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Who is the ideal teacher? Am I?

Similarity and difference in perception
of students of education regarding the
qualities of a good teacher and of their
own qualities as teachers
a b
Sara Arnon & Nirit Reichel
a
Tel Hai Academic College , Upper Galilee, Israel
b
Ohalo College , Katzrin, Israel
Published online: 18 Sep 2007.

To cite this article: Sara Arnon & Nirit Reichel (2007) Who is the ideal teacher? Am I? Similarity and
difference in perception of students of education regarding the qualities of a good teacher and of
their own qualities as teachers, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 13:5, 441-464

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 Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice
Vol. 13, No. 5, October 2007, pp. 441–464

Who is the ideal teacher? Am I?

Similarity and difference in perception
of students of education regarding the
qualities of a good teacher and of their
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own qualities as teachers

Sara Arnona and Nirit Reichelb*
aTel Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, Israel; bOhalo College, Katzrin, Israel
NiritReichel
50Taylor
13
nirit@macam.ac.il
00000October
&
Teachers
10.1080/13540600701561653
CTAT_A_256022.sgm
1354-0602
Original
2007 andFrancis
Article
and 2007
(print)/1470-1278
Francis
Teaching (online)

This research examines two images of teachers as seen by students of education: the ideal
teacher and their own self-image as teachers. The research compares the students’ perceptions
of these two images using two sub-groups of students of education: students at an academic
teachers’ college who will be referred to as student teachers and beginning teachers, who, while
teaching, are completing their academic degrees at teachers’ colleges or regional academic
colleges. Data were collected from 89 students at the two colleges by means of a questionnaire
that included open-ended questions which were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the
research indicate that there are two major categories that comprise perceptions of the ideal
teacher: first, personal qualities; and second, knowledge of the subject taught as well as didactic
knowledge. Both groups of students similarly attributed great importance to the personal quali-
ties of the ideal teacher, but there is a difference in their perception of the importance of knowl-
edge: the beginning teachers attributed great importance to knowledge and perceived it as a
quality similar in importance to personal characteristics, while the student teachers, who had not
begun their teaching careers, attributed less importance to knowledge as a characteristic of the
ideal teacher. A quality which was less prominent when profiling the ideal teacher is general
education and wide perspectives. The teacher as a socializing agent, a person who promotes
social goals, was not mentioned at all. Students maintained that, during their studies, they had
improved their qualities as ‘empathetic and attentive’ teachers, ‘knowledgeable in teaching
methods’, and in ‘leadership’. But they had hardly improved their knowledge of the subject they
taught or their level of general knowledge. The discussion of knowledge and the desirable
personal qualities of a teacher is relevant to the current debate regarding the relative merits of
disciplinary education in contrast to pedagogical education in preparation for teaching as a
profession. The clear preference for disciplinary education by policy makers in Israel and else-
where in the field of teacher education is contradictory to the emphasis placed on the personal

*Corresponding author. Ohalo College, Katzrin, Israel. Email: nirit@macam.ac.il

ISSN 1354-0602 (print)/ISSN 1470-1278 (online)/07/050441–24

© 2007 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13540600701561653
 442 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

development of future teachers and their pedagogical education by the students of education
who participated in this research.

Keywords: Good teacher; Students of education; Teachers’ knowledge;

Teachers’ personality

Introduction
This research examines two images of teachers as seen by students of education: the
ideal teacher and their own self-images as teachers. These images were examined from
the standpoints of two groups of Israeli students of education: student teachers—
students of education at teachers’ colleges who are teaching in class under the super-
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vision of the class teacher as a coach and with the guidance of a pedagogical mentor
from the college; and beginning teachers, that is, students who are currently teaching
and are completing their academic degrees at a teachers’ college or at a regional
academic college. In the last 10 years, there has been a change in the requirements of
Israeli teacher education programs and teachers are now required to get their B.A. or
B.Ed. academic degrees.
Investigation of these profiles, as seen by students of education, enables the
understanding of both professional and educational perceptions and the effects of
the teacher education process on these perceptions. The uniqueness of the
research is its clarification of the image of the ideal teacher among students of
education—those who intend to be teachers in the future and those who are
currently teaching. Students of education are situated in the unique strategic posi-
tion of those who are, on the one hand, students themselves and, on the other
hand, those who are already interacting or will have to interact with students as
the essential part of their work.
Understanding the image of an ideal teacher held by education students will help
us understand who the teachers of tomorrow are, what determines their behavior,
what the professional ideal that they ascribe to a teacher is—this should contribute to
improvement of teacher education programs. The comparison between those who are
still in colleges (student teachers) and those who are already teaching while they are
students (beginning teachers) should indicate the effects of being out in the field and
actually teaching on perceptions of the ideal teacher.

Research questions
1. What is the perception of the ideal teacher among students of education? The
concept of an ‘ideal teacher’ has two relevant meanings for this research: the first,
normative meaning of an ideal teacher, refers to qualities to be desired, to be
wished for; the second refers to the general prototype of a good teacher, without
concrete specifications or characteristics, that is, with no reference to a particular
subject of instruction, to level of experience, to gender or to age, among others
(as in the term ‘ideal type’, originated by Max Weber, 1903–1917).
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 443

2. What is the perception of students of education of themselves as teachers? Is it

similar to their perception of the ideal teacher?
3. What qualities of their profile of the ideal teacher have beginning teachers
improved during their teacher education program?
4. What can we learn from a comparison between the perceptions of the two groups
of students of education: those who were studying in academic teachers’ colleges
(student teachers) and those who were teaching and concurrently completing
their Bachelor’s Degrees in teachers’ colleges or regional academic colleges
(beginning teachers)?

Theoretical background of the research

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Programs for teacher education have been strongly shaken up in recent years. This is
due, to a great extent, to the social, economic and political changes that have chal-
lenged the objectives of classical education and have led to consideration of what the
character of ideal teachers should be and how they should be prepared (Cochran-
Smith & Fries, 2001). Different countries around the world are involved in a process
of change corresponding to various views regarding the quality of teacher education
(Calderhead, 2001). These differences are expressed in opposing opinions regarding
directions of required reforms in preparing future teachers. For example, in the United
States, the debate has led to the formation of a group that proposes making teacher
education more professional by creating a basis of knowledge connected to standards
for both instruction and for practicing teachers (National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards). Supporters of this movement maintain that teaching standards
require not only a basis of knowledge in the areas of study and instruction, but also a
greater understanding of pedagogy, child development and methods of evaluation
(Korthagen, 2004). They therefore make use of areas of knowledge that have not in
the past been included in teacher education, such as study of the brain (Zull, 2002)
and development of computer skills (Pellegrino et al., 2001).
We propose that study and research of the image of the good teacher should
contribute important information that informs the process of teacher education.

