What makes a good teacher?

A team of Australian researchers have created a database of 300 teaching strategies used by tertiary chemistry educators, categorised by 19 topics. In a series of workshops, the team asked tertiary chemistry educators from 25 different institutions in Australia questions relating to a ‘big idea’ they taught. One motivation for the study, and for creating the database, was to assist tertiary teachers’ professional development, as they are not explicitly trained in pedagogical content knowledge – the essence of effective teaching. David Read suggests strategies to directly address the role of pedagogical content knowledge in your teaching in order to develop it further.