Throughout my educational career I have experienced several examples of
both great instruction and poor instruction. Several themes, as discussed in
this week’s readings, are readily apparent when I reflect upon what I view as
a good teacher or a poor teacher. I have continuously found that a teacher
who is patient has a level of real-world expertise in their topic and is
confident in their abilities, within an objective approach, are key elements of
what I have viewed as effective instructors. d I will discuss below two
examples that I have experienced, one example of an expert and excellent
instructor and one example of an instructor that could use improvement.
One of the best teachers that I’ve ever had was not in a formal traditional
academic sense. My exposure to this teacher was actually during my time
as a police cadet, after completing five years of active duty service in the
military. I was transitioning from a military mindset after three combat tours
in Iraq into becoming a police officer here in the United States, and in
attendance at a police academy. d The lead instructor at the academy was a
military veteran and had many years of experience under his belt as a
police academy instructor. He took the time and patience with me to help
me adapt in my mindset and took interest in ensuring that I was also
transitioning from military life into civilian life. d Coupled with his subject
matter expertise in law enforcement, he became a mentor and a life coach,
someone that I could look up to as a role model in both my professional
life and my personal life. d Additionally, he was patient with me where
needed but also held me to a high standard and accountable, which was
vital in my professional and personal growth. d It has been found that this
form of teaching and leadership, coupled with preventative and post incident
care also helps police officers and combat veterans gain a higher level of
resiliency in the face of job-related trauma (Ellrich & Baier, 2017). d This
instructor excelled at all the elements that are described in our reading, but
he encouraged student-faculty contact, taking direct interest in guiding other
cadets and I to our fullest potential (Bernstein et al., 2020).
An example of a poor experience I have had with a teacher comes from my
time in my master’s program. I was going to school part time and about 9
years into my career in law enforcement. d The class I was in was very
obviously being taught by a teacher who had a very liberal agenda based on
their presentations. Every presentation and every assignment that the
teacher gave during the class was absolutely tainted by their personal beliefs
and strayed far from the source topic material. d Early in the class I wrote a
paper using empirical evidence to dispute the teacher’s viewpoint and it was
given a poor grade. d I found myself the rest of the semester carefully
ensuring that my assignments were written to not stand against the
teacher’s views. d At the conclusion of the class, I found that I had learned
very little, and the entire class was more-so an exercise in patience on my
end than anything else. d This teacher had little to no respect for diverse
learning styles and backgrounds, as well as did not provide an active
learning environment, which is a principle of effective teaching (Bernstein et
al., 2020)
This teacher likely had valuable information to share but could not step
away from their own ego and connect with their students. In 1 Peter 4:10
it is stated “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to
serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms (King
James Bible, 2017).” d This Bible verse perfectly covers the issues faced in
the second scenario and is a direct lesson on how to fix that issue. d To
respect each student’s experience, while holding them to a high standard,
allows each student to fully develop their gifts as God intended.
References
Bernstein, D., Frantz, S., & Chew, S. (2020). Teaching Psychology. New York:
Routledge.
Ellrich, K., & Baier. (2017). Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms in Police Officers
Following Violent Assaults. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 331-356.
King James Bible. (2017). Retrieved from King James Bible:
https://www.kingjamesbibeonline.org
