17. Look at the two pictures, one of them showing a famous educator Anton Makarenko with his pupils. Write a small essay: “What m akes a Good Teacher” or “My favourite teacher”.

18. Read the text “Teaching: Art or Science” Discuss it in small groups.

Teaching has been variously defined as either an art or a science. Educational researchers and practitioners tend to view teaching from one perspective or the other in an attempt to explain what teaching is. These

efforts suggest that the profession is struggling to find a definition of good teaching. Some educators describe teaching from a scientific perspective, but others claim that teaching cannot be considered as a science alone. Teaching does not consist of a fixed set of principles or laws, and there is no way to measure teaching performance with the consistency and precision associated with scientific work. As far back as 1968, one of the first educational researchers to study classrooms, Philip Jackson, cautioned that events in a classroom are spontaneous and develop in ways that are not always predictable. Teaching involves intuition, spontaneity, artistry, and feeling, characteristics not usually regarded as scientific. Good teachers probably use the same skills used by artists and scientists alike. Insight, for example, is based on seeing something in a new light. Frequently, scientific innovations stimulate new artistic expression. Scientists use intuition, insight, and fantasy to develop new theories. Similarly, teachers can use new ideas to think creatively. As in other professions, science and art work together in creating meaningful practice in teaching. They say, a mediocre teacher – tells, a good teacher – explains, a super teacher - demonstrates, a great teacher – inspires.

Laugh-a-bits

19. Read the following dialogues. Define the people’s behavior or mind characters. Consult the dictionary. Some prompts are given for you: ignorant curious careful impatient loving optimistic

A.

Mother: Stop using those bad words.

Son: Shakespeare used them.

Mother: Well, don't play with him any more.

B.

Son: Daddy, do you think people can live on the moon?

Father: I think they can.

Son: But if they can live on the moon, where do they go when the moon is very, very small?

C.

Teacher: What is a good conductor of electricity?

Sammy: Why – err …

Teacher: That’s right, wire. Now tell me a unit of electrical power.

Sammy: A what?

Teacher: Right again, the watt!

Follow-up Activities

20. Read all the texts again and make notes under the following headings. Then use your notes to talk or to make reports about them.

1. Education History.

2. The Great Educators’ Commitments and Principles.

3. What Makes a Good Teacher?

4. Teaching: Art or Science?

UNIT II. Unresolved Pedagogical Dilemmas

B efore you start: Think it over. Agree – Disagree

“For every person wishing to teach, there are thirty not wanting to be taught”.

“He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”

George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950, Irish dramatist, critic, and novelist: Nobel Prize, 1925.

Reading, Vocabulary & Creative Practice