The image of the ideal teacher in educational thought and research

There are a variety of images of the ideal teacher that have been proposed by educa-
tional philosophers in terms of various streams of educational thought. These philo-
sophical discussions have usually revolved around the overall image of teachers and
their basic qualities and values. In the portrait gallery as designed by a long list of
philosophers from ancient to post-modern times, we find images that were shaped
either by particular philosophers’ or thinkers’ educational outlooks and goals or by
the philosophical school to which they belonged. We note, for example, the teacher
as ‘midwife’ (Socrates); as artist in the use of knowledge (Plato); as the conductor of
dialogue (Bergman); as purveyor of culture (Cicero); as liberator (Freire); as one
who focuses on teaching discipline (Breiter); as role model (Aristotle); as empiricist
 444 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

(Locke); as trainer (Watson); as educator in accordance with nature (Rousseau);

as essentialist (Bagley); as creative teacher (Luvenfeld); as socialist (Barth); as exis-
tentialist (Frankel); as mediator (Feuerstein); as child centered (Neill); and as post-
modernist (Foucault) (Palmer, 2003).
Lamm (1972, 2000), relying on research and educational thought from the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, portrayed four major prototypes for ideal teachers
deriving from educational ideologies and emphasizing different aspects of the work of
good teachers and the aims they strive to achieve:

1. Acculturation—The good teacher is a provider of culture. They must be cultured

persons, with a wide range of general knowledge who are well acquainted with
the wealth of culture and its values and be able to transmit these to students.
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2. Socialization—The teacher is an agent of socialization who transmits social

norms and maintains the existing social order. A new approach has emerged since
the 1960s which considers teachers as agents of social change, socially involved
and encouraging their students to be caring and concerned members of society.
3. Individualization—The teacher is a developer, a shaper and a tutor for each of
their students. These teachers will have educational knowledge and will be
open-minded and receptive to students.
4. Disciplinary expertise—Ideal teachers transmit knowledge of their subject. This
perception may be included in each of the three educational ideologies that have
been described. Here, the prototype of a good teacher is one who is an expert in
a field of study, who is knowledgeable and proficient in methodology and who
researches and continues study of the area they teach. The idea of disciplinary
expertise is strongly connected to current research that emphasizes the role of a
good teacher as a professional.

Lamm (2000) maintains that, particularly during the twentieth century, pure
educational ideologies have been rare; most are eclectic, including two or more educa-
tional approaches such as acculturation–individualization, socialization–acculturation
and socialization–individualization. A combination of two or more approaches leads
to duality and the necessity of dealing with dichotomies and dilemmas.
In modern Jewish mainstream Israeli educational development, we can identify
each of the educational prototypes of the ideal teacher that has been emphasized
when it suited the educational needs of the times:

● During pre-state educational development, the major role of the teacher was as
cultural transmitters (acculturation), shaping the ‘new Jew’, educating an Israeli
‘second generation’. The teacher played an important role in shaping and creating
modern Jewish-Israeli society, which endowed the profession with uniqueness and
great prestige (Alboim-Dror, 1986, 1990; Reichel, 1997, 2002).
● During the first decades of the State of Israel, the consensual expectation focused
on educational work as intensifying the process of socialization—turning the next
generation and especially new immigrants who had just arrived in Israel, into good
citizens of the new state (Tsameret, 1997).
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 445

● Since the 1970s, there are two dominant images of the desired teacher: (1) teachers
as developers, shapers, tutors for each of their students and (2) teachers as trans-
mitters of knowledge in their fields.

Research has indicated that since the pre-state era there has been a continuing decline
in the prestige of the teaching profession among the Israeli public (Friedman, 1999).

The image of a good teacher among students and younger pupils

Until the mid-twentieth century, the opinions of students and younger pupils were
not considered very important. From the 1970s, students in universities and colleges
have been accorded growing importance in the evaluation of the quality of instruction
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by their teachers and their opinions have been taken into consideration when deciding
on the advancement of instructors, especially in colleges (Gibbs, 2001; Nevo et al.,
2002). Descriptions of the profile of good teachers as seen by their students have
become a part of educational research.
Most of the research regarding the perception of the good teacher has pointed to
two important components of the ideal teacher: professional knowledge, both of the
subject taught and of didactic knowledge and an appropriate personality. Dressel
(1987) characterizes ideal teachers as seen by their students in three areas: (1) schol-
arship: academic expertise; (2) delivery: the ability to organize the course and to explain
clearly; and (3) advising: interactions between the instructor and the student.
Miron’s research (1983) indicates that, when evaluating lecturers, the Israeli
student brings up the academic component in the evaluation of a good teacher, includ-
ing knowledge of the subject taught, as well as good teaching methods, while interac-
tion between instructor and student is only of secondary importance. In a number of
studies that checked how pupils regarded a good teacher, there was clear preference
for the ability to teach as the most desired characteristic. Musgrove and Taylor (1972),
for example, developed five categories for pupils’ evaluation and categorization of the
ideal teacher: (1) personality; (2) ability to maintain discipline; (3) teaching methods;
(4) teacher behavior in the classroom; and (5) order and organization. They
concluded that the most important quality for pupils was that the teacher taught them
well and guided them in solving the problems of the subject studied. Research carried
out in Israel supports this orientation (Goldberg, 1994).
In other studies, especially those examining pupils’ evaluation of their teachers, it
has been concluded that personality is the most important quality of a good teacher.
According to Blishen (1969), for example, the qualities of the desired teacher among
pupils were understanding and patience, the ability to pay attention to the pupil,
modesty and politeness, informality and simplicity, participation in pupils’ activities,
the ability to develop good relations with the parents, getting to lessons on time,
recognizing the importance and the value of the student, being warm and personal
and understanding that students are not always ready to study. Kubovi (1992) found
that pupils in Israel respect teachers who have the following characteristics (in
declining order of importance): relating to the pupil with respect, not arousing fear,
 446 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

