Job satisfaction from teaching: the ultimate source

There are quite a number of factors that can lead to frustration from teaching, e.g. students not keep to learn but ready to complain, subject second markers not coming forward with assessment marks, module leaders very late in confirming subject assignments, and, lastly, defective classroom equipment, among others. Trying to tackle these sources of frustration head-on is quite difficult, often impracticable.

More constructively, I prefer to direct my attention to the intellectual learning from the course teaching so as to enhance my intellectual competence. This kind of gain from teaching is concrete and achievable; it constitutes my ultimate source of job satisfaction from teaching. Moreover, I believe that a good teacher should be a good learner himself and students learn tremendously from the role model of a good teacher-cum-learner.

Striving to be a good teacher-cum-learner is an important part of the journey to scholar-practitioner maturity. Job satisfaction from teaching is experienced along such a life-long journey. Once in a while,  some students express their gratitude to me for my teaching quality. That certainly makes me feel satisfied with my teaching job too.