ABSTRACT
By way of introduction, this opening chapter explores the evidence about the essential prerequisites for effective Primary school teaching. In doing so, it explodes some of the common myths. It emerges that there is no ideal personality for a teacher; people with very different personalities can be excellent teachers. There is also no one best style of teaching. The best teachers use a repertoire of various styles and strategies; it is not the strategies they use that make the difference, but the skill with which they use them. Being a person (rather than a machine) turns out to be vital. Good teaching is complex and relies upon the sensitivity and empathy of which only a person is capable. It is the capacity for fluent, insightful, almost instantaneous, only half-conscious intuitive judgement, like that of the artist or highly skilled craftsman, which is most characteristic of the highly experienced and expert classroom teacher.