distinguishing the unique identity of each pupil, believing in the abilities of their
pupils, sincerity, caring, discerning inter-personal differences and change. Similarly,
Friedman and Korngold (1993) found that pupils in Israel evaluate a good teacher as
someone who develops interpersonal relations based on warmth and consideration
and who can provide consultation about personal problems. A number of studies of
students or younger pupils also indicate that they attribute importance to the person-
ality of the instructor and, in particular, to the instructor’s attitude toward the
students (Lowman, 1995; Hativa, 2003).
Other studies that attempted to profile the ideal teacher as perceived by pupils or
students have found that a combination of two central components comprise this
ideal: teaching skills and creation of good relations with the students (Kutnick &
Jules, 1993; Lowman, 1995). It appears that younger pupils tend to perceive the
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personality of the teacher as a dominant attribute of a good teacher, while college

students tend to respect the knowledge component. Research has shown that the
perception of the ideal teacher among students of education changes during their
studies from the image of the traditional authoritative teacher to the humane image
of a teacher who carries on a dialogue with students (Cook-Sather, 2002).
Teachers, as well, relate to two central aspects of the ideal teacher: knowledge and
personality. Arieli’s (1995) research suggests that teachers influence their pupils in
areas such as knowledge acquisition, education for morality and principles and
success in creating interpersonal relations with students. Avraham (1972) found that
leadership and the ability to set a personal example were important qualities.
Does actual teaching in the field alter perceptions of the image of the ideal teacher
by students of education? Research has not found any direct evidence of this. But the
start of actual teaching has been documented as the most difficult stage in a teaching
career and teachers have reported great difficulties during their first years of teaching.
They report fundamental tension between their identities as teachers that they have
developed during their years of teacher education and what occurs in the realities of
teaching. They see contradictions between their acquired perceptions of their roles
and the views of the schools and their policies, between their professional knowledge
and the learning program that has been determined in advance, between maintaining
their ideals and coping with daily realities and between theory and practice (Peled,
1995). These difficulties are expressed in aspects of teaching, in class management,
in integration into school life in general and, in particular, in feeling comfortable in
the teachers’ room (Strahovsky et al., 1996). It can be concluded that these difficulties
influence changes in perceptions of the good teacher that are developed during the
teacher education process.

Teacher education as a means of developing the ideal teacher

Approaches to teacher education are differentiated by perceptions of instruction and
by their images of the ideal teacher that underlie their approach. Each involves discus-
sion of how to understand the four basic elements of teaching and of education: the
teacher, the pupil, the material to be studied and the society (Schwab, 1973). Each
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 447

approach stresses one of the four elements and places the others to varying degrees in
the background by putting different emphases on ideal teachers and their qualities.
Contemporary research suggests that there is no single model that is suitable for
teacher education. Rather, there are various programs that have retained their unique-
ness thanks to their special characteristics and their consensual basis (Scannell, 2002).
These findings are in line with research by Kennedy (1991) who found that the struc-
ture, focus and site of the education program were not significant. Instead, it was the
consensual direction and the beliefs of the teachers’ instructors that were important
in their contribution to the quality of the program.
Feiman-Nemser (1990) categorizes concepts of teacher education into five major
orientations:
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1. Personal—The teacher is the center of the educational process (the traditional

approach).
2. Critical-social—The teacher plays an important role in social improvement (the
approach of radical movements in education).
3. Technological—The teacher has professional knowledge, knows how to teach and
how to acquire and to use scientific principles and applications (Tamir, 1989).
4. Practical—The teacher is a craftsman, flexible, using creativity and good judgment
which stems from experience and becomes stronger as experience increases.
5. Academic—The teacher is an intellectual leader, a specialist in the subject studied
(Shulman, 1987).

Gover (1996) suggests another categorization of different concepts of teacher

education:

● The behaviorist model—This model was developed during the 1960s and is
popular in the United States and in Great Britain. It represents the concept of the
‘social market,’ that is, an approach of production and consumption. Its goal: to
develop teachers who are able to teach centralized learning programs even though
they have not taken part in their design or formation. Thus, a teacher education
program should emphasize development of didactic skills and the transfer of official
knowledge and social ethos.
● The rational-Platonic model—This model purports to develop teachers who have
wide-ranging general and pedagogical knowledge and have an understanding of
legitimate culture and its values. The model encourages autonomous rational
teachers.
● The hermeneutic model—This model is influenced by humanistic psychology and
by the theories of John Dewey and Donald Schön. These theories position teaching
as reflective activity with the basic assumption that correct teaching is not a result
of correct theory but rather of successful interpretation on the part of the teacher
regarding situations arising during the teaching process. The point of departure for
educating teachers according to this model is to present educational situations
and to educate the student teacher in how to interpret these situations and their
components.
 448 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

● The social reconstructionist model for teacher education—A method of critical

pedagogy in which the desired teachers are those who see their work as a mission
stemming from their moral ethos; teachers who participate in the continuing trans-
formation of the teaching experience and assist in social and moral transformation
(Shor, 1992). According to this model, teacher education advances principally
by developing awareness and moral–social thinking processes among students of
education and deepening their ability to make the connection between this aware-
ness and creating a learning environment that transmits values of the group together
with fostering freedom, equality, democracy, social justice and care for the other in
an era of market rule and collectivist egoism.
From the various categorical frameworks that we have discussed, we can conclude
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that:
● Four principle orientations can be discerned about the image of an ideal teacher:
the teacher is someone who has academic knowledge, whose goal involves a social
mission, who focuses on development of the individual and on critical thought and
whose personality stands at the center of their teaching.
● Two main approaches can be discerned: the first conceives of teaching as an
applied science, similar to other applied sciences such as agriculture and medicine
(Collins et al., 1989; Skyes & Bird, 1992). The second conceives of teaching as
experience in the classroom involving interaction between the teacher and the
student in a learning environment (Zilberstein, 1998; Zilberstein & Katz, 1998;
Zeichner, 1993).
In this research summary, we have presented salient points on the image of the
good/desired teacher as seen by philosophers, researchers and research studies,
expressing their views as well as those of trainees and pupils regarding what makes a
good teacher. While philosophers present a complex picture of good teachers in the
context of their teaching abilities, personalities, attitudes towards pupils and the
social–ethical–critical views which guide them, research that has dealt with the eval-
uations of pupils and student teachers has presented a dichotomous view focusing
primarily on two aspects of a teacher’s image: the teacher’s relations and humane atti-
tude towards the pupil and the ability of the teacher to teach both from a disciplinary
and a pedagogical standpoint.

