¶ … passion and commitment to give something useful in everyday live distinguishes you as a teacher," says Professor Greenfield. Everyday, she tries to breathe the life of that mantra into her classes, where she seeks to infuse her students not only with the in-depth knowledge of the course they are in, but also the ability and desire to sit down on the weekends with a copy of The New York Times Science section. Greenfield is not alone; according to the American Psychological Society's "Those Who Can, Teach," other pedagogues like Satinoff and Buskist have found that their position as teachers is a unique one, where they can do more than merely instilling knowledge in their students, but also the interminable rapture of learning. The ability to do that -- to truly teach -- is the secret, and as researchers and lecturers alike, they have spent years investigating, learning, compiling, and now teaching the components of being a master teacher.
William Buskist did not begin his career in education to teach; likewise, neither did Evelyn Greenfield. Both researchers at heart, Buskist saw teaching as the means to provide a livelihood and umbrella institution for his research, but while he and Greenfield were involved in their requisite teaching demands at their separate universities, they became increasingly intrigued in their students and abilities. When Greenfield found that all of her students approached their classes from their own cultural perspectives, symbolized most by the argument of having babies sleep in the bed with their parents and the response of one of her native Mayan students, she realized she wanted to even out the playing field at the start of each class. To stabilize between...
Among many other traits she continues to develop, she was establishing a partnership with the students on the road of learning.
Meanwhile, Buskist was trying to establish how teachers like Greenfield became good at what they were doing. What character traits are common among the truly good teachers, the masters? He found the answer was not always merely intelligence, nor firm grasp of the topic, nor the student group, but a whole set of skills that defined the paradigm of good teaching. "Of course," he says, "master teachers are also bright, knowledgeable, well-organized, highly-prepared, and incredibly hardworking, but these are not the qualities that distinguish average or even very good teachers." (25) Still a researcher at heart, but now with the study on teaching, Buskist set out across the country interviewing master teachers, examining their traits, and culling the skills that seemed to symbolize the best academia had to offer its students.
He found ten traits that, across the board, were common among master teachers. First, master teachers do not hang their hats on lecturing and recitation, but instead focus on the problem-solving skills that excite critical thinking skills in the students. That does not preclude the importance of lectures, but merely shifts their design. At the same time, he found it integral to maintain the content of those lectures and…
