It is now widely recognized that the most important factors in any teacher's effectiveness are the interaction with students and the knowledge and personality of the teacher. The best teachers are able to translate information, good judgment, experience, and wisdom into a significant knowledge of a subject that is understood and retained by the student. Teachers need the ability to understand a subject well enough to convey its essence to a new generation of students. The goal is to establish a sound knowledge base on which students will be able to build as they are exposed to different life experiences. The passing of knowledge from generation to generation allows students to grow into useful members of society.

Different people learn in different ways, and many things will have to be explained many different times in many different ways before most of the students "get it". Some students, unfortunately, never will "get it"--since they are not interested or have not learned enough of the foundation knowledge of a given subject to advance to a new level. The main role of a teacher is to teach the students the core knowledge accumulated over centuries of human experience well enough for them to understand and retain enough of this knowledge to be able to continue to build on it and, at least in part, understand how the world works.

These ideas reflect a traditional view of teaching in which the responsibility for learning is placed on the student. In contemporary British pedagogy particularly, the onus lies on the teacher to create the appropriate dynamic for effective learning by students of all abilities, backgrounds and inclinations. The teacher is more than a repository of knowledge: effective teaching draws on a range of skills, insights and techniques which afford access to knowledge as well as to the development of appropriate skills. Students may not 'get it' because their social backgrounds exclude them from curricula which presuppose certain cultural and social values. It is the job of teachers to understand and identify barriers to learning, to remove those barriers and to bring the best out of those they educate.