French in grade 10. Biomechanics in graduate studies, Aikido in Regina, Calgary, Auckland, and here in tiny Cambridge.

An instructor hands out information with little concern for how the student develops. This is the instructor I've often been stuck with (Ordinary Differential Equations, in 1976, for example, Fundamentals of Coaching, 1975 - the course I failed en route to becoming a professional coach...) Math 222 at UBC (polynomials) the first time through - it was the time that I learned the truth of the remark that people who say "obviously" in the context of a lecture are really saying "I can't teach"

IMO.
W
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