Good Teaching Is an Art as Well as a Science

“Good teaching is a skillful blend of artistic and scientific elements. Teaching as an art involves beliefs, emotions, values and flexibility, while teaching as a science utilizes instructional practices that are proven by research to improve student achievement” (Snowman and Biehler, 2006). According to (Peters, R.) teaching can involve formal methods of instruction as well as informal ways of organizing things so that children will be led to discover things for themselves. According to (Manning, H. 2003, p. 11) “A teacher is the one to impart knowledge to students in different ways to assist learning.” Teaching factors are considered if something must be accomplished. It is practically stating that teaching is what is being taught, who is being taught, by whom it is being taught and to how many individuals on a daily basis. The act of teaching is accomplished by preparation of the designated teacher. The teacher therefore must be thoroughly educated.
The teaching profession can be said to be partly an art as well as a science. Art and science may appear to be vastly dissimilar; however, under close scrutiny we can see that they are actually quite the same. In the Thorndike-Barnhart dictionary, art is defined as “3. Branch of learning that depends more on special practice than on general principles.” (p. 76). The Dictionary of Psychology defines science as “1. An organized and systematic body of knowledge.”(p. 472).
The art of teaching is presentational as well as improvisational. The lesson should be planned and scripted, but the script must allow for the unexpected teachable moment. It is important to be receptive to feedback. An effective teacher develops the art of reading their students and measuring comprehension. The text The Art and Science of Teaching describes a teacher as “an artist whose medium of expression of the spontaneous, unrehearsed and creative encounter between teacher and student.”(Parkay and Stanford p. 115). The art of teaching allows

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