Teaching
and teachers occupy a significant portion of the waking and working
moments of my life and yet I'm sometimes puzzled about how to respond
to questions like - what's the new trend in teaching methods? Or,
what are the new innovative methods being implemented in schools to
teach students?
The
reason for my puzzlement? Teaching, at least good, sound teaching
isn't about new 'trends', like trends in fashion or eating out! It's
about knowledge of children and their differing learning capacities,
it's about subject expertise, it's about skills in managing and
orchestrating learning of a class of 30 or more students, it's about
wanting to do the right thing by every child under their care. It's
about being competent, creative and compassionate all rolled into
one. This is what great teaching has been for decades and every
Teachers' Day, indeed every day, we need to reconnect to that core
purpose.
However
in our country, for the overwhelming majority of schools and
classrooms, teaching is still a curious amalgam of ancient and 19th
century colonial paradigm. Teachers still resort to rote-based
teaching-learning, memorisation of answers without understanding, a
one-way transmission of information and they expect unquestioning
obedience from their students. On top of this we add external
trappings of seemingly modern pedagogy – like interactive
whiteboards, ready-to-use topic-wise power point presentations and
click-of-the-button assessments. I would hasten to add that there is
nothing at all wrong with any of these, except that they cannot be
used authentically if the teacher mindset is outdated. It's almost
like giving a 9 year old, a book on philosophy or religion. A child
is not yet ready to understand the nuances of great thoughts and
ideas till he/she is of a certain cognitive maturity.
So
in order to leap frog our teaching and student learning into the 21st
century, we need to focus on contemporarising teachers' mindset and
their attitude towards the profession. If there needs to be a
national drive – then it surely must be enabling and inspiring
teachers to think, question, articulate and reflect on everything
they do! That comes only if their training has been thoughtfully
designed and delivered.
Subsequently, a to-do list would be handy for
teachers to sustain, what has been for many, including me, a lifelong
relationship with teaching. A successful school is one that has made
the following a part of its culture for teachers:
1. Consider
teaching to be a key profession, as any other. Do not compromise
its importance by allowing domestic demands to distract from the
true purpose of teaching, as teachers are wont to do. It is not
alright to think that since teaching doesn't pay as well as other
jobs, one can slacken effort. The question is will big salaries
bring out the best in teachers or will great teaching and
professional teachers command better salaries? I would most
definitely say, the latter!
2. Take
care of your overall physical and emotional well-being –
in order to teach young people we need to have large reserves of
energy and enthusiasm, regardless of our age and teaching
experience. Cynicism, indifference or monotony have no place in
teaching!
3. Focus
on continuously improving skills and expertise – both in the
subject concerned as well as ways to connect with and help children
learn with understanding. Technology is a handy tool in this
context. Just like a doctor's success is determined by whether
he/she helps patients recover from ailments and illnesses, a
teacher's effectiveness is judged only by her/his students' learning
outcomes. Plan, prepare, deliver, reflect and plan anew as on
ongoing cycle.
4. Care
for and show positive regard towards all students – a
good teacher is someone whom all children trust and feel safe with;
someone who is firm but fair and friendly too.
5. Take
help and support from peers, seniors
and specialists–
collaborating with colleagues and learning from others is the only
way to prevent teaching from being a lonely and sometimes mechanical
endeavour.
Maya
Menon (mayamenon@teacherfoundation.org)
