What makes a good teacher? It's much more than the Government's proposed measurements

In our increasingly-marketised university system there is now a lot of discussion over how to measure the quality of teaching, much of which deeply concerns me. It is so often led by those who have never taught, particularly as a specialist at this level.

Not that I have any argument with the ambition of outstanding teaching per se. How could I? I have lived and breathed education for decades. But how to measure it?

In light of this very relevant question, I've been asking myself, what sort of teacher was I?

This weekend I met students that I taught at St John's College Oxford, a good number of years ago. The chance to meet with former students in a place which was once our shared home is a good reminder of what is best in the human spirit.

I am now vice-chancellor of Sheffield and don't get to teach my beloved physics anymore, but I still love to hear how things are going for those I did teach when I was a tutorial fellow at St John's.

I have had a rich career as a teacher, not only at Oxford, but also at Boulder in Colorado and Imperial College in London. In all these places I was very lucky to teach in small groups of students, often in my favourite place - the undergraduate laboratory.

Students are never more receptive than when someone they know can make an experiment work, approaches them and asks how things are going.

They are also wonderfully responsive when they are trying to solve a tough problem and have brought it to you. The moment frustration cracks and understanding breaks through is one of transformation.

I enjoyed that teaching a great deal. But the real test is, was it good for the students?

I am sure that I was far from perfect in many regards, but I did love my subject and wanted to share what I had been taught. I was also someone participating at a high level in my field. But why should that matter to my students?

Let's start at the beginning, all those years ago, when a fairly nervous bunch of mostly school kids came to Oxford for interview.

Much has been said about the infamous Oxbridge interview. So how did I choose who would study with me?

I enjoyed teaching a great deal. But the real test is, was it good for the students?

At all research-intensive universities, including Sheffield, you need to have a particular kind of aptitude and energy to get the best from those who teach you.

They spend a good deal of their time at the frontiers of knowledge in their fields. They know that learning new things will never end, and the expectation is that you will seize the opportunity of being part of this.

So why would a student want to be taught by someone like that? Someone like me?

One of the myths about teaching is that its quality can be measured independent of the student or subject. Teaching involves communication and relationships. The student must be able to absorb what they are given, and be prepared to make the most of it.

One style definitely does not fit all. I was looking for a student who needed this and could take the pace.

If you could take it, you would be challenged to develop your own ideas. You would have a rigorous grasp of the core of a truly tough subject. And you would have the most important skill of all when you left, the ability to think for yourself.

Being challenged can be very tough. I remember very clearly what some students felt as I pushed them out of their comfort zone. I remember what I felt as I was put through my paces by my own teachers. Sometimes it was brutal. Sometimes I felt deeply inadequate. I had to work in ways I had never worked before.

Why take this approach? Because students won't always stay in the foothills of knowledge.

Some of my students would go on to work in commerce or industry, some in defence. I see what they do now and I know they have the rigour to rise to what is asked of them. Some of them will replace me as a teacher in the years ahead. I hope they challenge the talented young people who they teach, just as I did them.

Most of all, I wanted my students to be physicists who were eminently 'fit to practice'.

I hoped they would all make a good living and I knew instinctively that the higher the level I took them to, the better valued they would be wherever they chose to work. Some have made a good deal of money in commerce. Others have chosen to challenge themselves in less lucrative but deeply meaningful lines of work. I am proud of them all.

I know, for some, I would have been an awful teacher, I would have asked too much. Different people develop their aptitudes in different ways. That is what I was thinking as I chose those I would be teaching. I knew it must be a match.

I like to think that mostly I chose well. And, indeed, when I saw some of the students that I had taught years ago, happy and confident in their lives, I felt good.

What could I have changed in the way I taught? I'm sure there are things I could have done. Although I highly doubt they would have been prompted by any of the proposed metrics on teaching currently under discussion

Who are my former students? They are now scientists and teachers, partners and parents. Some have worked around the world. Some have stood up to illness and trauma. Some are even now shaping their communities or their nations.

The stories they tell of their time in education are humbling. One was reminded of the time he hit a wall of frustration. Now a highly-successful businessman and entrepreneur, he remembers that crucial experience of pushing beyond the stalemate and trying multiple ways to solve a problem.

Another former student said that I had fundamentally changed his life. I wondered how? "The b********* you gave me in the second year when you told me I was not working and was wasting the place which could have been taken by someone else."

Another simply remembers the welcome she felt as a foreign student, one who would go on to make a major contribution to the work of the UK.

What could I have changed in the way I taught? I'm sure there are things I could have done. Although I highly doubt they would have been prompted by any of the proposed metrics on teaching currently under discussion.

But I think, and I hope, that the most precious thing I did was let them see what I saw first from those who taught me - men who, in some cases, had survived and escaped the worst times of our modern history to teach science at Oxford.

They showed that knowledge took effort, but that its treasures were beyond price.

Professor Sir Keith Burnett, vice-chancellor of the University of Sheffield and president of the UK Science Council

For further information please visit https://www.academicis.co.uk/what-makes-a-good-teacher-its-much-more-than-the-governments-proposed-measurements/