Before one can be a great teacher, a master teacher, or one of the best teachers, there are basic fundamentals the teacher needs to have.
When I started teaching, I somewhat simplistically looked to only one place to get a sense of how I was doing: my student evaluations. Sure, I also paid attention to if students seemed excited in class, happy to come to class, and how many of them actually did come to class. But clearly, that is not all.
Aaron Richmond (Metropolitan University of Denver), Guy Boysen (McKendree University), and I dived into the research, did some research (Richmond et al. 2014; Richmond, Boysen, & Gurung, 2015) and found six characteristics of a Model Teacher (Richmond, Boysen, & Gurung, 2016).
For a good overview of the characteristics see this piece in the NEA’s Thriving in Academe.
For the original taskforce report that got this work going, go here.
Readings on Excellent Teaching
Bain, K. (2016). What the Best College Teachers Do. Dallas, TX: Starlink.
Gurung, R. A. R., Richmond, A. S., & Boysen, G. A. (2018). Studying excellence in teaching: The story so far. In B. Buskist & J. Keeley (Eds.), Habits and practices of master teachers: International perspectives on excellent teaching (pp. 11-20). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Richmond, A. S., Boysen, G. A., & Gurung, R. A. R. (2016). An Evidence-based Guide to College and University Teaching: Developing the Model Teacher. New York: Routledge
Proud of the neat reviews of the Model Teaching Characteristics (MTC) book:
“The book identifies excellent teachers in terms of their impact on students, shows how to use various methods to see one’s impact, focuses on how students go about successful learning, highlights how to construct assessment to provide feedback to teachers about their impact, and demonstrates how to become an excellent teacher. The rare beauty of this book is that it is based on evidence, not anecdotes.” –John Hattie, the University of Melbourne, Australia
“What an incredibly interesting and thorough account of what it means to be a model teacher. The book masterfully integrates the literature on university teaching into a highly readable and useful guide. This book is one that all graduate students and faculty who aspire to improve their teaching should read again―and again!” – William Buskist, Auburn University, USA
“We all want to be better teachers but often don’t know how. The present book provides a solid base of evidence-based practices from experts in learning and teaching to help postsecondary teachers reach that goal.” – Marilla D. Svinicki, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
“This book is the perfect resource for professors who care about their craft. It is scholastically sound and comprehensive in scope. The engaging and humorous style, coupled with its no-nonsense assessment focus, make it a must-read even for the most seasoned professor.”– Jane Halonen, University of West Florida, USA
“The authors are renowned scholars in the field. … Both novice and experienced teachers will benefit from this book. … I … would definitely add this book to my collection and recommend it to colleagues. … I find it especially appealing the book rests on the work of a task force of one of the leading society‘s in the field of teaching of psychology. … It will add substantially to the literature.” – Birgit Spinath, Heidelberg University, Germany