Teachers and actors

To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of the good actor; you must be able to hold the attention and in­terest of your audience; you must be a clear, speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching, in order to make its meaning clear. Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit motionless before his class; he stands the whole time he is teaching, he walks about, using his arms, hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his voice always changing according to what he is talking about.

The fact that a good teacher has some of the qualities of a good actor does not mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage; for there are important differences between the teacher's work and the actor's. The actor has to speak words which he has learned by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part; even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed before. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.

A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play: they ask and answer questions. The teacher, therefore, has to under­stand the "needs of his audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.

There are many teachers who are fine actors in class, but are unable to take part in a stage-play ...

Imagine that you are headmaster of school. You have come to a teachers training college to meet a group of undergraduates, wishing to find out as much as possible about their future work. What recommendations would you give them?

You are a participant of an international conference, which considers different problems of teaching. You are to make a report on the work of teachers. You should be also ready to answer all kinds of questions.

Teacher-Pupil Relations

(from "Control and Discipline in Schools")

Read the text to yourself and state its main theme. Say what kind of investigations were carried out and what qualities of the teacher are valued by the pupils most of all.

1. Developing relations between teachers and pupils means respecting children as persons and not simply "getting on" with them; the first encounters with classes must be handled with clear objectives in mind, taking into account educational and organizational criteria plus a sensitivity to the pupils' expectations of the teacher's role. We know pupils expect teachers to keep order, but what other qualities do they value?

2. Almost 900 ten — fifteen-year-olds were asked to rank six statements concerning three dimensions of the good tea­cher— the teaching itself, keeping order, and the teacher's personality. The responses showed that it was teaching ability (explaining work and encouraging pupils to work hard) which all pupils valued most, while least weight was given to the teacher's personal qualities (e. g. pati­ence and cheerfulness). However, the teachers who were asked to rank the statements placed personal qualities highest. The mismatch of expectations could account for some control problems in classroom.

3. When the children were asked to rank six items con­cerned with the manner of keeping order, all pupils ten­ded to put "firmness" and "fairness" first and "letting you have your own way" last, suggesting that pupils value knowing where they are rather than permissiveness. This piece of research would seem to demonstrate that tea­chers are most likely to satisfy children's expectations if they emphasize helping pupils to learn and a classroom manner which is both firm and fair.

4. A number of interesting points emerge from the studies summarized in the table. First, there is remarkab­le agreement between pupils of all ages and ability le­vels.

5. Secondly, two issues crop up again and again. One concerns the pupils' insistence that a good teacher is one who can keep order in a firm but relaxed and nonpunitive way. The other relates to the teacher's ability to make the pupils feel that they are learning something worthwhile

and efficiently.

6. Thirdly, children dislike both the " soft" teacher who cannot keep order (and even more so if he or she gets angry or upset) and the "hard" teacher who is overbea­ring and indiscriminate in his reprimanding and puni­shing. They like firmness, even strictness, but it must be seen to be just.

7. Further, pupils expect the order to be kept in such a way that they feel some freedom to express themselves in an atmosphere that is fairly relaxed and friendly with a teacher to whom pupils can talk easily, who treats their ideas seriously, and who is prepared to have a joke.

8. Finally, it is important to note the apparent contra­dictions in some pupil's expectations. They like to feel free yet also controlled; they like adults who come clean with their own views but they resent adults who pontifi­cate. Yes, on reflection, these are not contradictions at all but demonstrate the fine distinctions which characterize a very delicate area in which the teacher has to tread.

9. Living up to the pupils' expectation is a tall order, but the prurient teacher is the one who tries to respond as best as he can.

Find in the text sentences in which different quali­ties of the teacher are mentioned. Which of them are disap­proved of by the author?

Look up the text to find the author's opinion on the ways of

a) keeping order in class;

b) making the pupils study well.

Write out of the text the sentences which you would use if you were to prepare a report on the topic "What qualities must a good teacher possess?"

Give your own opinion on the relations between the teachers and their pupils using the material of the text.

Make a short summary of the text (in Russian or in English).