Great Teachers, Great Me

Who was your favorite teacher? What characteristic do you remember first about her/him? In a nation-wide survey, these questions were asked of over 3000 people in order to determine the characteristics of favorite teachers. This poster presents the results and provides valuable insights into what should be included in teacher preparation programs. Preliminary results indicated that people remember the human characteristics of their favorite teachers before the knowledge they imparted or teaching skills they employed. This information would be useful for improving the learning impact of future and in-service teachers. Most recent efforts to improve student learning have focused almost exclusively on increasing teachers\u27 knowledge rather than on the human elements such as helping teachers interact more positively with students or improving teaching skills. While content is obviously important, the survey results indicated that the teachers who can facilitate significant and meaningful learning are those who can create and maintain positive learning relationship with their students. Over the past year, the survey data has been analyzed and grouped into three general categories: disposition, teaching skills, and knowledge. Based upon the data, people tended to remember the dispositional characteristics as being most important. Our poster displays results and asks observers to participate in a brief self-scoring exercise about their favorite teacher