If teaching is just presenting facts, then the answer to this presentation’s title is that teachers aren’t necessary. Instead, I argue that the point of teaching is telling stories and helping students learn how to use information. Mostly, that’s it, plus the most important guide to good teaching is to genuinely care about the students (not teachable) and tricks to avoid losing your job because you are a good teacher. Also, I’ll give you some of my teaching tricks and observations: for instance, in 40 years I’ve never seen a single educational theory that was worth a damn, except (hypocritically) my own theories which I fully expect everyone else to (rightly) reject. I’ll explain the importance of the “the question that cannot be missed, “ and the value of meta-statements in teaching and establishing a rapport with students. For example, here’s a meta-statement: I hate these friggin’ meeting abstracts because they aren’t peer-reviewed, half the time they don’t reflect the presentation’s content, and unwary editors and reviewers keep letting meeting abstract citations into the literature, which is a great trick for propagating crap.<
