Teacher - A Catalyst For Change
It is no myth that education for all is the talk of the day. There is not a single day when this issue is not debated in discussion forums, conferences, seminars, political talks and many more public / private settings in the world. The governments of developing countries consider it obligatory to include education in their political talks whereas a solid set of policies is yet to be seen in many countries. Pakistan is no exception. When it comes to planning and boasting of big plans for spreading education to masses across the country, they do not let any opportunity slip, however the budget portion allocated for education in Pakistan has always been a meager percentage.
It’s a common man’s knowledge nowadays that our government has placed education at the bottom of its list of priorities. There is no argument that education is everyone’s right and the government is required to provide it at primary and high school levels. Once the government failed to do so, private industry moved in to fill this gap which resulted in emergence of a huge market potential for private investors across the country. As a result of all this we all have witnessed education becoming one of the industries with both highest growth potential and a lucrative rate of return during last three decades.
Schools are investing enormously on imported curricula accompanied by textbooks written mostly by foreign authors, and well-equipped classrooms but all are proving useless if teachers do not make use of those resources. The management of these institutions perceive education as if it were a mechanical production system in which inputs generate results. But they fail to envisage that the right mix of raw material, imported production system, and smartly trained work force will yield the best outcome. We must be clear that the classroom is rather a process of social interactions between students and teachers in which teachers hold a vital position. Effective teachers can stimulate the students by invigorating the classroom experiences with a lifelong learning even under adverse conditions. Good teachers can lead their students in acquiring fundamental learning even with poor curriculum and limited teaching materials because, after all, it is teachers’ efforts and methodology that puts its mark on students’ learning experiences.
It is a simple economic relationship of demand and supply. A mushroom growth in private education industry requires an equal and ample supply of teachers to fill the gap which is the foremost factor in making teaching one of the most lucrative professions. The gap has been filled with increasing number of individuals pursuing teaching as their profession. But do these gold excavators really have the passion, the zeal, the skills, and the motivation to lead the young souls who are looking for someone to give them their first learning experience. We must understand the teachers’ expectations and frustrations and explore the material and symbolic resources that may motivate them in their work, as all these factors do shape the attitude of teachers when they go to the classroom.
The management must analyze who can and who cannot teach. They should adopt a mechanism to finding the gaps in professional skills of their teachers for reinforcing further specialized knowledge and or, when necessary, to seek a way of replacing them so that students can have faith on the educational services to which they are entitled.
Another important factor to consider is the institutional framework in which teachers perform. It is important to understand the fabric of social relationships that suggests to teachers what is legitimate and what is not, which aspirations are more realistic than others, for what things they should be accountable, what are the ethical means to operate within in a society, what are the moral and cultural benchmarks to look at. After all, the beliefs and principles make a teacher’s personality; whereas the workload, management dealings, and work environment all lead to a frustrated or motivated teacher. After all, it is the combination of all these things that explains what teachers do in their classrooms and that ultimately shapes students’ educational experiences.
In an average classroom in our schools, teachers are helping students to get high scores, gaining merit positions, and devising methods to memorize lessons; whereas, they should be motivating the students to think by themselves. The questions should be appreciated, team work should be initiated, and learning by teaching other students should be enforced. However, this requires a lot of research on teachers’ part. They should try to stay abreast of new and different ways of teaching using teaching books and DVDs, as well as attending seminars and through informal discussions with colleagues. If we study the successful education models in Japan and Finland, investing so much personal time in teaching occupation is not unusual in these countries. In addition to the teaching role, the teachers assume an outsized role as counselor, surrogate parent in these countries.
One surprising fact for all of us is that Japan spends less on education than most developed countries, allocating it less than 4 percent of its GDP. So, the question arises, could it be the quality of teaching system which contributes to the success of students’ learning mechanism?
The role of teachers should rather be coach like, where students should be encouraged to learn through taking the role of a teacher. As we all know, the best method of learning is through teaching others, this puts teachers in a challenging position to prepare and plan for the teaching assignment. They are bound to do research on the subject they plan to teach, and not only that, they will practice various methods of delivery in their classes to ensure accurate and effective delivery of the message through teaching. What keeps the teachers from encouraging participation and role playing in their classes, which may increase the students’ interest in the subject by taking the ownership in the class? One should ask this question, are the teachers afraid of losing the control in their classes. As we discussed earlier, control mechanism does not encourage an effective learning environment in knowledge transfer process. Taking a lead role through presentation in front of the fellow class mates not only boosts confidence but also keeps students on their toes as everyone is expected to be ready to go on stage in front of the class.
Teachers need to keep motivating the students. Teaching only through one sided lecturing may increase students’ chances to memorize the subject but the real task of teachers should be to help students to think by themselves.
Teacher can be catalysts for change by not being content with the status quo but by looking for better way. The ones who take on the catalyst role definitely feel secure in their own work and have a strong commitment to continual improvement. To be a change agent, teachers must assume the role of learner; they should focus on continual improvement, demonstrate lifelong learning, and use what they learn to help all students achieve.