Research method
In 2002, questionnaires regarding ‘the image of the ideal teacher’ were passed out
among students of education who were in the process of completing their studies.

Participants
Eighty-nine students of education in their last year of studies took part in this research:
73 of them were women; 16 were men. The students included two sub-groups: (a) 55
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 449

student teachers (11 men and 44 women) at an academic college in the north of Israel,
including students preparing to be teachers of physical education, students studying
to be elementary school teachers (3rd to 6th grades) and students studying to be nurs-
ery school teachers; (b) 34 beginning teachers (5 men and 29 women) who had
completed their studies at teachers’ colleges during the past 10 years and, at the time
of the research, were continuing their studies to complete their academic degrees at
an academic college in the north of Israel. Of the latter, 18 were studying for a B.Ed.;
16 were completing their B.A. degrees in education.

Research instruments
The questionnaires were made up of open-ended questions. The respondents were
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asked to list three positive characteristics/qualities of the ideal teacher; three charac-
teristics/qualities that should never characterize a teacher; three strong qualities that
they hoped would characterize them as future teachers; and three qualities that the
respondents had improved during their studies and/or experience as teachers. We
accorded special importance to the specific qualities enumerated regarding an ideal
teacher and for self-image of the student of education. By making use of open-ended
questions, we hoped to enable respondents to spontaneously and authentically reflect
their points of view.

Analysis
The verbal replies were analyzed qualitatively, using the inductive technique of ‘open
coding’ (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). At the first stage, replies were classified according
to similar content regarding qualities of a good teacher. The classified qualities
formed basic categories based on the respondents’ words. At the second stage, these
basic categories were organized into categories, called ‘the qualities of the ideal
teacher’. At the last stage they were gathered into two core categories of qualities of
an ideal teacher (Strauss & Corbin, 1990; Huberman & Miles, 1998; Gibton, 2001;
Shkedi, 2003).
The references to qualities of the ‘ideal teacher’ were received by combining the
replies to two of the open questions: the request to list three positive characteristics/
qualities of the desired teachers and the request to list three qualities that should never
characterize a teacher. In our research, a student was counted as one who had related
to a certain quality of the ideal teacher if s/he had mentioned it in one of the two ques-
tions: either as a ‘positive’ quality of the desired teacher or as a ‘negative’ quality, that
is, a quality whose opposite was a negative characteristic of a teacher. The use of two
methods of questioning contributed to cross-validation of qualities attributed to the
ideal teacher. The parallels between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ qualities were great.
In order to validate the content analysis, a process of extraction of categories
separately and inclusively was carried out by the researchers. In addition, a joint
discussion (a focus group) with students who had responded to the questionnaires
regarding their intentions in the statements was held.
 450 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

A comparison was made between the two groups of students who participated in
the research, that is, student teachers and beginning teachers who had had practical
experience in the classroom. Comparisons included t-tests for independent samples
to compare percentages of each group that chose a certain quality. Those who chose
a specific quality and those who did not were marked dichotomously (1 = yes, 0 = no).
In addition, paired t-tests were used to compare different qualities indicated by the
same respondents.

Research findings
Images of the ideal teacher
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The qualities of the ideal teacher and their core categories as found in the analysis
of the content of the open questions are represented in Table 1.

The core category of the personality of the teacher. This category includes qualities that
describe the attitude of the teacher to his/her pupils and to his/her profession as well
as general qualities as a person. There were five characteristics enumerated:
1. General personal qualities of teachers that are not necessarily connected to their
profession as a teacher, such as having a sense of humor, being kind-hearted,
calm, fair, optimistic, humane, stubborn and principled;
2. Teachers who are empathetic and attentive to their pupils, including qualities,
such as being someone who loves children and listens to them, who is flexible,
who does not discriminate, who involves parents, who is sensitive to children,
who is forgiving and open;
3. Teachers as leaders of their classes, persons who are authoritative, set a personal
example, are able to cope with situations and have self-confidence and self-
discipline;
4. Teachers who relate to their profession and love teaching, are motivated, have an
educational outlook and are caring, instill values and are serious;
Table 1. Image of the ideal teacher

Core categories of the qualities of the ideal

teacher Qualities of the ideal teacher

I. The personality of the teacher 1. General personal qualities

II. The teacher as possessing professional
knowledge
2. An empathic attentive teacher
3. The teacher as leader
4. Attitude towards the profession
5. Having wide-ranging general knowledge and being
well-versed in many subjects
6. Knowledge of the subject taught
7. Didactic knowledge - educational methodology
8. Didactic knowledge - focus on the individual pupil
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 451

5. A teacher as a person of wide general knowledge and who is well versed in many
areas. Such teachers are intelligent and have knowledge of the world.

The core category of the teacher who has professional knowledge. This category includes
qualities that present the teacher as a professional who has disciplinary knowledge in
his/her field of knowledge and in the subject that is taught. Three characteristics were
specified:
1. The ideal teacher who has disciplinary knowledge, including qualities such as
knowledge of what is being taught, wide professional knowledge and up-to-date
knowledge. Such teachers continue to renew their knowledge and to do research;
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2. A good teacher is one who has didactic knowledge in the field of education, uses
a variety of teaching methods, is educationally creative, is reliable, is able to solve
unexpected problems and can provide guidance;
3. A good teacher is one who has didactic knowledge that focuses on the pupil as an
individual, respects pupils who are different, provides opportunities, relates to
every pupil and tries to energize and encourage pupils who are not participating.
What is the image of the ideal teacher that is reflected in the answers given by the respon-
dents regarding positive characteristics and what are the characteristics that a good
teacher has? Is this image similar or different in both groups of students of education
in our research?
Figure 1 details the perception of all students of education regarding the ideal
teacher (right column), the perception of student teachers (left column) and the
perception of students who were already teachers (middle column).
According to all students of education, personality is a very dominant and impor-
Figure 1. Qualities of the ideal teacher as perceived by students of education

