There is an art to being a great trainer or teacher; something our Train the Trainer facilitators know very well!  

If you look at the quotes below by some of the world's most respected scholars you can begin to understand what makes a great teacher or trainer so special. Note the reoccuring themes: 

• People learn by doing
• Great teachers can empathise with their audience
• It's not what you teach but how you teach it
• You cannot make people learn, you must help them discover
• Learners should be encouraged to feel emotion (you can make them laugh, surprise them, pull them in with a story)
• The teacher and learner is a two way relationship; engagement is key

So let's take a look at what some of the greatest ever minds have to say about teaching.

Teaching is Essential

John Steinbeck 

"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."

Henry Adams

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

John Henrik Clarke

"A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention, then he can teach his lesson."

Alexander the Great

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well."

Teaching is Helping

Galileo Galilei

"You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself."

Albert Einstein

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

Eliphas Levi 

"A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard."

Mark van Doren

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”

Godfrey Reggio

"Having been an educator for so many years I know that all a good teacher can do is set a context, raise questions or enter into a kind of a dialogic relationship with their students."

William Arthur Ward

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires."

Socrates

"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think"

Learning is Doing

Confucius

"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand."

D. Blocher

"Learning is not a spectator sport."

Goethe

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do."

Arnold Bennett

"There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul." 

Of course, teaching and training is all about personal development for the learner. If you think there is an area of your professional life you'd like to develop, take a look at our Business Skills & Personal Development Courses.