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Teaching profession in perspective

The basic premise of classroom research is that Teachers should use their classrooms as laboratories to study their learning process as it applies to their particular disciplines; Teacher should become skilful, systematic observers of how the students in their classrooms learns. This boils down to four things (i) Planning (ii) Action (iii) Observation and (iv) Reflection.

I think the image of teaching is rather more like a skilled trade than a learned profession, I insist that it is a job, not a calling with fixed limits and emotional involvement. That does not stop him from feeling and strong sense of solidarity with other teachers.

Any teaching is the result of a decision, either conscious or unconscious what distinguishes the exceptional teacher is not the ability to ask; say, a high - order question but the ability to decide when to ask such a question.

Teaching is essentially a thinking process. It involves planning interactive evaluative decisions in the progress of the class. The selection of an option open to the teacher is known as a decision. The pedagogue uses instructional objectives to guide and organize lessons.

A role can be defined as the part taken by a participant in any act of communication; management and monitoring of learning as a primary role of a teacher facilitate the communicative process between all participants and the various activities and texts.

The teacher has to share-structure stimulate-choose-co-ordinate and provide. Sometimes, he becomes a planner, manager, quality controller, group organizer, facilitator, motivator, empowered and team member. He gets involved in presentation activities and practical activities.

Learning to teach is a process that continues throughout a teachers career and no matter what we do in our teacher's education programs and no matter how well we do it, at best we can only prepare teachers to begin teaching. Consequently, teacher education must be committed to help prospective teachers internalize the disposition and skills to study their teaching and to become better at teaching over time that is to help teachers.

The late Dr. Eustace Bastians F.S.C. lamented the lack of emotion in education today. He wrote, "there is no laughter, no enthusiasm, no negative or positive life in the sombre atmosphere of our class room today".

Robert Cole says, "We have ceased to teach values, moral reflection has been supplemented by teaching logical education, we have been replacing moral values with psychology and it has been a disaster - an absolute disaster". Further, he observes, "That stability and community are the key qualities in education, and Catholic schools have them". Dr. Eustace Bastians remarked that "Children hunger for love and understanding relationship is the basis of education - we have to relate to the young people in our class rooms - person to person that is the social capital Coleman speaks about. Teach qualities of love, healing and caring. Educate against sexism, racism and violence".

To be a good teacher, we have to instil in our students a sense of amazement and wonder, we have to give our students time and opportunity for silent reflection, time to think! We are so busy pushing it all in. We use what we call the banking system, we deposit. Teachers task is to expound, the student's task is to assimilate and be prepared to regurgitate later in examination. What we need in effect is to build up in children strategies of attack on problems and framework of understanding of phenomena which will be of general utility.

The Teacher need to provide stimulating educational environment for his children - the teacher is the controller of a system of Instructions.

Teaching is by no means as easy task nor is it well paying. Often this is not even appreciated. But the teacher has a unique role which no other profession has viz. to form the minds of the young, give them the ability to discover a whole new world not only of knowledge but of spiritual and moral value.

- Camillus Fernando

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