Movie Clips Teaching Examples

I chose Mrs. Honey from Matilda as an example of good teaching methods. She has all of the students engaged and interested in learning the material being presented. Mrs Honey treats the kids with kindness and respect, which motivates their curiosity to learn, and grow as individuals. I was focusing more so on classroom management and engagement during this part of the question, because I believe that being engaging and motivating is essential to teaching; as well as understanding the concepts you are explaining.


This clip is taken from the move Matilda (1996), which has two contrasting teaching styles being presented: the kind and motivating teacher, Mrs Honey, and the teacher that uses fear to gain power over their students, Mrs Trunchbull.

As a bad example of teaching I chose Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory, during the episode where he is teaching his roommate’s girlfriend (Penny) the basics of what his roommate does for a living. Granted this isn’t necessarily an in class example, it still demonstrates bad teaching habits.


During the clip Sheldon begin by undermining Penny. He makes jokes about her being stupid, and does not really treat her respectfully. Sheldon then moves far too quickly through the material, and when Penny asks questions he doesn’t actually answer them, but rather leads her back to the material he wanted to teach; regardless of if she is understanding or not.