Future is bright if right
direction is taken at the right time. Teaching is re-emerging as an important
and increasingly popular career option because of the stability that it offers
in these troubled times. Whatever your circumstances, if you are still at
school, about to graduate or finishing higher degree in any stream or looking
for change of direction, there are newer and more ways to enter the profession
than ever before. Teaching is deemed as a noble career.Teaching is a career only for those, who do
not hold money in high regard and have passion for knowledge. Genuine interest
in the profession is the most important virtue that one must possess. For
teachers, learning and teaching are a complementary process. Bright students
can choose even professional disciplines-mana-gement, engineering, medicine
etc. Demand for quality teachers is always high.
No
profession is
free of challenges. Teachers have to face several hurdles in their careers. The
teaching refers to a specific cluster of activities which includes such acts as
explaining, demonstrating, questioning and motivating. The process of
teaching-learning is as old as human beings on earth. It has been from informal
learning to formal learning with the passage of time. The learning is the
permanent change in learner's behavior with the help of effective teaching.
True learning is change in personality which if not practiced or reinforced,
extincts.
The
teaching as
convent-ionally understood by traditional people is the act of dissemination of
information to the learners in the class rooms. A number of researches have
evidenced that teaching is to make the learner realize his/her potential at the
fullest. Traditional methods and techniques have been replaced by new methods
of teaching and Innovative teaching-learning techniques.Gone are the days when teaching was
understood as imparting mere information and when a learner was underrated or
underestimated to learn.
Every
learner has
almost an average I.Q. He/ she can acquire utmost knowledge with self-efforts
directed by the teacher. Teaching is to motivate the learners to acquire
information, knowledge and skills with self efforts. The teaching must stress
self-learning with teacher's guidance rather than providing instruction to the
learner at every step. Role of the teaching is to enable the learner to become
self-dependent to explore oppor-tunities. An ideal teacher helps the learner to
tremendously use self- senses in order to experience different real life situations.
The
process of teaching
was carried out by early human beings and even by animals to teach their young
ones for successful adjustment in the environment. The process has undergone
several changes from informal to formal. Today, the need is to rouse dormant
potentialities of learners. Today, the learning can be made efficient and
effective with the advent of technological media. Efficiency as a term involves
relationship between inputs and outputs in a production process - The
underlying notion is that- production is efficient if given inputs produce
maximum output. Efficient teaching is that which reduces wastage of learning
material - learners (animate human resources- students) and inanimate teaching
- learning aids. Maximum utilization of resources can curtail the wastage. The
wastage of resources is in high rate of dropouts, failures and truants of
students-learners & the misuse and the unuse of teaching- learning
aids,The use and misuse of teaching-
learning aids are due to lack of knowledge to operateat the part of teacher. How can teaching -
learning be made interesting and attractive? Interaction between teacher and
student should be intensive and more frequent. It is possible as ratio between
student and teacher is less. And highly motivated teachers may make the
teaching -learning interested and attractive. High incentives and on the job
training can make teachers more motivated and committed. Mobilization of
students is a must by motivational techniques.
Utilization
of electronical
gadgets, as teaching aids as computer, projector and other simulation
demonstrative aids can be helpful in efficient teaching- learning. Traditional
teaching- learning methods should be taken off. Balanced participation between
teacher and student should involve healthy discussion through active
interaction.
Moreover
teaching is the
stimulation, guidance, direction, facilitation and encouragement for learning.
It is an art and a teacher is an artist. An artist is governed by certain
principles which help him acquire proficiency in his profession, so a teacher
is also governed by certain principles which help him acquire proficiency in
teaching. The teacher must understand the developmental characteristics of
learners at different stages so that he/ she takes advantage of the interest
and motivation of the learners in a learning task. Lack of under-standing of
differences in emotional quotient, age-groups, socio-economic background,
interests and motivational levels of learners makes the teacher- centered
teaching fail. So only learner-centered approach may make the teaching
effective and efficient. True teaching brings novelty and excitement to the
classroom through methodologies that encourage self-learning firmly believing
that "education is notfilling a bucket but kindling a lamp."
In
true teaching
the teacher does not tell, but the class learns all the time. The teacher may
speak and ask and often even tell but the class never stops from learning. The
class never stops from searching, finding and gathering.The greater thing in teaching is that the
pupils must learn and sincere in these days they seldom learn teaching has
become singularly barren of fruit
The
teaching where
the teacher bosses a dead show is not effective teaching. In true teaching
first of all the teacher is at once all and nothing. He is nothing because he
is not immediately concerned with the operations of the young minds before him,
and he is all because he is ultimately responsible for the result of these very
operations. This is no doubt a task calling for the greatest circumspection an
extremely delicate work in which one is continually called upon to on tread
thin ice.
The
teaching is a
sovereign remedy. It is the quack methods that are often practiced in the name
of teaching that fail us in the hour of great expectation. The need is urgent
to clear educational ideals of false silt. This is the risk that awaits the
true educational reformer.
If
it is bad to stuff a child with food, it is worse to stuff him with easy
rudiments or mere information or even with learning. The mechanism of physical
well being will not long bear the strain of excessive food. Likewise, the
heaping of information on the childs mind must retard its growth and
diminish its strength.
-Quality in
education is nowadays a buzzword. Quality means offering the highest level of
performance in all education services and programmes, quality teacher is he who
performs his/ her best to deliver competent services in order to bring about
positive change in the learners' behavior. The services of a competent teacher include
efficient delivery of knowledge of content in compart-mentalized easymanner andthe delivery of skills in a manner as how to use knowledge andthe delivery of ethical values as how to
adapt to social environment. The positive change in the learners' behavior
reduces wastage of education services and reflects in his or her behaviour.