tant characteristic of the ideal teacher. The great majority of interviewees in both
groups cited this core category with great prominence (97% and 98%). In the two
groups, the quality of ‘an empathic and attentive teacher’ was the most prominent in
the personality of the ideal teacher (94% among teachers who were students and 89%
among students of education).
The major difference between the two groups was in the differing importance
they attached to the core category of the teacher as a person who possesses profes-
sional knowledge. While most of the beginning teachers (91%) attached great
importance to this category, similar to the importance they attributed to the person-
ality of the ideal teacher, only two-thirds of the students of education (67%)
attached great importance to this category. This difference was found to be signifi-
cant in the t-test (t = 3.01, p = 0.003). Among the qualities in the core category of
knowledge, about two-thirds (68%) of the beginning teachers attributed great
importance to the disciplinary knowledge of the good teacher, in comparison to
only one quarter (28%) among the student teachers. This difference was also found
to be significant in the t-test (t = 3.95, p = 0.000).
Regarding other qualities of the ideal teacher, both in the area of personality and
the area of knowledge, there were no substantial differences between the two groups
 452 S. Arnon and N. Reichel
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Figure 1. Qualities of the ideal teacher as perceived by students of education

of students. These qualities were mentioned by between one-third and one half of the
respondents (32%–62%): ‘having a good attitude to his/her profession’, ‘general
personal qualities’, ‘the teacher as leader’, ‘having disciplinary knowledge’, ‘having
knowledge of teaching methods’. There were two qualities of the ideal teacher that
were mentioned by very few students. One related to the area of knowledge: ‘focusing
on the pupil as an individual’. This was mentioned by 18% of the beginning teachers
and 11% of the student teachers in our sample. The second related to the area of
teacher personality: ‘possessing general knowledge and wide horizons’. This was
mentioned by 18% of the beginning teachers and 9% of the student teachers. The
perception of the ideal teacher as an agent of social change was not mentioned at all.

Perceptions of the students of education of themselves as teachers

Table 2 shows the self-perception of students of education of their own strong qual-
ities as teachers (Part A of Table 2) and the qualities in which they improved during
their teacher education period (Part B of Table 2). In each part, perceptions of the
whole group of students of education are presented along with the perceptions of
student teachers and the perceptions of beginning teachers.

Perceptions of students of their own strong qualities as teachers. Both the beginning teach-
ers and the student teachers cited the core category, ‘personality of the teacher’, as
the area of their own strong qualities (97–98%) and as more important than the core
category ‘professional knowledge of the teacher’. A higher percentage of student
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Table 2. The perception of the student him/herself: strong qualities as teachers and qualities which were improved during teacher education

% of Students who cited the various qualities**

The nature
A. Strong qualities B. Improved qualities Significant of the quality
t-test and the
Beginning Student Beginning Student among improvement
Total teacher teacher Total teacher teacher total+ which had
Quality of teacher (n=89) (n=34) (n=55 ) (n= 89) (n=34) (n=55) (A. to B.) occurred***

I. The 1. General personal qualities 25% 18% 30% 2% 0% 4% + Natural

personality of 2. The teacher as empathic 67% 53% * 76% 43% 47% 41% + Acquired
the teacher and attentive
3. The teacher as a leader 27% 24% 30% 43% 35% 46% + Acquired
4. Attitude towards the 40% 32% 44% 13% 12% 15% + Natural
profession
5. General knowledge and 2% 0% 4% 13% 6% 19% + Weak
wide horizons
II.The teacher 6. Disciplinary knowledge 17% 9% 22% 7% 9% 6% + Weak
as possessing 7. Teaching methods 21% 12% * 28% 47% 50% 44% + Acquired
professional 8. Focusing on the pupil as 20% 27% 17% 18% 27% 13% Weak
knowledge an individual
I. The personality of the teacher 98% 97% 98% 90% 88% 91% + Acquired
II.The teacher as possessing professional 53% 41% 61% 61% 62% 59% Acquired
knowledge
Notes:
+A significant difference in the paired t-test (p<0.05) was found between students who estimated the quality as one of their strong ones (A) and who estimated that
they had improved in this quality during their teacher education (B). Dichotomous variables were compared.
*The difference in percentages between the groups was found to be significant according to the t-test (p<0.05). Dichotomous variables were compared.
**Marked with background and numbers in bold—Qualities which were mentioned by at least 88% of the respondents. Marked with numbers in bold but with
no background—Qualities which were mentioned by at least 10% of the respondents.
***Classification of the connection between strong qualities of the student and the amount of improvement which occurred during their teacher education period.
Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 453
 454 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

teachers cited knowledge as their strong quality in contrast to beginning teachers

(61% vs. 41%).
Among the strong personal qualities, the ones that were mentioned more
frequently were similar both among beginning teachers and student teachers, that is
‘an empathic and attentive teacher’ (76% and 53%, respectively, a significant differ-
ence in the t-test: t = 2.19, p = 0.03) and ‘a positive attitude towards the profession’
(44% and 32 %, respectively). Less often, they mentioned characteristics, such as ‘the
teacher as leader’ (30% and 24%, respectively) and their own ‘general personal qual-
ities’ (30% and 18%, respectively). Only about 4% of the student teachers and not
even one of the beginning teachers estimated the quality of ‘having general knowledge
and wide horizons’ as one of their own strong qualities as teachers.
The variety of qualities of knowledge was mentioned by only a few students as their
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strong qualities. In particular, beginning teachers mentioned ‘disciplinary knowledge’

(9%) and ‘teaching methods’ (12%) as their strong qualities less frequently than
student teachers (22% and 28%, respectively). The difference in percentages regard-
ing disciplinary knowledge as a strong quality was found to be significant in a t-test
(t = 1.92, p = 0.05).
Therefore, it appears that many more of the student teachers evaluated their
qualities as strong teachers, while beginning teachers, in contrast, were less ready to
evaluate their own qualities as strong ones. Only the quality of ‘focusing on the pupil
as an individual’ was cited as a stronger one by beginning teachers than by student
teachers (27% vs. 17%).

