Teaching as a prophetic and noble profession needs to be handed over to the well-deserved and capable persons of society so that justice is done with it. This profession has never been so challenging and demanding as it is now in the age of globalization and knowledge explosion. There is a dire need for good and dedicated teachers who have the vision to develop skills and give real knowledge to their students to enable them to face challenges in this fast-changing world. It requires a lot of patience, passion and compassion on the part of teachers.
National Education Policy 2020 has laid a special focus on competency-based pedagogy and the abolishment of rote learning. So, a teacher needs to be a dynamic and learned personality who can truly make his teaching competency-based and learner-centered. Only then the desired learning outcomes can be achieved. The success of a teacher in the classroom depends on how much he/she is able to motivate and arouse interest among students towards the lesson, how he/she plans and prepares the lesson, and how much he/she depends on prescribed textbooks. Does he/she apply proper teaching methods and strategies while delivering a lesson? Is he/she aware of the student’s weaknesses and strengths? Is he/she able to properly handle the juvenile delinquency of young children? Is he/she aware of the problems that the students face at the individual level?
These are the questions that need to be pondered upon by a teacher before indulging in actual classroom teaching in order to prove to be a great and successful teacher. A good teacher always works on such things well before the actual teaching-learning process begins.
Since the curriculum acts as the vision for the knowledge, skills and values that the students learn, it provides the school functionaries with a measurable plan and structure for delivering a competency-based quality education. It helps to identify the learning outcomes, standards and core competencies for the students. A good and impactful teacher develops the curriculum efficiently and keeps in mind all the key competencies and learning outcomes to be developed in the learners. With the development of the curriculum, it is then implemented in a well-knit manner keeping in view all the essential factors for its successful implementation. Moreover, an impactful teacher then reviews and assesses the curriculum and modifies it to make it result-oriented.
Generally, the classrooms are not considered as an important and essential factor for teaching and learning. It is said that teaching and learning mostly depend on the teacher, students and curriculum. But the truth is something else. Classroom design and management play a crucial role in successful teaching and learning. And its responsibility mostly lies on the shoulders of a teacher. A good teacher designs the classroom as per the need and levels of students. Before going for actual classroom teaching a dedicated and impactful teacher makes sure the availability of physical space, layout, furniture, colour, lighting and technology contribute to creating a conducive learning atmosphere. Further, the teacher creates a positive and purposeful learning atmosphere by engaging and involving the students in decorating the classroom walls with locally prepared teaching learning material. All these activities act as support in achieving the desired learning outcomes.
The main aim of a teacher is the all-round development of students, to achieve objectives and other learning outcomes, to develop creativity among the students, and to involve and motivate the learners towards the lesson. The textbooks are designed in accordance with the curriculum prescribed for the particular course. A good teacher knows how to make use of the textbook in an effective way, like when to use the textbook and when to go without the textbook. It is not mandatory for a teacher to remain stuck to textbooks all the time. A successful teacher never makes himself a slave to the textbooks rather he at times makes use of nature and the surroundings of school for achieving set objectives.
There are a lot of teaching methods that a teacher uses while teaching the students. For instance, for teaching a language there are different teaching methods and generally a teacher adopts one of them to teach. Similarly, content subjects have their own methods of teaching. An impactful teacher handles these teaching methods and strategies in such a way that he/she never becomes a slave to them. He/she changes the method as per the requirement and has great motivation power, knows how to arouse curiosity among the learners and involves them in different activities thereby making the process learner-centered. Such a teacher makes ample use of hands-on experience. A successful teacher always encourages competency-based education and always remains in search of ways and strategies for the successful development of set competencies.
A teacher has to be a treasure and reservoir of knowledge and content and should have a great knowledge of his subject. Only then he/she will be able to deliver the content in the classroom. A good teacher is a jack of all trades and continuously updates the knowledge of the subject, and never stops learning but always remains in touch with the latest developments and technological innovations made in the particular subject.
The teacher’s profession is regarded as a pious and virtuous profession. His/her attitude towards students should be kind, affectionate, empathetic, sympathetic and loving. A good teacher has got all such qualities. He/she behaves amicably and kindly with students. The students of a successful teacher find him/her the dearest and kindest of all the people in the world. A successful teacher has control over emotions. While dealing with the students he/she never loses his temper or gets emotionally distracted and always maintains a balance between freedom and restriction among the students.
Maintaining a good relationship with parents and community is one of the traits of a good teacher as it helps to know the learner, family background, family history, social and economic condition of the family, nature of society in which he/she lives, etc. Accordingly, the teacher finds out the problems, if any, faced by the learner. When he/she gets to know all these things, teaching such students becomes easy for him, and accordingly applies the strategies to achieve the desired learning objectives.
To sum up it can be said that the teaching profession requires a certain aura, attitude, and a particular frame of mind. Only those teachers can touch heights and realize the set competencies and objectives who possess such qualities. It is very difficult and challenging to be a teacher in this fast-changing technological world. That is why it has been well said that teaching is not everybody’s cup of tea.
The writer can be reached at hu*************@***il.com