What makes an inspirational teacher?

I had the honour to be presented with an award for 'most innovative use of teaching methods' at the recent Plymouth University student union SSTAR Awards. The evening was a joyous celebration of teaching excellence, and most importantly, all the award nominees and winners were chosen by the university students. For me and other members of teaching staff, this made the event more meaningful. The programme for the event details all of the categories, but what strikes readers the most is the emphasis that is placed on the relationships and respect that exist between the tutors and their students. But how does someone develop their skills to become an excellent teacher? Let's start with being inspirational.

In their nomination statements, Plymouth University students revealed what they thought were the secrets of becoming an inspirational teacher. By far the most important trait they identified was enthusiasm and passion for the subject. Almost a third of those who voted said they were inspired by those lecturers who were genuinely excited about their subject. One student said about their lecturer: 'He excitedly cites relevant material from memory, rousing students' interest and maintaining their attention as if it were vital to their existence - and sometimes, I am convinced of it.' Another stated: 'His inspirational teaching and enthusiasm for the subject is overwhelming. His lessons are delivered with such passion that you cannot help but leave inspired and with a thirst to learn more.'

Learning is not an easy business, so inspiring students to actually want to learn more is quite a feat. Sometimes studying can be tedious, arduous and can even sap the motivation right out of students. Inspirational teachers intervene at the right point, and know instinctively how to change the emphasis and direction of learning, bringing students back on to track by motivating them to succeed. Many times in my teaching career I have seen the need to sit down with a student and encourage them back in to line, and not to give up. Plymouth students also identified many other facets of inspirational teaching they thought important, including the art of giving good feedback that is constructive and forward looking, offering help outside of the formal lecture and seminar context, giving first rate support and advice, and using a variety of innovative and captivating teaching methods. The SSTAR annual awards not only identifies excellent teaching, but also encourages all of us here in Plymouth to strive to be better, and more inspirational as educators.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


What makes an inspirational teacher? by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Changing the learning landscape

Changing the learning landscape is a one day workshop on social media and learning in higher education that will be held at the University of Warwick on April 24. It's funded by the Higher Education Academy and the strap line for the event is interesting, intending to cover the 'realities of social media in learning and teaching: Making effective, safe, efficient and appropriate use of social media'. Clearly this is an important area of development for all education professionals, in whatever sector they work. Digital literacies (human attributes) and technology must work in tandem if we are to ensure the safe, appropriate and effective use of any social media tool. I'm looking forward to participating, and hope to learn much, because the blurb from the flyer promises much:

Social media turns the traditional static web into a participatory and collaborative experience. Social media enables individuals to discuss, share, and learn via different kinds of media, such as text, video, photos. The use of social media is increasing within higher education to teach and support student learning. The range of different social media platforms is ever expanding and it can seem quite daunting trying to navigate through this and find effective methods for learning and teaching. This workshop will discuss a range of social media platforms and provide examples of their use within learning and teaching.

This workshop will offer focussed support for strategic innovation and institutional change in the use of technology to enhance the student experience within learning and teaching. With examples of practice coming from a range of disciplines this event will look to inspire leadership of pedagogic development of the use of social media platforms. Through a series of presentations, activities and discussions, led by expert speakers, this one-day workshop will introduce you to social media approaches within learning and teaching and provide opportunities to explore how such techniques could be used in your own practice.

I have the privilege of being the first speaker for this event, and my topic is: 'Social Media and Learning: Content is a Tyrant, Context is King.' Here's the abstract:

"Social media is a fertile terrain for networked learning, and has many popular facets, but there are also issues and challenges. 'Content is king' was an aphorism that Bill Gates used to describe the capability of the web to deliver knowledge in a democratic and open manner. Now, however, with exponential increases in activity and a massive upsurge of user numbers, social media of all kinds are being used to generate content. Such user generated content can be found on YouTube (over 70 hours uploaded every minute) and Vimeo, images on Flickr, Facebook and Snapchat, and other content on a myriad of blogs, wikis and other content sharing platforms. What are we to make of all this content, and how can we make sense of, and filter it? Content is no longer king, it is now a tyrant, and for many is unmanageable. A new generation of social media tools is emerging to help us cope with this tsunami of content. Social tagging and bookmarking, aggregation and curation tools allow for content to be filtered, managed and for value and context to be added. In this session we will explore some of these tools and discuss their place in a time when higher education is having to adapt very quickly to the rapid advances technology is making."

The Twitter hashtag to follow will be #CLL1314

Photo by Genial 23


Changing the learning landscape by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.