Qualities of a Good Lecturer

What is the difference between a Teacher and Lecturer?A teacher is any one who teaches students.
Lecturing means giving a lecture or talk in front of an audience.
A teacher may give lectures to his/her students. So essentially lecturing is one of the methods of teaching.
Usually for degree courses, the teachers are called lecturers, since they are supposed to give informative talk to students.

Who is a good Lecturer?

1. Lecturer should be able to generate interest in the subject. Lecturing is an art, a skill, by which the speaker should be able to generate interest among the students on the subject. We have come across many lecturers, who in their first talk itself, tells the students that this is a boring subject and you need to study byheart these modules to pass the examination. Most of the students interest will be gone by this single comment.


2. Lecturer need to introduce the importance of the subject, why it is needed and what the student is expected to know once he master the subject. Most the lecturers directly start lecturing about the topics given in the syllabus. Even after completion of the course student may not know what this subject was and why he studied it.


3. Lecturer need to ensure that atleast the fundamentals about the subject are conveyed to the students in the most simplest and interesting manner possible. Unless the fundamentals are set straight, creating interest for the subject is impossible. Also if the fundamentals are repeated in different styles it will stay put in the mind of students which is sure to help him in future.


4. Lecturer need not give lecture notes and cover the syllabus fully. Most of the students like lectures who give notes corresponding to each of the contents in the syllabus. In such cases, students will just byheart the contents given in notes and write the exams. Here the retention power of the students are made use of. The subject fundamentals are never conveyed to the student. This scenario is as good as not studying the subject at all.


5. Lecturer should always encourage students to do more research on the subject. To encourage research aptitute, the best tool is assignments. But what is happening now in the name of assignments.When ever students are given assignments, Lecturer gives one particular portion of the syllabus and ask the student to write notes about it. Most of the times this portion will be the one which the lecturer don't want to lecture about in the class. The student simply refers some textbook, copy whatever is given there and submit it. Result is that the student will have no idea on what he has written.The lecturer should not simply give a topic for assignment. He should introduce the topic and try to give some practical problem, whose solution should be arrived at by the students after understanding the concepts of the subject. Then atleast some of the students will try to apply the knowledge of the subject and find solution to the problem posed at them as assignments.


6. Lecturer should have a passion for teaching. This is the foremost thing. Only very few people land in a lecturer job out of their own interest. Rest of them are joining just because they could not find any other career. But whatever it may be, unless one a has passion for his job, he will not be able to deliver the goods.