Too often teaching is viewed as a routine function. Teaching should be viewed as absolutely fundamental to scholarship. For teaching to become scholarship, however, it must extend beyond the bounds of passive learning. Instead it should transform and extend knowledge itself. Without quality teaching, the continuity of knowledge will be broken and the store of human knowledge dangerously diminished.
Effective teachers exhibit command over their subject matter in classroom discussions or lectures.
They present material to students in an objective, organized way that promotes the learning process. They present the subject matter with logic and conviction, and are able to awaken in students an awareness of the relationship of their subject to other classes, fields of knowledge, and cultures. They display concern and respect for their students. They are recognized by their students and university colleagues as persons who guide and inspire their students. Excellence in teaching implies a broad perspective toward higher education that encompasses more than effective teaching.