What Makes a Good Teacher

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER  

Though I wrote this article in the context of Higher Education – I feel is it universally applicable to all Teachers.

The Two Myths of Higher Education

By

VIKRAM KARVE

From my personal experience as a teacher at the post graduate level in Engineering, Technology and Management – I feel that the two myths of higher education are:

1. The Higher the Qualifications – the Better the Teacher 

2. Money motivates Teachers.

Let us reflect on what makes a good teacher – especially in higher professional education.

MYTH NO. 1 – The Higher the Qualifications, the Better the Teacher 

Does a Ph. D. make a Better Teacher...?

Musings on the Qualities a Teacher must Possess

A teacher is a trustee.

It is just like the birds. 

You take a flock of young students under your wings – nurture them – teach them to “fly” – and when they are ready – you release them into the world – set them free – watch them with pride as they fly into the sky, soar high above you – knowing that they will never come back – wishing that they reach great heights which you could never reach – for nothing gives a teacher more happiness than when his student excels and surpasses the teacher himself. 

I have learned from experience that teaching has got less to do with knowledge and more to do with communication.

Teaching is about relationships as well as pedagogy.

Teaching is more about feeling than facts. 

It is all a question of vibes.

Once you establish positive vibes with your students – you can feel the delightful chemistry being generated between you and your students. 

In the parlance of Electrical Engineering – it is like perfect impedance matching – the maximum power transfer theorem – and you can experience the classroom rocking with resonance – when all the resistance to the flow of knowledge disappears – the intellectual friction vanishes – the barriers to communication melt away – and seamless effortless learning is achieved.

It is not important how much a teacher knows – What is important is how much the student learns.

For a teacher – communication skills are far more important than qualifications.

Teaching is about relationships as well as pedagogy – Teaching is more about feeling than facts.

Soft Skills outweigh Hard Skills as far as the art of teaching is concerned.

A highly qualified Ph.D. who does not know the art of teaching and fails to establish good vibes with his students cannot make his lectures engrossing – and this often may result in students losing interest in the subject – and in some cases – an insensitive teacher who lacks the requisite soft skills – and has poor interpersonal and ineffective communication skills – such a teacher may even end up making his students hate and despise the subject he or she is teaching. 

I have seen that many Ph.D. qualified teachers do not possess the requisite soft skills required for effective teaching.

In many cases – overqualification may be counterproductive – and the demonstrated ability at carrying out research (Ph.D) may not guarantee good teaching skills – especially at the undergraduate level. 

Unlike in schools where B.Ed. is a must for teachers – and a DECE or Montessori Training is desirable for primary and pre-primary school teachers – the fact of the matter is that in higher education most teachers have had no formal training in the Art of Teaching or Pedagogy – and they are appointed as lecturers and professors solely based on their academic qualifications and research publications – irrespective of whether they are proficient in Pedagogy and the Art of Teaching. 

That is why one sees so many well qualified professors with poor communication skills and inadequate teaching ability owing to which they are unable to motivate their students – and this hampers their ability to transfer their knowledge to the students. 

Insistence on a Ph.D. for a teacher – even at the undergraduate level – this precludes many otherwise talented persons including those with professional experience from entering as faculty in the teaching profession in higher and professional education – and this is a great loss of expertise – and results in only the “academicians” dominating the teaching profession. 

Of course, the ultimate losers are the students – and as a consequence, the nation and the society at large. 

In fact – this is one of the reasons that many organisations and employers have to invest heavily in induction training – as fresh graduates are not industry-ready – especially in engineering and technology.

It is easy to make simple things difficult – but difficult to make complicated things easy. 

It requires good teaching style, effective communication skills and appropriate soft skills to make difficult things easy and enjoyable to learn. 

The process of learning must be enjoyable. 

It must not be dry, didactic, boring and painful.

It is important for a teacher to remember that learning comprises two pedagogic processes: 

Getting knowledge that is inside to move out 

and

Getting knowledge that is outside to move in 

The second part of imparting knowledge from outside into the student is comparatively easier – once you’ve got the students interested, eager to learn, and the teacher is proficient in teaching skills and knowledgeable in the subject and domain specialization.

