What is a passionate teacher?

The reader of this book will appreciate how important it is for a teacher to have the technical skills necessary to teach students effectively and efficiently – skills such as delivering a lecture, managing small group learning, or preparing an assessment exercise. We will deal with the different skills later in the book, but having only the technical skills is not enough. Good teachers need to demonstrate a passion for their teaching if they are to motivate their students to learn. The passionate teacher conveys an enthusiasm for the subject and for their teaching. Student surveys have found that the ‘master lecturer’ not only presents the subject matter with clarity, but also conveys the content with enthusiasm and excitement. ‘All effective teachers’ suggests Day, ‘have a passion for the subject, a passion for their pupils, and a passionate belief that who they are and how they teach can make a difference to their pupils’ lives, both in the moment of teaching and in the days, weeks, months and even years afterwards’ (Day and Hadfield 2004). The late George Miller described the worst teachers not as those who knew less or taught less but rather as those who were uninterested in their students.

In his book The Passionate Teacher, Fried (2001) argues ‘Only when teachers bring their passions about teaching and life into their daily work can they dispel the fog of passive compliance or active disinterest that surrounds so many students’. He goes on to distinguish passionate teaching from mere idiosyncrasies or foibles. These may make the teacher memorable for their students, but this is different from the passion we are describing. As Whitehead argued in his classic 1929 text The Aims of Education, ‘The University imparts information, but it imparts it imaginatively… A university which fails in this respect has no reason for existence. This atmosphere for excitement arising from imaginative consideration transforms knowledge. A fact is no longer a bare fact: it is invested with all its possibilities. It is no longer a burden on the memory: it is energizing as a poet of our dreams and as the architect of our purposes. Imagination is not to be divorced from the facts: it is a way of illuminating the facts’.

Does it matter?

Does passion matter in teaching? The short answer is ‘yes’. Effective teaching is the result of a combination of many factors but passion is at the heart of what good teaching is about. Teachers’ passion and enthusiasm for their students’ learning is important. Passion and enthusiasm are highlighted in studies of the skills and attributes of excellent teachers. The word ‘passion’ features regularly in students’ descriptions of their best teachers – both the passion teachers have for their subject and the passion they have for sharing their learning with their students. In one study of medical students’ perceptions as to what makes an effective medical teacher, the two highest-ranking attributes selected by both senior and junior students were ‘is passionate about teaching’ and ‘motivates and inspires the students’ (Kua et al 2006). A review of exemplary university teachers found that they enjoyed teaching, showed enthusiasm for their subject, and made an earnest attempt to promote students’ learning (Hativa et al 2001). Passion in teaching is not a luxury or a frill that we can do without – it is the key element in students’ learning. When the quality of students’ learning is compared in different situations, the differentiating factor is frequently found to be the passion of the teacher – more than their knowledge of subject matter, more than the teaching strategy adopted, and more than the learning technology incorporated.

Everyone can be a passionate teacher

Passionate teaching does not require exceptional ability although it is not found in teachers as commonly as one might hope. Fried argues that it is not just a personality trait that some people have and others have not: it is something that can be discovered and learned. You may not be able to be taught how to be a passionate teacher but you can learn how to be one.

Bringing passion to teaching is not easy – it is challenging but it can be done. Depending on your personality your passion can emerge in different ways. Teachers do not have to be extroverted or flamboyant in their presentations to be thought of as passionate about content. They can be reserved and refined in their delivery and still convince the learner of their enthusiasm and commitment to the subject and to the learning.

Fig 3.1 How to be a passionate teacher.

Here are suggestions, some taken from the work of Fried, that may help:

Stress and burn out

With competing pressures for time and demands from the students and the curriculum, teaching can be stressful. Even the most enthusiastic teacher may be stressed and over time can be subject to ‘burn out’. This is associated with increased feelings of emotional exhaustion and fatigue, the development of negative cynical attitudes towards students, and the tendency for teachers to evaluate themselves negatively resulting in a feeling of lack of personal accomplishment. Teachers may at times feel overwhelmed with the challenges and workload facing them. A better understanding of their work as a teacher and how the different tasks faced can be tackled may help the teacher to seek assistance if it remains a problem.

Reflect and react