‘Teacher’ has published part 2 of my article on positive teaching today. Have a look!

The time has come for the teaching profession to reclaim positive attention for themselves. Teaching and teacher education are rigorous fields of endeavour that require deep seated professional, theoretical and practical knowledge, wrapped up in a suite of positive personal attributes that serve to transform learners. Teachers need to be fair, kind, to be of good humour and sensitivity, and quality teachers understand how these attributes can drive pedagogy, curriculum and assessment. They understand how to motivate students and to build their self worth and aspirations. Quality teachers are competent in a myriad of professional tasks such as planning, behaviour management, development of resources and so forth. But beyond this, they  influence lives. Through effective teacher education, pre-service teachers can be exposed to experiences that challenge their beliefs, that raise their expectations for learners, and that build their interpersonal skills such that they can positively influence their learners and the learning.

I hope this site will attract comment, anecdotes, research findings and general discussion about the approaches to teacher education that have been most successful in attending to the holistic development of quality teachers.