It is the first aspect – getting knowledge that is inside the student to move out – facilitating inward discovery on one’s self – motivate inquiry based learning – to help unlock the treasure within the student – that is more challenging – and this is the true test and indeed the hallmark of a good teacher.

MYTH NO. 2 – Money Motivates Teachers

ARE THOSE MOTIVATED BY MONEY THE BEST TEACHERS?

Three Kinds of Teachers and 3 R’s of Teaching – Reward Recognition Respect

There are three kinds of Teachers:

1. Reward Oriented 

2. Recognition Seeking 

3. Respect Winning

Let us reflect a bit on each of the above types of teachers.

REWARD ORIENTED TEACHERS

In the first category are those who teach for Reward. 

For them – teaching is like any other job – a profession rather than a passion – a means of earning their livelihood. 

They believe that if they teach ‘X’ number of hours – they are entitled ‘Y’ salary. 

For any extra teaching load – they expect what the industry bluntly calls overtime – and for which academics use euphemisms like honorarium etc.

RECOGNITION SEEKING TEACHERS

Then there are teachers who are obsessed with Recognition. 

They strive for awards, titles, designations, positions, peer recognition, publishing papers, honours, fellowships – being recognised is all about fame. 

Recognition is not so much about getting credit as it is about being appreciated.

RESPECT WINNING TEACHERS

The highest category of teachers are those who win Respect – respect of their students, respect of their colleagues in the teaching fraternity and respect of society. 

For them respect is one of the most critical dimensions of their life. 

Respect Winning Teachers are passionate about teaching and they are loved by their students on whom they make a lasting impression.

In Which Category is Your Teacher...?

So – Dear Reader – the next time you see a teacher – observe carefully – and try to analyse in which category he or she belongs – reward, recognition or respect.

A Teacher who strives to win respect will always be more student-centric, stakeholder conscious and effective – than Teachers who are greedy for rewards or yearning for recognition.

Are You a Teacher...?

If you are a teacher yourself – please close your eyes and introspect – and see for yourself where you belong – and truthfully assess whether your metier is in teaching.  

It is quite simple.

After you finish a lecture ask yourself six questions:

1. Is the lecture something you feel you have done well...?

2. Do you feel you teach well...?

3. Did you enjoy delivering the lecture...?

4. Do you enjoy teaching...?

5. Did you feel proud of the way you delivered the lecture...?

6. Do you feel proud of the fact that you are a teacher or would you rather be someone else...?

If the answers to all the six questions is YES – you know you are in the right place. 

So – Happy Teaching. 

Whether you are a Teacher – or a Student – or a Parent – don't forget the Three R’s of Teaching (Reward Recognition Respect)

EPILOGUE

So we have debunked the two myths of teaching – haven’t we?

Am I a good teacher? 

Have I won the respect of my students? 

Well, looking back at my teaching years, I trust I have succeeded in achieving this, and yes, I have been a good teacher.

Every time a course or training program ends, I feel a sense of pride tinged with nostalgic sadness as my protégés “fly” off to conquer great heights of success in their careers. 

It is indeed a delightful and unmatched experience to mentor young bright minds, to see them flower, blossom, bloom and flourish before your own eyes, observe them metamorphose from students into professionals.

I love being in the company of young talented people, full of zeal and enthusiasm, with a zest for living and a passion for learning. 

It makes me feel good and youthful, and as always – I “learn” more than I “teach”.

I feel sad, wanting to hold them back, not wanting to part – but I know I have to let them go to their destinies.

My dear students – as I watch you with pride in my heart, swiftly fly away, soaring high above me in the sky, vanish into the distance – to all my dear students – I will always bless you and sincerely wish you from the bottom of my heart: GODSPEED.

Godspeed – a wish for a prosperous journey and good fortune, my dear young friends, as you embark upon your first career, a new phase of your life.

Let me end with one of my favourite sayings – a quote from Indira Gandhi:

My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people:

1. Those who do the work 

and 

2. Those who take the credit

He told me to try to be in the first group – as there was much less competition over there. 

