EMPOWER TEACHING
Have you ever seriously thought
of your style of teaching? Did you ever permit your students to express their
views about your teaching? Did you observe the reactions of the students during
and after your teaching? Do you hear the students often say or praise about the
method or teaching of a particular teacher of your school? Have you observed
that the students prefer some classes to others? Moreover, scores of such queries,
you might have come across during your teaching career.
In the western countries,
teachers are habituated for sharing their classroom experiences. This is so
because they do not have (relatively) problems regarding their service or
facilities, as they enjoy comparatively better status in several aspects. However,
in no way service facilities prevent us from sharing our classroom experiences
with others. Sharing our experiences is a sort of revelation for both the
individual and the group where it is shared or the individual with whom we
share. If we arbitrarily think that ours is the definite and foolproof method in
making the students learn, then certainly we make a mistake for two reasons.
One, we may be wrong, if we share our ideas and logically examine the
result-orientedness of our method when we find simpler method of others.
Second, by not sharing our ideas with others, we are rather unconsciously
concealing our methods from being followed by others. Classroom experiences
differ from one teacher to the other. Especially in Indian situation with the
heterogeneous group of learners, it is quite nature that the experiences
differ.
Self-assessment is the first step
for improving our teaching skill. Having known our lapses, we must be ready to rework
our teaching behaviour. We often talk about students and their behaviour. We
share our views about a particular student and at times of misbehavior we hear
that every teacher opine about the student. What does it mean? It shows that we
consciously observe the behaviour of the students. The same might be the case
with the students. As they are also the conscious living being, they observe
our behaviour with all sincerity and zest. Therefore, if a teacher wants to
know about her teaching and temperament, she should hear the students what they
really say about her. Understanding students mind and opinion is the key to bring
modification in our behaviour.
As a teacher, we cannot directly
approach the students and ask them how we teach. Sometimes our consciousness
prevents us from approaching the students. Anyhow, some sort of direct or
indirect students’ assessment is essential to know our classroom behaviour. If
we fail to regard their views and opinion then our whole teaching-verve would
go waste and we will not be in a position to correct our wrongs and strengthen
the rights in course of time. In these circumstances, it is mandatory to think
of techniques to understand ourselves and our teaching through students.
We all know that students by
nature imitate others including the teachers. We could observe this behaviour
even in a child when they get into play. Why don’t we make use of this nature
for our own benefit! The idea is very simple. Give chance to your students to
imitate your teaching in a formal classroom setup. Tell him that it is only for
fun and he is free to imitate as he likes and teach. While you are being
imitated, watch silently in what way he imitates. And perceive the method you
are using through your own student besides assessing the lapses and success of
your teaching. While imitating, the student may not be able to teach and show
mastery as you usually do in your class. However, he would certainly imitate
the methods and mannerisms used by you. At the end give him a pat and end up
the class. Later think of your teaching and the reflection through the imitation
session. If there is anything, you deem it to be worth for modification, plan accordingly
and change without any hesitation.
Apart from imitation, ask a
student or handpicked students to teach certain portions of the prescribed text
(which were already taught) in a small group. What shall we achieve through
this exercise? Students with above average comprehension would get a chance to
explain the theme to others and this will instill confidence in them to
express. Further they will get chance to experience their own level of
understanding. In addition, the other students of below average would be
benefited to hear the topic from a different angle and person. As the teacher
being his classmate he would not hesitate to ask any number of questions which
they might not ask the class teacher due to various reasons in a classroom
situation. If we the teachers observe this process, we would be benefited by
the nature of queries of the below average students and the level of
comprehension of the above average students. Both will help us to modify our
own teaching behaviour more effectively.
Another technique you can use is
the method of team teaching. In actual life situations, we come across several
incidents. Some are capable of narrating the incidents more lively and others
may not do so with that much skill. We often praise persons that so and so has
clarity in his idea and expression. Some teachers are so skilled that they
excel in explaining even complex topics in a lucid language without any zigzag.
There may be such skilled teachers in your school also. Request such teachers
to teach your subject in their own way. Introduce the teacher, inform the
students that she would be teaching the topic on a particular day, and observe
her teaching. This will enable you to adopt right method or to understand the
wrong method or the avoidable styles and methods. If you are a language
teacher, do not think that subject teacher may not be able to teach the
language as you do. Sometimes, inherent quality and natural interest towards a
language, and their own bitter experience of their language learning sessions
might have brought desirable changes in them, which they try to transform into
teaching. This kind of exercise would open up new vistas and help us to change
or refine our own methods. Students will also enjoy such classes irrespective
of their success.
Of course, the formal technique –
evaluation is there to understand your success of teaching but this is more
formal to assess your own methods and style. Think of innovative techniques in
addition to the existing techniques you are accustomed to. These occasional
exercises will certainly benefit you and the learners. Make it a habit, when
you enter the school campus think only of the school situation with all usual
smirks and mascaras.
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