Teaching skills are very important qualities to have, not only if your profession is that of a teacher but these skills can also help you to be a better friend, parent and improve your reputation in the workplace.

Teaching_in_Da_Ji_Junior_High_School_2006-12-13

Not everyone is born to be a great educator, people like Thomas M Rollins teaching advisor and educational specialist who created the Great Courses material, were born to impart knowledge onto others. For the rest of us who were not born to be great educators, we can work on the skills that are required to teach people better and significantly improve them. If you want to be a better teacher then here are some of the things that you need to do to enhance your abilities.

Watch and Learn

Even though you maybe looking at improving your skills when it comes to teaching, there is nothing wrong with still being a student when it comes to improving your skills. If you know someone who is an outstanding teacher then spend some time watching them teach to see what you can learn from them. Watch the way that they interact with those that they are teaching, study their style and the way they deliver a lesson. Imitating a great teacher will serve you will in terms of your own teaching abilities and it is most definitely to be encouraged.

Self Analysis

One of the best ways to improve how well you teach is to perform some self analysis, a sort of ‘look in the mirror’ test to see where you can improve. It is important to be honest with yourself during this process and you should write down a list of what you are good at and what you are not so good at. If you have results of your teaching then take these in to consideration, for example a teacher will have the grades of their students as a measure of how successful they are at teaching. Once you have a list of your weaknesses you will be able to start working on turning them into strengths right away.

Testing

There is nothing wrong with trying and testing new styles of teaching to see how they work, nobody reaches a moment as a teacher when they find the perfect approach that works with all different kinds of students. The key is flexibility and as you try out different styles and approaches, you will be able to see how will it works and with what kind of learners. This will help you greatly in the long term as you will start to understand what kind of approach you should use depending on what kind of learners you have.

Don’t ever think that you are an amazing teacher and that you no longer need to work on your skills, honing the craft is a lifelong endeavor and one which you will likely never truly perfect. The idea of being a great teacher is to give the people whom you are teaching the best opportunity to learn, for that reason, you owe it to them to be the best that you can be.