Top Ten (10) Traits of an Ideal Teacher

In our first LIBR534 class, we asked the student librarians to interrogate a series of issues such as why they were taking our class, to list the most important issues facing librarianship and to describe their best learning experience. I thought it would be interesting to look at some of their top (most commonly-mentioned) traits for the ‘ideal teacher’. Enjoy! Dean

Top Ten (10) Traits of an Ideal Teacher

1. An ideal teacher is humanistic – someone who cares about his/her students.

2. An ideal teacher establishes clear and transparent guidelines for assessment, and clear expectations.

3. An ideal teacher makes you feel hopeful – and praises your attempts to learn.

4. An ideal teacher truly cares about your individual goals and makes a commitment to help you reach them.

5. An ideal teacher is empathic, caring and knowledgeable – and has the skills to impart what is important.

6. An ideal teacher stimulates critical thinking and infuses the joy of learning a new subject with the unique climate of a specific group of students.

7. An ideal teacher is passionate about his/her subject and shares that with students.

8. An ideal teacher can organize students and their abilities to take everyone to a new place intellectually.

9. An ideal teacher listens, inspires, motivates – and knows when to use humour.

10. An ideal teacher is also a learner and an observer of others.