High Performance vs High Quality in Teaching

When I first read the term ``High Performance in Teaching'', a phrase from Arnold Schwarzenegger crossed my mind: ``if you need more time, sleep faster''. This is because we often associate (at least I do) high performance with speed. The second logical thought was to use google to search for ''high performance in teaching'' but unfortunately the search engine did not provide any links related to this exact phrase. On the other hand, I found many pages related to high performance learning but still I was not satisfied with the descriptions because they focus mainly on well covered quantified metrics (I found them too pretentious). In our modernized world, we often use high performance to describe devices which are of low cost and have nice properties in general in a consumerist way. In a world where the commodification of pretty much everything (from relationships to feeling and so on and so for) is an every day reality, the higher education suffers its share: quantified assessment based on performance rate, evaluation procedures, standardized surveys and implicit control of the teaching activities to name but a few. So, ``high performance in teaching'' from the university perspective could mean a teacher who lectures fast and provides lots of material, assignments to the students in a precise way, has many graduates and gets very good international feedback. For the students, ``high performance'' could mean that they absorb a big chunk of knowledge, get good marks and find easily a good job after graduation. Competition instead of collaboration and support may be prominently present in high performance environments while the evaluation of these performances is based on standardized procedures.

But what about high quality in teaching? As I had described in my previous essay, teaching indeed has to provide high technical knowledge (know-how and deep understanding) to the students, but also it has to elicit initiatives, enthusiasm and social awareness that will help them to be creative and find their place in the world!

The environment either physical or virtual needs to be warm, interactive and built upon trust and thus to allow a feeling that trials and errors is crucial part of the learning process. The teacher has to describe the course, its aims and the expected outcomes and the evaluation process, to design carefully the activities in order to aid the students to reach the outcomes and to guide them throughout the unit towards these aims. Maybe the ``what to teach'' is predetermined but the ``how to teach it'' lies on a constant active communication between the teacher and the students. This indeed is challenging for the teacher because escaping from a dry lecturing style requires lots of playfulness and inspiration. A teacher needs to have a deep understanding on the topic (which is the minimum prerequisite) but also needs to be brave enough to try different styles of lecturing and activities. For that, the teacher needs to have time/space, energy and available tools/training that will aid him/her to increase the motivation and attention of the students which is important in learning. External influences and paradigms (inputs in general) are essential part, for example drama schools often provide courses to help teachers to enrich their skill or discussions with experts in the field are paramount. Therefore, a good teacher can deliver a good and complete course by first enriching his/her personal experience, social skills and expertise in a holistic way. Then the students can follow this ``dance'', understand the content ``painlessly'' in multiple levels and thus be able to use it in different concepts or more abstract frameworks.