My Back Pages: Wanted: A Definition of Teaching

The editorial leading off Educational Leadership's December 1961 issue, on the theme of "What Is Teaching?", shares a number of different perspectives to kick off the exploration of this question. 

Read the article: "Needed: A Valid Concept of Teaching" (PDF)

Professor Herman Frick recalls the following definitions:

"We are all teachers, for what we do and say sets an example for the people around us, and thus our every act is an act of teaching." (From "a brilliant young minister") 

"He is wrong about teaching—to me, teaching is the specific act of one who knows the answer telling or explaining the answer to those who don’t know it. It is that simple." (From "an equally brilliant young lawyer") 

Frick makes the point that teaching means many things to many people, and yet to properly evaluate teaching we must continually reassess what we believe it to be. Finally, he offers his belief that "perhaps teaching is the application of the best-known principles of human behavior in efforts to promote the highest possible achievement of personal adequacy through learning." Of course, he adds that teaching must also continually reevaluate what personal adequacy is.

Bring this editorial into the 21st century, and the debate is not just about what is teaching; it's also about what is highly effective teaching. Lazy algorithms, like narrowly defining effective teaching by test scores or teacher credentials, threaten to make working definitions of teacher effectiveness elusive or so politically charged as to be unusable.

Defining effective teaching is not about creating a simplistic, single view of teaching. The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality proposes extending the definition of teacher effectiveness "beyond teachers’ contribution to student achievement gains to include how teachers impact classrooms, schools, and their colleagues as well as how they contribute to other important outcomes for students" (Goe, Bell, and Little, 2008).

Comments

[Guadalupe Vadillo]

To me teaching means touching lives to enhance a better life experience for the individual and his/her community (where community stands for family, friends, town, state, country and the entire world). This implies actively identifying and amplifying talents and fostering their development to full potential. Sometimes it just means staying out of the way so learners can achieve their goals and other times it requires that we actually facilitate resources and foster experiences so students can learn, continue learning and love the process.

[Wes Brumitt]

Teaching in a word is about patience. Investing time and energy into a process and allowing that time and energy to manifest in an experience called learning. The most patient teachers are able to educate -- from the Latin meaning to lead out, or in this context to draw out the answers from their students. Teachers are leaders in every sense of the word through the practice of patience. They recognize that we all have the answers within us and that we can access them if the teacher is willing to wait for the results.

[Albert Wight]

Read my article in the Journal of Creative Behavior, Vol 4, No. 4, Fall 1970, Participative Education and the Inevitable Revolution. Albert R. Wight

[Alicia]

Teaching to me is changing one life at a time. I enjoy investing my time and energy to my students to help them become successful. Students should be challenged to think critically and creatively everyday to gain a sense of learning. The students that we teach today are our future teachers, doctors, engineers, politicians, and so forth. I work hard to give my students a positive working climate where they can learn carefree.

[Kristina Strauss]

Teaching to me is sharing. You share so much when you are a teacher for example, knowledge, methods, thoughts, inquiries, learning, experiences, cultures, diversity, friendship and the list goes on and on. Not to mention our time and patience. We are teachers because we share and we share because we are teachers!

[Lindsey Leary]

Being a teacher so means many things. It means teaching students, listening to them, helping them, talking to them, and much more. In the end, it means being there for all of your students in any way that they need you to be. As teachers, we are role models to our students. We need to lead by example in and out of the classroom. In many cases, we are the only constant in a child's life. They need us. With love, we need to celebrate their rights and correct their wrongs. Teach students means giving them the tools that they need to become all they can in life.

[LaTosha Edwards]

I agree with Kristina, being a teacher means so many things. One's principal or school district may have the job defined or know what they want their teachers to do, but the reality is, teaching is so much more than just content, testing, and test scores.

Teachers must teach manners, how to participate in a dialogue, how to solve problems, how to communicate, etc. The list goes on. Teachers, at times, are also asked to be counselors, for any student's problem whether it's at home or at school, advocaters, supporters, advice givers, and even a learner. Being a teacher, does not mean one has all the answers, but a teacher is present to help and guide people as much as possible, even if it is referring them to a specialist or someone else who may be better able to help them. When one teaches, they teach for a lifetime, not for a subject or a grade level. A teacher wants to connect to one's life, in and out of the classroom.

[Catherine Raiff]

I agree with LaTosha and Lindsey that the role of a teacher is not easily defined, but is extremely valuable. By establishing relationships in the classroom, a teacher assumes many roles and teaches lessons that will help a child with life and not just with mastering targets on the curriculum map. Teachers guide, love, encourage and give hope to many students. Unfortunately, those aspects are not alwasy measured with a standardized test.

[Elaine]

Teaching means being able to constantly reflect on your principles, goals, and philosophies. Keeping focused on your purpose to help children, regardless of the challenges, is important. We admit that we don't know all the answers, but are all life long learners who will continue to keep trying.

[Jim Haas]

I once saw a teacher defined as "a cognitive data- and skills-acquisition facilitator." This bothered me on several levels, and I've since defined a teacher as "one who informs and inspires."

[JAHAN ZAIB]

TEACHING IS THE INTIMATE CONTACT BETWEEN A MORE MATURE PERSON AND A LESS MATURE PERSON THE PERPOSE OF WHICH IS TO EDUCATE THE LATER.