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 
Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. 
© vikram karve., all rights reserved. 

This was written during my teaching days as a Professor at IAT Pune – and have I posted it online in my blogs a number of times including at urls: http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2011/11/what-makes-good-teacher-myth-and.html  and http://vikramkarve.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/what-makes-a-good-teacher-the-two-myths.html etc 

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve – His Life Story in His Own Words

MAHARSHI KARVE
His Life Story in His Own Words

LOOKING BACK By DK KARVE (1936)

The Autobiography of Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve

(Book Review by Vikram Waman Karve)

Tomorrow – 18 April 2018 – is the 160^th Birth Anniversary of Bharat Ratna Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve (18.04.1858 – 09.11.1962).

I feel that – on this occasion – it would be apt to tell you about his life and work as written by him in his autobiography titled LOOKING BACK published in 1936. 

Here is a picture of my copy of the book. 

Looking Back by Dhondo Keshav Karve 

Dear Reader – you must be wondering why I am reviewing an autobiography written in 1936.

Well – sometime back – for 6 years of my life – I stayed in a magnificent building called Empress Court on Maharshi Karve Road at Churchgate in Mumbai.

I share the same surname ( Karve ) as the author.

Also – I happen to be the great grandson of Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve. 

But – beyond that – compared to him – I am a nobody – not even a pygmy.

 

Maharshi Karve clearly knew his goal, persisted ceaselessly throughout his life with missionary zeal and transformed the destiny of the Indian Woman.

The first university for women in India – SNDT University – and educational institutions for women under the aegis of the Hingne Stree Shikshan Samstha Poona – later renamed Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha (MKSSS) Pune – covering the entire spectrum ranging from pre-primary schools to post-graduate, engineering, vocational and professional colleges bear eloquent testimony to his indomitable spirit, untiring perseverance and determined efforts.

 

In his preface – Frederick J Gould, renowned rationalist and lecturer on Ethics, writes that “the narrative is a parable of his career” – a most apt description of the autobiography. 

The author tells his life-story in a simple straightforward manner, with remarkable candour and humility – resulting in a narrative which is friendly, interesting and readable.

 

Autobiographies are sometimes voluminous tomes – but this a small book – just 200 pages.  

It is a very easy comfortable enjoyable read – that makes it almost unputdownable.

Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve writes a crisp, flowing narrative of his life, interspersed with his views and anecdotes – in simple, straightforward style – which facilitates the reader to visualize through the author’s eyes the places, period, people and events pertaining to his life and times and the trials and tribulations he faced and struggled to conquer.

 

Dr. Dhondo Keshav Karve was born on 18th of April 1858. 

In the first few chapters he writes about Murud, his native place in Konkan, Maharashtra – his ancestry and his early life – the description is so vivid that you can clearly “see” through the author’s eye.

 

His struggle to appear in the public service examination (walking 110 miles in torrential rain and difficult terrain to Satara) – and his shattering disappointment at not being allowed to appear for the examination (because “he looked too young”) – all this make poignant reading.

 

“Many undreamt of things have happened in my life and given a different turn to my career” he writes – and then he goes on to describe his high school – and later – his college education at The Wilson College Bombay (Mumbai) – narrating various incidents that convinced him of the role of destiny – and the role of serendipity in shaping his life and career as a teacher and then Professor of Mathematics.

 

He married at the age of 14 – but began his marital life at the age of 20...!!! 

This was the custom of those days. 

Let’s read the author’s own words on his domestic life:

 “… I was married at the age of fourteen and my wife was then eight. Her family lived very near to ours and we knew each other very well and had often played together. However after marriage we had to forget our old relation as playmates and to behave as strangers, often looking toward each other but never standing together to exchange words ... We had to communicate with each other through my sister ... My marital life began under the parental roof at Murud when I was twenty …” 

Their domestic bliss was short lived – as his wife died after a few years leaving behind a son.

“Thus ended the first part of my domestic life”… he concludes in crisp witty style.

 

An incident highlighting the plight of a widow left an indelible impression on him and germinated in him the idea of widow remarriage.

