[Part 5 in a series about improving gospel teaching. Previous entries in the series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4]

Defining what makes a teacher ‘great’–as opposed to being merely ‘good’–is a very difficult proposition. “Good” teachers are usually easy to tell apart from “poor” teachers–but what makes a good teacher ‘great’? Don’t they just do the same things good teachers do, only somehow…you know, better?

I am not a great teacher. I have taught lessons that reached the ‘good’ level, but never to my knowledge have left any student of mine leaving the classroom thinking, “Wow, what a great lesson!”

I have attended great lessons, though, as a student, so I’ve had some experience of being the presence of great teaching, and have often pondered how such ‘greatness’ in teachers could be defined. It is not an easy task.

Part of this difficulty is because ‘great’ teaching may be entirely in the eye of the beholder. People respond to different lessons and methods of teaching differently–and thus the difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ might depend entirely on how students receive the lesson, rather than any tangible difference between teaching methods.

We might compare this to–and I apologize in advance if anyone is offended by this comparison–recognizing female beauty. As with ‘good’ and ‘poor’ teachers, most guys are capable of differentiating ‘ugly’ women apart from ‘beautiful’ women (however we choose to define the term). We could–yes, this is shallow–even come up with general principles as to how to define ‘beauty’, similar to those discussed earlier in this series for teaching (Thin > Fat, Young > Old, Having Hair > Bald, etc…)

But once you’ve defined what constitutes a “non-ugly” group, can you further define what separates the truly ‘gorgeous’ women from the merely ‘pretty’? In terms of general rules, this is impossible–because the fact is: men have vastly different opinions on what constitutes ‘beautiful’.

For example, hands-down the hottest, most drop-dead gorgeous woman on the planet today (according to me) is Nicole Kidman.

(In fact, I view it as a Sign Of The Apocalypse that on a recent list of Top 100 Hottest Women, Nicole Kidman was ranked 89th.

89th…!

Below Amanda Bynes…)

I recognize that I am almost certainly completely alone in this opinion. Not that many guys could credibly consider her ‘ugly’–but every guy looks for something different. Ask guys to list their Top 500 ‘hot’ women, and you’ll see a lot of the same names every time…but ask them to break out the top 10 out of those 500, and it’s certain that everyone’s list will be very different.

Likewise, the ‘greatness’ of teachers may be largely defined by personal taste–virtually everyone responds to teaching differently, and defining what makes a ‘great’ teacher versus just a ‘good’ one may be just as personal and unique as taste in music.

When I was a missionary, my favorite zone leader happened to be one of the least popular missionaries in the mission. (He was in the military…and acted like it.) Other missionaries hated him–but, as it happens, I had a greater response to his words and lessons in terms of motivation and enthusiasm than any other mission leader at the time. Listening to him made me want to immediately run out the door and go do missionary work.

At BYU, I had a great ‘Sharing the Gospel’ teacher who had the same impact on me. Like the zone leader above, listening to him made me want to immediately run out the door and go share the gospel with others.

Likewise, another great teacher at BYU discussed purity and morality in a way that had a significant effect on me. Like the others, listening to him made me want to immediately run out the door and go…um, not have sex, I guess.

This, fundamentally, is the basic characteristic of a ‘great’ teacher: students ‘respond’ to great teaching in ways that they do not to merely good or adequate teaching. Students may learn things and be uplifted with good teaching–but great teaching turns them into different people than they were coming in. They not only have an increase in knowledge, but also an often overwhelming desire to act on that knowledge.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of action: Christ emphasized the ‘doing’ in many of His teachings of gospel principles. When the lawyer in Luke 10 asked Jesus how to obtain eternal life, the Savior asked him how he read the Law himself. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God…and thy neighbor as thyself” he responded. “Thou hast answered right,” was the Savior’s response: “this do, and thou shalt live.”–emphasizing that it was the doing, not just knowing that led to eternal life. (This was the lead-in to the parable of the Good Samaritan, following which the Savior added again “Go, and do thou likewise”.)

In a recent address to Church Educational System teachers last year (unfortunately, the text is not available online, so this will be a paraphrase…), Elder David A. Bednar made the salient point that “Joseph Smith did NOT go into the grove wanting to know which church was true–he went into the grove wanting to know which church to join. Do you see the difference?” Joseph wasn’t interested in knowing, he was interested in doing. Likewise, the gospel is not meant for students to absorb and then stuff in back of the expanses of their memory gathering dust–gospel lessons are meant to provide direct guidance for making righteous choices and give students a foundation for immediate action.

Great teachers will spur students into constructive actions through their lessons, helping them understand not only what is true, but why they should care and what they should do about it.

It’s not really possible to list ways to make teachers great, because what successfully triggers any one student’s ‘call to action’ will differ by student. Still, I think there are a few things that teachers can do to help spur students to action.

Know the students personally: Beyond knowing the basic subgroup of students the class belongs to (young women, older married couples, etc…), teachers that know their students as individuals are more likely to come up with ideas that will have a direct influence on them during the lesson. A teacher that knows that one or more students come from families with divorced parents, or recently had a death in the family, for example might use that knowledge when preparing–perhaps presenting something specifically and individually tailored to address those students current circumstances in a meaningful way. There’s no guarantee any part of any lesson will have an impact on any one student, of course, but targeted doctrinal application will likely have a far greater chance of having a substantial spiritual impact upon the student, rather than just random teaching.

Make commitments and follow up on them: One teacher in my ward makes sure every lesson he teaches ends with a commitment for the students to do something the following week, and then asks them about it the next week. He may not be at the ‘great’ level of teaching at the moment, but this habit shows that he understands the basic principle that gospel lessons are the most meaningful to students when accompanied by action, and thus tries to encourage this as much as possible–even if the students’ call to action is, to an extent, compelled instead of natural.

Good teachers will ask ‘What do I want my students to know after this lesson?’, but great teachers will ask ‘How do I want my students to act after this lesson?’ and then plan accordingly. It is virtually impossible to create significant changes in EVERY student every class, and perhaps that’s not a reasonable goal for a teacher. Making a difference in the lives of a handful of students not after one, but perhaps many regular class periods may still count as the best marker of teaching ‘success’, and the mark of a great teacher.

Next: Philosophies in Lesson Preparation