Aquality teacher's service product is the learner who is equipped with
knowledge, skills and ethical values through different teaching stylesQuality learners are those who are supposed
to perform more than expected and gets advantage edge over other competitors in
a tough competi-tionmarket.
be
willing continually to change, learn and adapt. If you are preparing to teach
in the twenty -first century, try to imagine what your role will be. You will
no doubt be teaching facts and skills that have traditionally been devised.
Teachers' successes will depend upon their flexibility and their ability to
view teaching as an ever-changing process that reflects the society in which it
occurs.
Everywhere,
there is pressure for children to learn more in school. The new economy
demands that young people leave school with strong abilities to read, write,
calculateandapply disciplined thought to thesolution of
problems. Citizenship in every society requires an understanding of the
history, government and tradition of not only that society but of many others
as well. More and more the pursuit of individual happiness must begin with an
educated view of a complex and rapidly changing world. As schools have been
pressed to be more effective and more productive, the out-of-school influences
on academic learning have escalated in importance. Even where the school day
and school year have been lengthened, the amount of time, children spend in
school during the first eighteen years of their lives is small (perhaps 13% of
waking hours) compared to time spent with the family and the broader community.
Fortunately, research on the family's influence on school learning has a
substantial history, and we can settle upon basic premises with great
confidence.
With
reasonable
certainty, we can state that poverty may statistically predict lower school
performance, yet families that provide a stimulating, language rich, and
supportive environment defy the odds of socio-economic circumstances. In other
words, an alterable 'curriculum of the home'-including the family's
relationships, practices and patterns of life-is a more powerful predictor of
academic learningthan the family's status. Schools can work with
families to improve the curriculum of the home, regardless of the family's
economic situation. This, then, is a message of great hope. Research on the
relationships among families who constitute a school community leans heavily on
a long body of sociological literature on communities of all types. Recently,
however, primarily within the past decade, a strand of this sociological
research has focused on schools as communities, and we are arriving at a set of
understandings that may soon achieve the status of theory.
As
for what schools
can do to affect family behaviors in ways that benefit children's learning, the
research trail is shorter and less conclusive. There remains a great amount ofexperimentation, casting about to see what works. Some initiatives have, in
fact, worked, and we may report them, draw lessons from them, and generalize
from them. While the home's influence on academic learning is significant, the
quality and quantity of instructionand thechild's own cognitive
abilities are of equal or greater significance. There is a danger, then, in
placing too much emphasis (or blame) on the family's contribution to the
learning equation while forgiving weaknesses in the school. By the same token,
ignoring the gains to be made by helping families improve the alterable
curriculum of the home limits of the potential effectiveness of the school.
Facets
of Education
Complete
education compri-ses many forms such as-
lInformal
Education: It is acquired by the learner himself /herself with self efforts
through socialization process. The learning subject-matter in Informal
education is all social material in global village. In this system, the
acquired know-ledge is not evaluated by any outside agency and no certificate
is provided for it.
lNon-formal
Education:In this system, learner
is enrolled with an education agency to acquire knowledge and knowledge is
evaluated for the award of certificate but no regular face-to-face interaction
between teacher and student is provided. Non-formal education is acquired
through distance /correspondence mode.
lFormal
Education: In this setting, the knowledge is continuously evaluated
for the award of certificate and learners' development reflects in their
behavior. Face-to-face interaction between teacher and student is intensive in
this process of teaching-learning.The
process of education delivery is ideal for all-round development of person's
personality. Pre-specified instructional curriculum is provided to teacher to
make desired change in the learner.
lFunctional
Education: In this system learner acquires working skills through informal,
non-formal and formal modes of education.
How
to become a teacher
One has to acquire degree/Diploma level education to
become a teacher for conventional disciplines of secondary standard. PhD or UGC
-NET qualified examination is required for teaching at degree level
disciplines.Indicative criteria to
become a qualified teacher are shown here.
1.
Teachers for conventional disciplines at pre-primary, primary/elementary and
secon-dary level education
lPre-Primary
Teacher: Diploma of Early childhood care and Education (ECCE)/NTT/equivalents)
lElementary
Teacher: Diploma of Elementary Teacher Education (ETE/D.Ed/BTC etc.)
lSecondary
Teacher: Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) after BA/B.Com/B.Sc. etc.
lSenior
Secondary Teacher: Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) after
MA/M.Com./MSc./equivalents
lHigher
Education: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D), / National Eligibility Test
(NET)/State level eligibility Test (SLET) in any discipline for entry level of
College/University Teacher/Lecturer/Asstt. Professor.
2. Teachers for Professional/Technical Education at
certifi-cate, diploma and degree levels:
lCertificate/
Diploma Level Education in Library Science: B.Lib.Sc/M.Lib.Sc.
lDegree Level
Education in Library Science: M.Lib.Sc. and UGC NET/PhD
lCertificate/
Diploma Level Education in Physical educa-tion: B.PEd./BPE
lDegree Level
Education in Physical education: MPEd/MPE and UGC NET/Ph. D
lCertificate/
Diploma Level Education in Arts( Fine arts, Visual Arts etc.):BFA./BA(Fine
Arts)
lDegree Level
Education in Arts( Fine arts, Visual Arts etc.):MFA/MA in Fine Arts and UGC
NET/Ph.D
lCertificate/Diploma
Level Education in Musology (Musics):B.Muse
lDiploma Level
Education in Engineering: B.E/BTech. in concerned Trade(Electrical/Electronicsetc.)
lDegree Level
Education in Engineering: M.E./MTech./Ph.D in concerned Trade
(Electrical/Electronics etc.)
lDegree Level
Medical Educa-tion: MD/ MS/MCh./Ph.D or equivalents
