All Levels
What Makes a
Teacher Great?
Ken Vieth
Presently, as an art education consultant, I work with teachers both in
the United States and United Kingdom. With this opportunity, I get to
travel and meet a wide range of teachers, and to have varied discussions
about teaching art. The four questions below were developed with a colleague from Great Britain who had just returned from teaching in Africa.
Our goal is to receive input from a far-reaching group of educators who
are committed to quality education. Presently, as a contributing editor for
SchoolArts, I plan to compile the results and publish them in a future article.
We would appreciate your input and opinions on the four questions below:
Questionnaire for Teachers
1. List the qualities you feel represent excellence in teaching.
(personal and professional) Example: passion for your subject.
2. What are things you wished you had been told when you first started
teaching? (both personal and professional) Example: Don’t judge yourself
too harshly . . . teaching is a very challenging occupation.
3. As an experienced educator, what are a few values or transferable skills
that you would like to share with other people not in the educational field?
Example: Exceptional teachers have a high level of interpersonal skills so that
they can relate to their multicultural student body.
4. Do you think the qualities you’ve mentioned in question number one are
universal and found in all cultures? Please add any additional comments.
Ken Vieth is a contributing editor to Please send your responses to:
SchoolArts, a co-author of The Visual Ken Vieth, P.O. Box 47, Rosemont, NJ
Experience, and the author of From Ordi-
nary to Extraordinary and Engaging the 08556 or e-mail kvieth@crusoe.net or
Adolescent Mind, all published by Davis. take this survey online at
schoolartsonline.com
