How do you inspire young learners to love your subject?

I have kept every thank you letter and card that any student has ever written me. As I’ve been teaching for more than 20 years, I now have a pretty big box of these, and until a couple of years ago, bored during lockdown, I had never read through them all in one sitting. In doing so, I realised that although I had clearly inspired many of my students over the years, I had no clear picture of how I had done it. I wanted to know so that I could continue to do so into the future, or even perhaps help other teachers do the same.

I have always believed that an inspirational teacher is one who makes the students want to learn by helping them to see the joy and beauty in knowledge, rather than trying to force or coerce them into doing their work; motivating them with intrinsic rather than extrinsic values. However, I was not sure how inspirational teaching worked, and the scientist in me was determined to get some concrete answers, so I began to do some research.

“I’d never had a teacher as passionate as you in their subject, and this was especially so when you’d talk about Bio beyond the syllabus ... you motivated me to discover more and engage in the subject, not just for the sake of exams, but for the pure pleasure of understanding things.”

At the time I was lucky to work for a school that believed in allowing staff to design their own PD, and I got the green light to spend a couple of years working on the question of inspirational teaching. I read dozens of books and papers, interviewed staff and students, and slowly began to form generalisations about how teachers inspire their students. I have used quotes from my students here (from letters that were unsolicited) which I feel are honest and reliable sources of information, so much better than if I had asked them to fill out a survey or questionnaire.

After a thorough review of the literature (such as Heffernan et al 2010, Jensen et al 2013 & 2014 Sammons et al 2014 & 2016) I eventually came to the conclusion that there are three spheres of inspirational teaching. Firstly, a teacher must have basic pedagogical skills and subject knowledge. Secondly, an inspirational teacher must have the right sorts of relationships with their students. Finally, inspirational teachers share the passion and enthusiasm that they have - not only for the subject they teach, but also for teaching itself.

I wanted to make a model to communicate these ideas about inspirational teaching, and make a complex system easier to understand. Initially, inspired by a fire triangle as seen when teaching chemistry, I had the idea of each sphere being equally important like the oxygen, heat, and fuel of a “fire” of inspiration (Fig 1). Later I began to think that it might be more of a hierarchy, like Maslow’s, where a teacher had to master pedagogy first, then developing positive relationships with students, and finally communicating the passion for education and the subject (Fig 2). Finally, I saw some overlap between the characteristics in each of the spheres, and therefore put them into a Venn diagram (Fig 3).

These models certainly sparked some interesting discussions with my colleagues and made me think more deeply about my own practice. Below I have used quotes from my student letters, linked to aspects of my research under the three spheres of inspirational teaching, to explain how I may have inspired my students over the years.

“The resources you create are extremely engaging and helpful” “Your lessons were always very clearly structured and easy to understand.”

Creativity - I always try to create (or choose) materials that the kids will find both interesting and easy to access. I hate the idea of my lessons being boring, or confusing, so I work hard to bring them something to captivate their curiosity. Organisation - I put in a lot of effort to stay organised, because the students can so easily tell when I’m not - and they have to respect you as a professional before they will be inspired by you.

“thankyou for always having the energy to get to know us beyond our test scores and listen to our stories and share your own”

Caring - I suppose the bottom line is, you have to genuinely care about the students as individuals, however cliché that may sound. You need to have conversations with them, ask how they are doing (and listen and remember what they say!) find out what their interests are, and show an interest in what they’re interested in. I changed a lot when I became a father, partly because having my own children made me think completely differently about my students. I always try to imagine how I would want someone to treat my own son or daughter, and do that.

“Your constant anecdotes and silly jokes always help to brighten up each class.”

Humour - I like to tell stories and have a laugh with the kids - it makes the day much more enjoyable for everyone. Striking the right tone of humour for the classroom isn’t always easy, but it is worth the effort to bring people closer together. I seldom use sarcasm though; the children can find it confusing at best and cruel at worst (just think of the Pink Floyd song).

“I will never forget how you kindly walked me to the mosque...”

Kindness - It is always the little things that matter the most, and small acts of kindness make a huge difference. I always try to remember that we never know what a child’s home life is like or what they are going through – and you might have the chance to say the only kind thing a child hears all day.

“You are also one of the most caring teachers I’ve had, as you always attended to us and gave us extra support when we needed it.”

“It has been such a privilege being taught by a teacher who loves his job – and his students – as much as you do.”

I really do love my job, and I genuinely like young people. I try to be as positive as possible, and very rarely let the kids know if there is something outside of the classroom that is affecting me in a negative way. Children are incredibly perceptive and I’ve sometimes had to fight hard to keep my chin up – but I keep in mind that it’s never about me, it’s all about them. I try to always greet them at the door by name, with a smile.

“I loved talking to you about the environment ... and I feel like those conversations we had only helped nurture my passion for the subject.”

You’ve got to make the time to chat, and if a student shows an interest, I always leap at the chance for a talk about the subject I love. I like to keep myself fresh by watching documentaries and reading science books and especially the news, to maintain my enthusiasm for science and give me something interesting to tell the kids.

“You have accomplished the impossible and made my classroom experience both educational and fun.”

You don’t have to be the perfect human being to be inspirational (I am certainly very far from perfect) - we all have our strengths and weaknesses, good days and bad days. We have to play to our strengths and work on our faults; kids are (by and large) pretty forgiving, and every day and each lesson is a chance to be a better, more inspirational teacher. Students notice when we make an effort, and sometimes making an effort is all it takes. We can never hope to be inspirational all of the time, or to every student; but to inspire just one child with a love of learning would make all the effort worthwhile.

Heffernan, T., Morrison, M., Sweeney, A. and Jarratt, D. (2010) Personal attributes of effective lecturers: the importance of dynamism, communication, rapport and applied knowledge. International Journal of Management Education. 8 (3), 13-27.

Jensen, K. (2013). What is inspirational teaching? Exploring student perceptions of what makes an inspirational teacher. Teaching and Learning Institute Working Paper No. 3, University of Huddersfield.

Jensen, K., Adams, J., & Strickland, K. (2014). Inspirational Teaching: Beyond Excellence and Towards Collaboration for Learning with Sustained Impact. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 2(2), 37-41.

Sammons, P., Kington, A., Lindorff-Vijayendran, A. and Ortega, L. (2014) Inspiring teachers: perspectives and practices. Reading: CfBT Education Trust.

Sammons, P., Lindorff, A. M., Ortega, L., Kington, A., & Hargreaves, A. (2016). Inspiring teaching: learning from exemplary practitioners. Journal of Professional Capital and Community.