What is great teaching?

In his Teaching as Learning in Practice article Lave makes an observation that "it may be worth inquiring how it is that most of us are able to remember great teachers, but do not have routine ways to talk about what great teaching is".

I found this particularly perceptive as it made me reflect on memories of great teachers from my past and try to identify what made them 'great':

• Matthew Scott: I can hardly remember any of the content he taught us, but he made me feel like I could 'be' a composer.
• Gill Nah: Although I remember some of the content, it is the memories of how she made me feel like I could 'be' a teacher that are most prominent.

Thinking about how teacher colleagues perceive me, my feeling is that they may like me because I try to empower them and make them feel capable of achieving things with technology of which they did not believe themselves capable.

However, there is an interesting tension here because there is also a strong instructional element in teaching staff about e-learning technology. But it strikes me that providing a context to e-learning instruction - i.e. 'situating' it - is important so that tutors understand the 'why' about what they are learning.