As we mark China's 20th Teachers' Day, questions arise as to what kind of teachers we need for the country's growing generation.

Respect for teachers and esteem for learning are long-standing traditions in Chinese culture. The traditional role of the Chinese teacher is defined as one who fosters ethics, imparts knowledge and skills, and unravels puzzles. Many interesting stories about great teachers from Confucius onwards are still kept alive as part of this culture.

But is this traditional good teacher ideal still relevant to today's education in China? Or would it be better to follow an old saying, which says the best way to preserve tradition is to make a brand new future out of it?

As we enter the 21st century, one that promises a great revolution in educational technology and learning style, we hear repeated calls for quality education from kindergarten to college level. The idea is to emphasize all-round development of the person rather than to focus solely on high scores in exams. According to media reports, many schools and teachers have answered this call and translated it into action, and it has yielded initial results.

This new ideal says that students should be taught with success in both work and life in mind, so they can not only survive the struggle of the job market but also life's daily struggles. New expectations arise out of a new way of learning.

We live in an information age, where we are inundated with tons of information from all kinds of sources, all of which need to be processed. Today's first challenge is to learn how to cultivate students' abilities in processing huge swathes of information. This is the first step in learning the ability to tell truth from falsehood, which is in turn a must to problem-solving in contemporary society.

In addition to all this, and perhaps most important, schools and colleges should teach their students to make a lifelong commitment to uphold socially-accepted standards of moral integrity.

So what kinds of teachers and teaching methods can best answer such challenges? Some thinkers believe there are four types of teacher. The mediocre teacher tells; the good teacher explains; the superior teacher demonstrates; and the great teacher inspires.

But this kind of categorization is too mechanical. We should instead take an eclectic approach and say that "telling, explaining, demonstrating and inspiring" constitute the four basic kinds of tasks each teacher must perform at four different levels. In other words, training all-round students calls for all-round teachers.

To be fair, most teachers understand the expectation of their professional roles, but not all of them can live up to it. Many students complain about their moral educators. "They just kept up a good appearance to persuade us. In our absence, when we were not watching them, they did things that ran contrary to their teaching. We found it so disgusting and unconvincing. It seemed that once we found out about our teachers' misconduct, all their previous teaching lost its meaning."

How sad, yet how true. Surely students need to be aware that their teachers are but human beings and are, as such, fallible. But they also need to practice what they preach.

An inspiring teacher is sure to be loved by all students. But how does a teacher go about inspiring his students?

Instead of "unraveling puzzles," as the ancient Chinese put it, he should seek to "puzzle" and "baffle" his proteges, filling their minds with questions that they themselves wish to answer. This may be an approach to teaching that is of the highest order.

One way to inspire is to completely baffle and confuse from the outset, the "sink-or-swim" approach.

Students are set questions then immersed in tons of reading material and data, theories and concepts. But if they are built for it, they can emerge from the reams of paper with a profound knowledge of the subject and an ability to discuss it knowledgeably, even to challenge their teacher's own theories.

An inspiring teacher encourages his students to have dreams and to strive to make their dreams come true. He should fuel their aspirations to the truth but not just their selfish ambition.

We might conclude that the stages of "telling," "explaining," and "demonstrating" all prepare students and teachers for the "inspiration" stage. Without inspiring teachers, it is difficult to discover true talent. Without inspired students, it is hard to imagine high levels of creativity. Chinese leaders and theoreticians have repeatedly emphasized that the spirit of creativity and innovation is the spiritual engine that is propelling China in its modernization drive.

May all teachers be good at telling, explaining, demonstrating and inspiring!

The author is a professor at the Department of Journalism & Communication at Xiamen University.

(China Daily September 10, 2004)