Aesthetics, Philosophy, and the Qualities of Good Teaching
This paper examines the qualities that define effective teaching, arguing that good teachers must go beyond friendliness and subject-matter competence to actively cultivate student enjoyment. Drawing on Felicity Haynes's concept of aesthetic education and Wendy Kohli's discussion of educational theory, the paper proposes an integrated teaching paradigm in which aesthetic appreciation is combined with functionalism and pragmatism across all school subjects. It further argues that teachers benefit from developing a personal philosophy of teaching, contending that philosophical reflection and practical experience are mutually reinforcing rather than separate pursuits. The result, the paper suggests, is a more confident, student-focused educator capable of creating lasting, meaningful learning experiences.
- What Makes a Good Teacher: Defining good teaching through student connection and enjoyment
- Aesthetic Enjoyment in the Classroom: Haynes's aesthetic education concept and its classroom relevance
- Aesthetics Across All Subjects: Extending aesthetic appreciation into science, culture, and literature
- Philosophy and Practical Teaching: Why teachers must also be philosophers of their own practice
- Conclusion: Integrating aesthetics and philosophy for student-focused teaching
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its personal argument in named scholarly sources (Haynes and Kohli), giving opinion-driven claims an academic anchor without over-relying on quotation.
- It moves logically from the broad question of what good teaching is, to a specific instructional principle (aesthetics), to the teacher's inner life (philosophy), creating a coherent arc.
- The author is transparent about agreeing and disagreeing with cited scholars, modeling how to engage critically rather than simply summarize.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates critical engagement with sources: the author explicitly agrees with Haynes's later position while extending it, and explicitly disagrees with the early view cited in Kohli. This technique — stating a scholar's position, then marking one's own stance clearly — is a foundational skill in academic writing that allows personal argument to coexist with evidence-based reasoning.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a reflective introduction defining good teaching in personal terms, then introduces Haynes's aesthetic education concept and expands it across disciplines. A third movement addresses the teacher's philosophical self-development using Kohli, and a brief conclusion synthesizes the two threads — enjoyment through aesthetics and confidence through philosophy — into a unified vision of student-focused education. The structure mirrors the argument: outward (student experience) then inward (teacher identity), then integrated.
What Makes a Good Teacher
As a profession that directly involves working with people, teaching is inherently complex. What constitutes "good" teaching is even more so, as definitions of good vary from person to person. Perceptions of teaching differ from student to student, each of whom carries his or her own ideals and expectations regarding good teachers. Each student also has a history of teachers that largely shapes his or her understanding of what a good teacher looks like. It is therefore necessary to take some distance when describing the qualities of good teaching.
A good teacher is more than just friendly and understanding, although these qualities matter in any profession that involves people. A good teacher, in my personal view, should connect with his or her students in a personal and targeted way. He or she should be in touch not only with each student's needs, but also with the student's dreams and ambitions, and with how these can be brought closer to reality through the subject matter being taught. Most importantly, the teacher has a responsibility to make the learning experience enjoyable for students. Students tend to be more responsive to a learning experience associated with enjoyment than to one associated with pain or, worse, boredom.
Aesthetic Enjoyment in the Classroom
The ideal of enjoyment is closely associated with Felicity Haynes's (1999) concept of aestheticism in teaching. According to Haynes, the aesthetic experience tends to be marginalized in schools, as pragmatism, accountability, and functionalism take precedence over teaching the arts for their own sake. Even the arts themselves have become functional rather than aesthetic, with focus shifted away from inherent talent and toward what can be taught by means of art.
I agree with Haynes's later view that functionalism is not all that teaching needs to be. I would go one step further by placing aesthetic appreciation alongside functionalism and pragmatism within an integrated, rather than separate, paradigm of teaching. In attempting to make subject matter not only palatable but actively enjoyable for students, a teacher can incorporate a targeted sense of aesthetic enjoyment. Haynes broadens the concept beyond its conventional association with the arts to include more "practical" subjects such as science as well.
Aesthetics Across All Subjects
Aesthetic enjoyment can also be used to cultivate an integrated sense of humanity that has become increasingly important in the more tolerant twenty-first century. Multicultural classrooms, for example, can learn to appreciate the aesthetics of art from a variety of cultures. In the science classroom, students can learn to appreciate the visual beauty created by combining certain formulae. Nature, as Haynes also notes, can be appreciated aesthetically for its beauty and untouched wildness.
While aesthetic appreciation is conventionally associated with the visual and other physical sense perceptions, it can also relate to other forms of enjoyment, such as the imaginative appreciation of literature. Students can learn to expand their imagination not only by appreciating the work of established authors, but also by creating literature of their own. This can again be combined with pragmatism and functionalism in terms of learning language, grammatical structures, and usage.
By including aesthetics in all school subjects, teachers are free to add an element of enjoyment to their teaching that benefits both teachers and students. This not only enhances the classroom experience, but also what students are able to carry away from the classroom for future reference. Lessons enjoyed in an integrated way — through both aesthetics and functionalism — will benefit students far longer than information presented in a rote, uninspiring fashion.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that good teaching is very dependent on a student's enjoyment level of the subject matter. To make this truly meaningful, the teacher should find ways of integrating the aesthetic with the functional. Teaching goals should also be integrated with teaching philosophy in order to connect with students and their needs. Student-focused education can then be enhanced by a teacher's commitment to self-improvement and the cultivation of a targeted personal philosophy.
Sources
Haynes, Felicity. (1999). "Aesthetic Education." Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Education. http://www.ffst.hr/ENCYCLOPAEDIA/aesthetic.htm
Kohli, Wendy. (2000). "Educational Theory in the Eighties: Diversity and Divergence." Educational Theory, Summer, Vol. 50, No. 3.
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