What is Meant by Teaching?

 What all the great teachers appear to have in common is love of their subject, an obvious satisfaction in arousing this love in their students, and an ability to convince them that what they are being taught is deadly serious. Epstein (1981. p.xii) If I were to ask you to picture a masterful college teacher, any of a number of images could come to mind One image might be that of an awe-inspiring scholar lecturing from the stage of an amphitheater to an audience of students who are leaning forward to catch every word. Another might be that of a warm, approachable person seated at a seminar table among a group of students, facilitating an animated discussion, firmly but gently guiding the students to insight, awareness, self-confidence, and a heightened ability to think critically. Still another image might be that of an instructor engaged with one or two students in freewheeling sessions in the professor's study, over a glass of beer in the students" haunt, or in the laboratory—sessions in which each student has the opportunity to see at close range the way the teacher thinks and perhaps to glimpse an older person attempting to live a life committed to ideas and knowledge. Varied as these images are, they are alike in fundamental ways. In each of them the instructor is pictured not while studying alone or presenting a paper to learned colleagues but while interacting with students. The images all convey a sense of impact, of an instructor having a potentially profound effect on the students. In each, the students are emotionally as well as intellectually stimulated by the proceedings, whether as members of an audience or in one-to-one relationships.