The Attributes of Excellent Teachers: Views from Practicing Teachers

The key to a great educational system is built upon great teachers. In former President Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union address, he stated that education would be the number one priority for the next four years, and that a good education begins with first-rate teachers; “To have the best schools, we must have the best teachers” (http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/SOU97). In 2001, President Bush reiterated the necessity of qualified teachers in his address to the Joint Session of Congress; “We've increased funding to train and recruit teachers, because we know a good education starts with a good teacher” (http://www.usconsulate.org.hk/usinfo/sou/2001.htm). Through the No Child Left Behind Act, we promise a qualified teacher in every classroom. However, the definition and preparation of excellent teachers is not clearly defined because there are multiple perspectives of these qualities. This study examines the responses of 626 teachers to a survey (using a Likert-type 5-point scale of Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) focusing on the attributes of a great teacher they have known. Teachers were asked to respond to the following prompt: Throughout your years of experience, think of a great teacher that you know. What are the characteristics made that teacher great for you? The sample consisted of 626 teachers; 22.6% male and 77.3% female; and 18% rural, 42% suburban, and 40% urban. Using principal components factor analysis, the following seven factors emerged: Instructional Techniques, Personal Attributes, Use of Educational Technology, Social Skills and Warmth, Consistency, Class Format, and Strictness. The results indicated that the top responses were not related to classroom management or knowledge of the content as indicated by the factor Instructional Techniques, but by affective characteristics found in the Personal Attributes factor, such as caring, humorous, flexible, etc (M=4.62). Additional analyses indicated a significant pattern of teachers selecting someone of their own gender and ethnicity as the excellent teacher.