He married Godubai – who was widowed when she was only 8 years old – she was a sister of his friend Mr. Joshi – and now – she was a 23 years old widow – and she was studying at Pandita Ramabai’s Sharada Sadan as its first widow student.

 

Let’s read in the author’s own words how he asked for her hand in marriage to her father: 

“I told him…..I had made up my mind to marry a widow. He sat silent for a minute and then hinted that there was no need to go in search of such a bride...”

 

He describes in detail the ostracism he faced from some orthodox quarters and systematically enunciates his life work - his organization of the Widow Marriage Association, Hindu Widows Home, Mahila Vidyalaya, Nishkama Karma Math, and other institutions, culminating in the birth of the first Indian Women’s University (SNDT University).

 

The trials and tribulations he faced in his life-work of emancipation of education of women (widows in particular) and how he overcame them by his persistent steadfast endeavours and indomitable spirit makes illuminating reading and underlines the fact that Dr. DK Karve was no arm-chair social reformer but a person devoted to achieve his dreams on the ground in reality.

 

These chapters form the meat of the book and make compelling reading. 

His dedication and meticulousness is evident in the appendices where he has given date-wise details of his engagements and subscriptions down to the paisa for his educational institutions from various places he visited around the world to propagate their cause.

 

He then describes his world tour, at the ripe age of 71, to meet eminent educationists to propagate the cause of the Women’s University, his later domestic life and ends with a few of his views and ideas for posterity. 

At the end of the book, concluding his autobiography, he writes:

“Here ends the story of my life. I hope this simple story will serve some useful purpose”.

 

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve wrote this book in 1936. 

He lived on till the 9th of November 1962 – achieving so much more on the way – and was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters ( D.Litt.) by the famous and prestigious Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi in 1942, followed by University of Poona [Pune] in 1951, SNDT Women’s University in 1955, and the LL.D. by Bombay [Mumbai] University in 1957.

 

Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve received the Padma Vibhushan in 1955 and the India’s highest honour the “Bharat Ratna” in 1958 – a fitting tribute on his centenary at the glorious age of 100.

 

“LOOKING BACK” is an engrossing and illuminating autobiography, written in simple witty readable storytelling style, and it clearly brings out the mammoth contribution of Maharshi Karve and the trials and tribulations he faced.

 

Personal Epilogue 

 

I – Vikram Waman Karve – I was born in September 1956 – and I have fleeting memories of my great grandfather Maharshi Karve – when I was a small boy – during our visits – till 1962 – to the Hingne Stree Shikshan Samstha (now called Maharshi Karve Stree Shikshan Samstha).

My mother tells me that I featured in a Films Division Documentary on him during his centenary celebrations in 1958.

Here is a picture of me with my great grandfather Maharshi Karve taken in the year 1958 when he was 100 years old.

Vikram Waman Karve with Maharshi Karve (1958)

It is from some old timers, a few relatives, and mainly from books – that I learn of his pioneering work in transforming the destiny of the Indian Woman – and – I thought I should share this.

 

I have written this book review with the hope that some of us – particularly the students and alumni of SNDT University, Cummins College of Engineering for Women, SOFT, Karve Institute of Social Sciences and other Educational Institutions who owe their very genesis and existence to Maharshi Karve – are motivated to read about his stellar pioneering work – and draw inspiration from his autobiography.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 
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© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

© vikram karve., all rights reserved.

 

This is a revised repost of my book review written 21 years ago in 1997 and posted online in my various blogs earlier a number of times including at urls: https://karve.wordpress.com/2006/05/11/book-review-the-autobiography-of-maharshi-karve/  and http://creative.sulekha.com/story-of-the-life-and-work-of-maharshi-karve_405802_blog and https://karvediat.blogspot.in/2011/08/maharshi-karve-his-life-story.html  and  http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2014/04/maharshi-karve-his-life-story.html  and  http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2016/04/looking-back-autobiography-of-maharshi.html  and http://karvediat.blogspot.in/2017/04/maharshi-karve-his-life-story-in-his.html etc