Comparison of perceptions of students themselves as teachers with their perceptions of the ideal
teacher. A greater number of student teachers described the image of themselves as
similar to the image of the ideal teacher than did beginning teachers. There was a
negative greater gap between the perceptions of beginning teachers of themselves as
teachers and their perceptions of the ideal teacher. This gap was especially striking in
the area of professional knowledge (91% of the beginning teachers evaluated this core
category as important for the ideal teacher, but only 41% evaluated this as a strong
quality of themselves as teachers). It seemed that this gap stemmed especially from
their low estimation of their own disciplinary knowledge as a strong quality: while
68% cited this as an important quality of the ideal teacher, only 9% cited disciplinary
knowledge as a strong quality in themselves as teachers. In the area of personal qual-
ities, as well, there were large gaps between the self-evaluation of the beginning teach-
ers and their evaluation of the qualities of the desired teacher both regarding teachers
as ‘empathic and attentive to their pupils’ (53% in the self-evaluation, 94% in the
evaluation of the good teacher) and the importance of general personal qualities (18%
in the self-evaluation, 62% in the evaluation of the good teacher).

Perceptions of students of their qualities as teachers which they had improved during their
teacher education period. All of the students, both student teachers and beginning
teachers, stated that there had been improvement in various qualities during their
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 455

teacher education. There is great similarity between beginning teachers and student
teachers in their evaluations of improvement during teacher education and there was
no significant difference in percentages (t-test) regarding any evaluated quality. The
great majority of students cited improvement in their personal qualities as teachers
(about 90%), in contrast to the relatively smaller number who cited improvement in
their professional knowledge as teachers (about 61%). Moderate improvement
(reported by 35–50% of the students in each group) was mentioned in the following
personal qualities as teachers: ‘an empathic and attentive teacher’, and ‘a teacher as
leader’, and in the knowledge quality: ‘teaching methods’. A small improvement
(10–27%) took place in ‘attitude towards the profession’, ‘general knowledge and
wide horizons’ and ‘focus on the pupil as an individual’. The qualities of ‘disciplinary
knowledge’ and ‘general personal qualities’ were reported as being improved by very
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few (0–9%).

Connections between students’ evaluation of their strong qualities as teachers and the amount
of improvement they had experienced during teacher education. Most of the differences
between the percentages of students who described a certain quality as one of their
strong qualities and the percentage who described this quality as one which they had
improved during their teacher education programs as teachers were found to be
statistically significant in the paired t test (marked ‘+’ in Table 2, p < 0.05).
The nature of the improvement that took place in certain qualities of the student
as teacher was estimated in comparison to their perceptions of the strength of those
qualities. From this comparison, three possibilities became apparent in the shaping
of teachers’ qualities during their teacher education, as seen in the right column of
Table 2:
1. An acquired quality, provided during teacher education—This is a quality that a
relatively large number of students, almost half or more, reported that they had
improved during their education. These included the two core categories of qual-
ities: ‘the personality of the teacher’ and ‘the teacher as possessing professional
knowledge’. In addition, there were a number of qualities within these basic cate-
gories including two qualities from the core category of the personality of the
teacher: the student as an ‘empathic and attentive teacher’ and ‘the teacher as a
leader’, and one quality from the category of professional knowledge: the student
as ‘a teacher who possesses didactic knowledge of teaching methods’.
2. A ‘natural’ quality of the student—This is a quality that not many described as
one which had been improved during their studies, but at least one quarter of the
respondents reported it as a strong quality in themselves as teachers. We may
term this a ‘natural’ quality of the student as teacher, a quality that was brought
with the individual to his studies rather than acquired. Two qualities from the
area of personality could be described as ‘natural’: the student’s ‘attitude towards
the teaching profession’, and the student’s ‘general personal qualities’. The
percentage of students who described these qualities as strong ones in their teach-
ing (40% and 25% respectively) was much higher than the percentage of students
 456 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

who described the same qualities as being improved during their studies (13%
and 2%, respectively).
3. A ‘weak’ quality of students of education—This is a quality that very few
described as being improved during their studies and very few cited as a strong
quality in themselves as teachers. Thus, these are qualities that students perceive
as weak in themselves as teachers and they are ones that their educational
program did not succeed in improving. Two qualities were categorized by the
students as weak ones: ‘having general knowledge and wide horizons’ and ‘level
of disciplinary knowledge’. Only 2% of the students mentioned their general
knowledge as a strong quality as teachers and only 17% stated that they felt that
they had improved in this area during their education to be teachers; only 7%
mentioned disciplinary knowledge as one of their strong qualities as teachers and
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only 17% felt that they had improved while studying to be teachers. The quality
of ‘focusing on the pupil as an individual’ was found to be quite weak, as only
20% of the students considered it one of their strong qualities as teachers and
18% felt that they had improved during their studies.

The beginning teachers considered the quality of ‘disciplinary knowledge’ as

weaker than did the student teachers; at the same time, beginning teachers considered
‘focusing on the pupil as an individual’ as stronger than the inexperienced student
teachers.

Discussion
It appears that students of education do not characterize the ideal teacher in a one-
dimensional fashion. There are two fundamental categories that they cited: personal-
ity characteristics and the professional knowledge of the teacher, both disciplinary
and didactic. This does not mean that there is duality or a dichotomous division
between the personalities of teachers and their levels of knowledge that occurs when
evaluating their professionalism. Rather, there appears to be a combination of these
two components in different proportions on a continuum between two central
focuses. While students who had teaching experience (beginning teachers) evaluated
both core categories as similar in importance for the ideal teacher, the student
teachers who had not yet ‘really’ taught valued the personality components over the
knowledge components and considered knowledge to be of lesser importance.
The classification of both the component of personality and that of professional
knowledge characterizes a division recognized in the professional literature and
research (Reichel & Arnon, 2005). The perception of the importance of the ideal
teacher’s personality reflects the wider ideas of educational philosophers who perceive
teachers as role models and additionally consider them from a moral and social
standpoint. This view also corresponds to the findings of research that deal with the
question of what a good teacher is in the opinions of pupils and students (Friedman
& Korngold, 1993; Kutnick & Jules, 1993), as well as theories about teachers who
develop and shape their students (Lamm, 2000).
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 457

