Author: Prof. Zhou Wengui
1. The instructor should be an expert in his (her) academic field, particular discipline and sub-discipline.
As an instructor he (she) must comprehensively master and have a thorough understanding of the course delivered, including the overall outline of the course, the major teaching content, the updated development in that particular field, and so on. That guarantees that he (she) would present the latest and the current appearance of the discipline, what he (she) teaches in class is right knowledge, or he (she) would not make the common sense errors in teaching. As an expert in the academic field, the instructor is able to provide the students with a wider view so that their ability of comprehensively analyzing and resolving problems would be raised.
2. The instructor should be fully aware of the knowledge points of each teaching hour.
Those points are of course the teaching emphasis that should be clearly passed on to the students. In general, the teaching emphasis of the course should be exactly the difficulty for the students to understand. If the instructor can clearly and correctly introduce those knowledge points to the students, it should be of great significance to the students to grasp those points and flexibly apply them in their future study.
3. The instructor should skillfully take some proficient teaching approaches in the course delivery thus the course will be well organized.
Those approaches include theoretical analysis approach, model establishing approach, case study approach, team-working approach, and so on. Those approaches would be very helpful to the students to grasp the content of the course.
4. The instructor should have a very careful preparation for each teaching hour.
He (She) must get familiar with the teaching content, to make a proficient PPT document and to collect the teaching support materials, to design class discussion, to raise the appropriate examples, to give the necessary assignments. To some extent, the instructor should have a detail design of the course delivery. Sometimes the instructor should have an elaborate class preparation even including the words and the sentences that will be said, the pictures, videos, tables, figures and charts that will be presented in class.
5. The instructor should endeavor to build a harmonious relationship with the students.
The course delivery is absolutely a two-way process or a bilateral and interactive process. Without the active participation of the students, without a well cooperation and coordination between the instructor and the students the course delivery is hardly said successful.
To reach this goal an instructor should pay much attention on his (or her) own behavior, which is in keeping with the core value of the society and thus it should be followed sincerely by the students. It is an instructor’s responsibility to instill the minds of the students with the concept of honesty. But an instructor can never only say words of it. Instead of that an excellent instructor must be an example to practice his (her) own honesty.
Every instructor teaches some particular course. However, it should be an instructor’s mission to inspire each student to be a confident, creative, caring and moral individual prepared to adapt and succeed anywhere in a rapidly changing world. On this point there are two decisive factors. One is to help the students better understand the ever-changing world. Another one is to make the students to be full of love.
6. The instructor must be good enough to use proficient English as the working language.
To speak good English the instructor should practice his (her) English by taking all the chances in reading, listening, writing and communicating with the others.
The instructor should be familiar with English expression of the key concepts, the major knowledge points and the specific mechanisms of the relevant course. Consequently, he (she) can fluently describe them in proficient English.
December 11, 2014