Who is `the' real teacher? On September 5, this question merits a debate. Whether the person teaches you a `subject' and/or `life skills' as the hip phrase puts it, (s)he has a few qualities bunched up. Shall we discuss some of them?
First and foremost, in the explosion of information era, a good teacher today must go beyond knowledge-ability. That is the skill students share with us, teachers, and to a much better advantage. In such a scenario, what does the teacher have as the `cutting edge' technique? Developing interpretive abilities of the students has to be the goal of the teaching/learning process. Such interpretive vision, analysis, and other such higher order `skills' (as many love the term, let us use it, too) would be the real abilities much in demand as the digital revolution is already on us with a frightening speed. If unprepared for this new world order, it is gonna be more corrosive than the dreaded Covid.
The decade old possibility of foreign universities gettting a foothold on the native soil is very soon going to be a reality. It would be world class education that our learning must compete with. Just check the futuristic online courses, their syllabi, their course material to begin with. It IS content rich. The internet accessible/available online material as I suggested in the last paragraph of our blog yesterday is being used merely as additional reference material and/or for creative assignment possibilities. Time we go beyond the pretty PPT hype!
When can education develop a critiqueing vision, nay, not the carping criticising surely, among the students? That would be probable if teachers always remain in the learning mode, and teach with passion, dedication, and joy. Who has these heartfelt, soulful qualities in abundance when dealing with us? Our parents! No wonder, it is said that our mother is our first teacher, and our teacher is our second mother!
pratima@teaching the teacher to teach!
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