It seems that this perception expresses a downward shift in the central place of
knowledge and the concept of the ‘teacher who knows’ in the expectations and image
of the traditional teacher in society. This shift appears to be accompanied by an
upward shift in society’s expectations from the good teacher as attentive and humane.
This change may express wide-ranging processes in post-modern Western culture
that reflect disappointment with the world of organized, structured technological and
cognitive knowledge and the search for a more individualized world, which focuses
on individuals and accords a more prominent place to their feelings and emotions and
which provides the pupil with warmth and empathy. This perception, which origi-
nated in the progressive movement begun by Dewey and which continued in the
radical streams of the 1960s and 1970s, can still be found today, especially in ‘special’
schools (experimental, open, democratic, etc.) and in the ‘caring approach’ which
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aligns with Noddings (1999) and Bosworth’s (1995) conceptions of the caring
teacher.
The primary place accorded by students of education to the personal component
in the concept of the ideal teacher in comparison to the knowledge component may
also be explained as expressing a reduction in the status, importance and command
of knowledge among students of education themselves. This explanation has been
critically expressed in Israel by public committees reporting on education in the public
forum and in the media. The criticism is based on attributing great importance to the
academic disciplinary knowledge of teachers and those preparing to teach and the low
opinion of this knowledge among teachers and students of education at present.
This approach, which attributes importance to knowledge of the teacher, also corre-
sponds to research findings which maintain that pupils feel that a good teacher is one
who ‘teaches well’ (Blishen, 1969; Musgrove & Taylor, 1972; Friedman & Korngold,
1993). It corresponds, as well, to the technological orientation (Tamir, 1989) and to
aspects of the academic orientation (Shulman, 1987).The knowledge component in
the image of the ideal teacher as a professional is the central element in defining teach-
ing as a profession, considered as a discipline of knowledge which is theoretical,
academic, scientific and practicable (Darling-Hammond, 1990; Freidson, 1994). Our
study suggests that teaching as a profession and the teacher as a professional are
unique in that the personal component and the knowledge component do not present
a dichotomous opposition. Instead, it seems that they may represent two foci that are
equal in value and in importance, that they are integrated and that they complement
each other. This claim is not common in public discourse nor is it common in research
dealing with teaching as a profession.
Teaching, like the classic professions, is characterized by providing a quality service
for public benefit, but it is different in its emphasis on the important element of
involvement and personal responsibility and for its focus on an individual approach
to every student. This makes it unlike classical professions which emphasize a behav-
ioral code of objectivity and neutrality and the carrying out of tasks impersonally. In
the approach of the students of education, the personalities of teachers and their
empathic and attentive attitude towards their students were important and unique
elements in the students’ image of the profession.
 458 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

What the students left out

It is important to evaluate the image of the ideal teacher as perceived by students of

education not only by the components that they consider important and that domi-
nate their evaluation, but also by the qualities that were considered insignificant or
that were completely absent from their description. This research indicates that the
student of education does not relate to the general educational viewpoint which
focuses on the clear ethical orientation of the ideal teacher. Very few students
related to a good teacher as one who ‘instills principles’ or as one who ‘possesses an
educational outlook’ as an individual quality. Few students mentioned professional
ethical elements, such as non-discriminatory attitudes and a serious approach to the
profession.
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In addition, it appears that students of education do not see the ideal teacher as a
person of culture or as a socializing agent, nor is the teacher seen as someone who has
a social mission. These three elements were central in the early stages of Hebrew
education in Israel when teachers were accorded social prestige. Their disappearance
has been accompanied by the loss of this prestige (Eisenstadt, 1967). In addition, the
ideal teacher is not perceived as having a critical social orientation (Feiman-Nemser,
1990; Gover, 1996). Good teachers and their education are pictured by students of
education in practical terms that do not express a desire for wide cultural horizons,
for cultural change, for changes in society, or for critical ethical goals and their goals
do not stem from a challenging educational perception.
The qualities missing from the image of the ideal teacher are missing, as well, from
the self-image of the student as teacher. This denotes an absence of thought regarding
areas outside the limited concrete world of school and of teaching. When students of
education relate to qualities of the ideal teacher or qualities of themselves as teachers,
they do not include educational ideology, social missions or ethical improvement of
society—qualities that generally emerge from a more holistic educational outlook.
The criteria chosen indicate that students of education tend to see the teacher prima-
rily as a ‘human being’—fair, humane, relaxed, possessing values and respect for the
profession and knowledgeable in the theoretical subject being studied. Teachers are
regarded from the standpoint of their function as educators at school and this focuses
on teaching subjects and not on critical social observation oriented towards change
and improvement in society.
This perception does not conform to the perceptions that direct many of the
models for education of teachers as presented by Gover (1996). Nor does it reflect
the critical orientation (Shor, 1992) or the tradition of social reconstruction (Liston
& Zeichner, 1991).
The fact that students of education perceive a concrete image of a teacher, lacking
elements which accord vision and ethical social functions may be explained by a
number of factors. Among these might be the possibility that students of education
have internalized the relatively low status attributed to teachers by society or by the
fact that challenges and ideology do not play a part in the reasons that young people
choose to study education. Most of the education students are worried about getting
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 459

a good assessment from their pedagogical mentors and other teachers; they are busy
trying to survive their studies and getting their academic degrees (Wideen et al.,
1998).
Perhaps the educational process itself is responsible for students’ concrete percep-
tions of teaching, as educational–philosophical discussion regarding what the ideal
teacher should be, the components of teachers’ character, the development of a
teacher’s educational outlook, their professional ethics and their social mission is often
lacking. Such discussions may at times be carried on by leaders and researchers
concerned with the process of teachers’ education, but our evidence suggests that they
play no general, integral role in teacher education. Such discussions rarely seem to be
carried on by the teachers of future teachers, so they are not passed on to teachers of
the future, who are, right now, the students of education (Gover, 1996).
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The qualities that were absent from the image of the ideal teacher should be
considered and should give rise to questions such as: does the absence of ‘social
values’ from the image of the ideal teacher reflect privatization and individualization
of education? What is the place of the ‘cultured person’ in discussions of teacher
education at this time when discourse regarding cultural identity and multicultural-
ism play such an important role in our society? Considering that the issue of teacher
as a ‘figure that punishes’ did not seem to figure in the opinions of the students, are
we to conclude that this is not part of the role of the ideal teacher? Does the absence
of discussions of discipline and classroom management align with the gap between
theoretical education and pedagogical leadership and between teacher education and
the realities of schools in Israel?

