The teacher

The teacher is probably the most important element in the student's learning process, he/she is the one who presents him/herself as the authority figure, mediates between students and has the necessary methodological training to transmit knowledge in a didactic way, awakening the student's interest and motivation. In many occasions a good teacher is the fundamental cause for which a certain student decides to study a certain career or sees awakened in him/her the interest to deepen in some subject or content.

Because of the importance of this figure in the teaching process is that we propose the following summary, where we will address in a general way the role of this and its impact on students.

Traits that distinguish a good teacher

Obviously, as in any field, there are professionals who are better prepared than others, with better skills and who are more successful in the performance of their work. In the case of education, and specifically in teachers, the rule to apply is the same. Here are some of the main traits we believe a good teacher should possess for the successful performance of their duties.

Vocation: Teaching is not a profession that can be performed if one does not have a previous vocation towards it, it is like being an artist, it demands from the subject who exercises it a series of characteristics that are innate, that although they can be perfected or worked on, a certain degree of natural talent is needed. This is because the teacher has a very high responsibility, a bad educational work translates into a waste of possible talents to be discovered, of professionals who will not pursue certain studies because the teacher was not able to awaken interest in it.

Practice dialogue: A class is not a monologue, but an exchange between the teacher and the students, where the former must transmit his knowledge and receive a response of acceptance from the latter. The student should be motivated to question, disagree, contribute and reconstruct the teacher's discourse. An authoritarian point of view should not be imposed, education should not be scholastic and rote, but should encourage reflection, debate and contradiction.

Practice didactic techniques: In order to awaken the student's interest, the teacher should use didactic and illustrative materials, rely on images, sensory stimuli and even humor if necessary. It has been shown that mixing knowledge with didactic and interactive techniques helps to fix the contents more easily, this is because the student's brain will relate the information received with moments of pleasure, so the rejection will be less when the class is not associated with a boring or monotonous moment.

Stimulate self-study: The class is only a brief moment in the learning process, it is impossible to form an expert only with the class time received with the teacher. The teacher must awaken sufficient interest in the student so that he/she will be able to study in depth once the class time is over. For this purpose, complementary tasks and assignments should be used to encourage independent study. The student's tastes must be understood, and a good technique can be to begin self-study with those contents that awaken more interest in the student.

Promotes reasoning: Very much in line with practicing dialogue, promoting reasoning is nothing more than giving the student the freedom to reason and draw their own conclusions without being forced to follow an imposed criterion.

Rote learning is the most criticized and the least effective method.

When one arrives at a hypothesis by one's own reasoning, the knowledge learned is not only more valuable, but it is authentic and will be more firmly established.