The best teachers I have known share an important characteristic: they have never considered themselves finished products. They remain curious, not only about their disciplines but about their students, their teaching and their own capacity to learn and grow.
There is no single blueprint for good teaching. Some educators are dynamic lecturers, while others excel at facilitating discussion or creating experiential learning opportunities. Some are naturally humorous; others are quiet and contemplative. Great teachers can look very different from one another. Yet, I have come to believe that what they have in common, what sets them apart, has less to do with personality or pedagogy and more to do with mindset. Good teachers are reflective practitioners.
My own journey as a teacher began during the final year of my PhD studies. I had the good fortune of taking a one-year, non-credit introduction to university teaching. The course provided me with something more valuable than a collection of teaching techniques; it offered a framework for thinking about teaching itself. It challenged me to consider not simply what I would teach, but how students learn.
That distinction has remained central to my philosophy of teaching. Our responsibility as educators is not merely to teach; it is to facilitate student learning.
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A few years later, I was asked to organise a teaching and learning conference at the University of Northern British Columbia. We invited Lee Gass, a highly respected science educator from the University of British Columbia, to deliver the keynote address. During his visit, we talked about teaching more generally. One piece of advice he shared has stayed with me for more than two decades: keep a teaching journal.
His suggestion was deceptively simple. Spend a few minutes each day reflecting on your teaching. How did you prepare for class? What worked well? Where did students struggle? What questions emerged during discussion? Did informal conversations after class reveal misconceptions or moments of insight?
This may seem like a small practice. In reality, it can be transformative. Reflection is what moves teaching beyond performance and towards continuous improvement. More importantly, it shapes the habits and dispositions that define exceptional educators. Like any habit, however, reflection can be a double-edged sword. If we repeatedly tell ourselves that our teaching practices are effective without questioning our assumptions, we risk reinforcing approaches that may inhibit student learning. Reflection is most valuable when it is grounded in a philosophical framework that keeps students at the centre of our practice.
For me, that framework begins with a simple question: what have my students learned today? When we ask this question consistently, our perspective changes. We become less concerned with whether we have covered all our content and more interested in whether students have constructed meaningful understanding. We begin to see teaching not as the transmission of knowledge, but as creating the conditions in which learning can occur.
Good teachers also understand that learning is messy. Students will struggle. They will make mistakes. They will occasionally fail. Our role is not to eliminate those moments but to help students learn from them. We should hold high standards while creating environments where students can fail forward, where mistakes become opportunities for reflection, resilience and growth.
Over time, I have noticed that reflective practice cultivates many of the qualities we most admire in exceptional teachers. Reflection teaches us to be prepared because we are intentional in our planning. It teaches us to be present because we pay attention to how students are experiencing their learning. It fosters humility because we recognise that there is always more to learn about teaching. It encourages curiosity about both our disciplines and our students. And perhaps most importantly, it allows us to teach authentically rather than attempting to become someone else’s version of an excellent teacher.
There is no one way to teach. After years in the university classroom, observing colleagues teach, reading student and peer nominations for teaching awards, and listening to remarkable educators share their practices at teaching and learning conferences, I continue to marvel at the many ways teachers inspire curiosity and transform learning.
What works brilliantly in one classroom may fall flat in another. The diversity of approaches reminds us that excellence in teaching is not about mastering a method or possessing a particular personality trait.
What sets good teachers apart is their willingness to continually reflect, learn and grow alongside their students. Great teaching is not a destination, it is an ongoing practice of curiosity, humility and intentionality. And perhaps that is what makes it so challenging and so rewarding.
William J. Owen is the interim president and vice-chancellor of the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.
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