The role of experience in teacher preparation

There are significant differences between the student teachers and the beginning
teachers in our study. Student teachers view their own images as teachers of the future
in terms similar to those of the ideal teachers they have described. Their views of the
ideal teacher emphasize the personality core category and especially the qualities of
empathy and attentiveness, while the knowledge component seems to be of secondary
importance. It would appear that the students’ awareness of their lack of knowledge
results in their minimizing the importance of this element. The theory of cognitive
dissonance may explain the correlations we see here between the reality of the situation
and the students’ expressed positions (Cooper, 1999).
One way to read the differences suggests that the similarity between the students’
image of the ideal teacher and their image of themselves as future teachers raises the
question of whether the students perceive the ideal teacher in their own image, or
whether the opposite is true: self-image reflects the perception of the ideal and the
students’ aspirations to reach this ideal.
Another way to read the differences might have to do with experience, that is, those
students who have already taught, the beginning teachers, view themselves as
different from the ideal in a variety of ways. They may feel that they fail to meet the
standards of the ideal teacher. They may consider their disciplinary knowledge to be
 460 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

weaker. This might be explained as modesty, or as an admission of a real lack of

knowledge as well as an expression of the need to improve in this area. Whichever, we
surmise that these feelings may come from the practical experience that these begin-
ning teachers have. Furthermore, the fact that beginning teachers attribute greater
importance to knowledge than do student teachers indicates to us that the process of
professional socialization continues after completion of the teacher education
program and that work in the field leads to the recognition of the relative importance
of knowledge and balances out with the element of personality. After beginning teach-
ers enter the field and acquire growing experience, it becomes clear to them that
knowledge is one of the most important professional tools and that depending on
personal qualities is not sufficient to make a good teacher (Kagan, 1992; Peled,
1995).
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The role of the educational process in shaping images of a good teacher

The replies of the students to the question regarding their qualities that were improved
during their education as future teachers provide a fundamentally positive answer.
However, our detailed examination of the elements of these basic qualities suggests
that the influence of teacher education is perceived as partial and limited.
During the preparation process, students develop principally as empathic teachers
and leaders and the educational process in teaching colleges also provides them with
skills in teaching methods. On the other hand, students feel that the educational
process has provided them with almost nothing in the areas related to subjects to
be taught and to their didactic abilities in the area of ‘focusing on the pupil as an
individual’. In their estimation, these qualities remain weak and unimproved.
Will these qualities be improved during the year remaining to most of the respon-
dents who participated in the study? The replies of beginning teachers who had taught
and were now in the process of completing their degree requirements suggest that
these teachers’ attitudes towards the profession were almost uninfluenced by their
teacher education. These qualities were considered relatively strong before they began
their teacher education. They brought these with them to the teachers’ colleges. In
fact, they are the very qualities that led them to choose the teaching profession.

The role of education programs in shaping teachers’ practice

Only a few of the students estimated that there had been an improvement in their
knowledge during their studies at teachers’ colleges! This evaluation by students is in
complete contrast to the expressed goals of making the educational process for teacher
preparation increasingly academic in Israel. This finding calls into question those eval-
uations that indicate that institutions of teacher education have focused on deepening
disciplinary knowledge over didactic and pedagogical knowledge. Furthermore, it
forces us to question whether teacher education institutions have succeeded in carry-
ing out these goals. As well, it emphasizes the great difficulties involved in achieving
these goals (Kfir et al., 1997).
 Who is the ideal teacher? Similarity and difference in perceptions 461

Focusing on image
Every individual, and certainly those who are involved in education, carries within
them an image of ideal teachers and their qualities, skills and abilities. For preservice
teachers, as we have argued, this image represents a model to relate to for it provides
criteria to aspire to, aim for and act in accordance with. In addition, it represents a
measure of evaluation of a teacher’s practical activity—both personal and profes-
sional. In contrast to the concrete model of ‘a teacher as an example’, this is not a
model to be imitated. Rather, it represents an ‘ideal’ that serves as a summary and a
sum total of a teacher’s desired qualities.
The actual discussion of the image of the good teacher during teacher education is
a method of raising consciousness and stimulating thought processes, enriching the
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image of the ideal and turning the theoretical discussion into an instrument of the
process of preparing the student of education. As well, it is a personal working tool.
It should touch on the possible bases of a teacher’s image—knowledge, personal qual-
ities, sense of social mission, ethical considerations—and present them as possible
elements, as building blocks from which teachers may construct their own images of
the desired teacher. It is hard to expect that students, involved in their studies and in
their first teaching experiences, will rise up above the practical level of education and,
on their own initiative, attempt to clarify the image of a good teacher. If students of
education do not meet with the concept of ‘agent of change’ and its content, for
example, it will not be part of their cognitive map and will not be included in the range
of options at their disposal.
It is important that those who set policy, those who are involved in organizing the
curricula for teacher education programs and instructors in these programs provide
ample time and a central role for this discussion during the process of professional
education and teacher development. This type of discussion should be open: there is
no single image of the good teacher, nor is the image a static collection of qualities. It
is an image that can change as teachers’ understandings develop over time. Thus, this
discussion should be constructivist. It should relate to students’ and teachers’ expe-
riences, to how they process these experiences and to their abilities to connect to both
the theoretical material they have learned and their attempts to give significance to
their experiences (Baxter-Magolda, 1999).

Conclusion
This research has dealt with the general image and principles of the good teacher, the
desired teacher, the ideal teacher as perceived by students of education who are now
in the teacher education process or at the beginning of their professional careers. The
conclusions arrived at are important to any discussion of the image of the good
teacher and how teachers should be educated and prepared.
The study opens the way to further and deeper discussion of images of a good
teacher: would there be a difference if evaluation was carried out in more specific
contexts? Are there similar characteristics in the image of the ideal teacher in other
 462 S. Arnon and N. Reichel

cultures, other countries, in other teaching areas, in the different ages of the pupils
and if so, what are they? Does the teacher education process make changes that
research may reveal by comparing the characteristics of the ideal teacher at the end of
the teacher’s education to characteristics at the starting point? What change occurs in
characteristics of the ideal teacher when entering the ‘real’ world of teaching? And
during the process of accumulating experience in teaching and life?
We assumed that students of education already have an image of the ideal teacher
when they reach teachers’ colleges, an image that has been formed in their cultural,
social and educational environments. If there is no development, growth and change
in this primary image during the teacher education process, students will carry the
same images that they arrived with back to their environments and to their pupils. It
is our hope that the discussion of the ideal teacher and how they are educated may
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break this cycle and advance the shaping of better teachers.

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