UWA SPOT/SET Project

103)          the teacher seems to have been well-informed on the material presented

That the teacher was well informed is one of the key performance indicators used to gauge the quality of the University's teaching (The University of Western Australia, 1999)

·         Boyer, in his book "Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate" says about teaching,
"As a scholarly enterprise, teaching begins with what the teacher knows. Those who teach must, above all, be well informed, and steeped in the knowledge of their fields. Teaching can be well regarded only as professors are widely read and intellectually engaged. One reason legislators, trustees, and the general public often fail to understand why ten or twelve hours in the classroom each week can be a heavy load is their lack of awareness of the hard work and the serious study that undergirds good teaching" (The University of Akron, 2000)

·         Hord (1997) writes that "Ernest Boyer's research (1995) concluded that the most essential factor in a successful school is that of connection; the most successful learning occurs when teachers teach effectively in their own classrooms but also find solutions together. In such schools, teachers operate as team members, with shared goals and time routinely designated for professional collaboration. Under these conditions, teachers are more likely to be consistently well informed, professionally renewed, and inspired so that they inspire students."  

 

Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and improvement [World Wide Web]. Southwestern Educational Development Laboratory. Retrieved 20 October, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.sedl.org/pubs/change34/5.html

The University of Akron. (2000). Campus conversations about the scholarship of teaching and learning [World Wide Web]. The University of Akron. Retrieved 20 October, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.uakron.edu/teaching/carnegie/miscellaneous.htm

The University of Western Australia. (1999). Annual Report [World Wide Web]. The University of Western Australia. Retrieved 20 October, 2002, from the World Wide Web: http://www.publishing.uwa.edu.au/annualreport/1999/fs99_page41.html