A Philosophy of the Role of the Contemporary Teacher

4. The Contemporary Teacher and Dynamic Methods of Teaching-Learning

The contemporary teacher will not be in a position to fulfil his role adequately unless educational methodology and contents of education begin to improve. And the more these improve, the subtler will become our demands on the teacher. The use of technologies might in due course reduce in certain respects some burden of routine instructional work. But it will open up the possibilities of individualized learning-teaching processes. The teacher will begin to be judged not only by the substance of what he will communicate and his power of stimulation, but also by what he is in his inner self, particularly whether he is capable of higher levels of reflection, whether he is impartial in his judgments, and whether he is wide enough to know his subject from the standpoint of a wider spectrum of knowledge.

A stagnant system of education cannot tolerate a dynamic teacher; an irrelevant system of education cannot permit a teacher to make his teaching relevant to the needs of the learner or the society; and a book- oriented, subject-oriented and examination-oriented system of education cannot provide the requisite opportunities to the teacher who wants to promote the objectives of peace, cooperation and integral personality.

Sooner, rather than later, the intricate problems of teaching-learning process must come to receive central attention, and we shall then see that an important role of the teacher at the present juncture will be that of an innovator or inventor of dynamic methods.

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Self learning

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A principal method of teaching today is lecturing, and the main function of the teacher is that of a lecturer. Now there are merits and demerits of teaching by lecturing. Basically, the lecture system induces passivity among students. It is group-oriented and its does not easily yield to the needs of individual-oriented dynamic learning process. Moreover, lecture system imposes a certain pattern of time-tables, which reduces the possibilities for teachers and students for individual-oriented learning. It may also be observed that the lecture system is suited only to one or two varieties of group-oriented learning process. It is, for instance, not very relevant when a group is engaged in a joint enterprise or result-oriented activity. Project system is here more relevant.

In the new design of education, lecture system is not likely to play a pivotal role. Actually, it is now being increasingly realized that the student is best helped when he is allowed free initiative not only in regard to the choice of subjects or topics but also in regard to the pace of his progress. It is for this reason that self-learning is being advocated more and more insistently.

There are, indeed, a number of problems connected with self-learning. We may note, first, that self-learning needs to be supplemented by frequent or occasional help from teachers. It also needs to be supplemented by various kinds of group-activities. Again, while the process of self-learning does not yield easily to prefixed time-tables, the need of help from teachers and the need of group- activities are more easily fulfilled by resorting to prefixed time-tables. Our perplexities are further accentuated when we consider the question of syllabus and its relationship with examinations.

A possible solution that has been suggested by some educationists is to emphasize consultation system. In this system, lectures would play a subordinate role, and students would be expected to learn by themselves up to a maximum degree possible. But they would be allowed to consult teachers as and when needed, partly by prior engagement and partly by ready access. In this system, students would come to their classes not to listen to lectures but to do their own work. It is not difficult to arrange the facility of consultation with teachers in a dynamic situation where class room itself is organized not as a lecture room but as a workshop, where learning is conceived as a multi-dimensional process designed to promote concentrated study, skill-oriented activity, and creative imagination and expression.

The present system of education utilizes tests as a means of securing students' motivation to learn. Tests are also often used as a threat or punishment. The fact that even a silly and mechanical mind can pass tests and that, too, with honours is sufficient to pass a verdict against the present system of tests. Again, the fact that the most important aspects of culture lie beyond the scope of the present system of tests is sufficient to show what a marginal place tests should occupy in our total scheme of education.

There are what may be called 'romantic' periods of study, and they occur to different students at different stages of development. These are periods of general expansion, of a passion for a given pre-occupation, of falling in love with education. These periods are unsuitable for tests. On the other hand, there are periods when students need to clarify their vague ideas and systematize their thoughts. These are the periods when oral or written tests appropriate to these needs can be very useful. There are, again, periods when there is dullness, indifference and inertia. Here tests for stimulation can be quite relevant. There are, besides, periods of assimilation at the end of which there is a need to review in a coordinated manner different elements of study or work. Here tests for an extensive exposition would be quite relevant. There are also periods when there is a will, on the part of the student, to undergo a rigorous programme of training. During such periods, even a series of difficult and strenuous tests would be perfectly Justified.

Thus, it is clear that tests have to be of a varied nature, and if education system is suitably redesigned, it would be

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Let us avoid education that produces uniformity and which looks upon individual as bottle.

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possible for teachers to give tests to their students as and when necessary. Tests can thus be inter-woven with a dynamic process of learning, and we can conceive of such a flexibility that each individual would be free to take a test according to his needs of progress.

The tests to which we have referred so far can all be brought under a class of tests that can be viewed as a part of the process of the formation of personality; and these should be distinguished from those meant for certification. The latter should be public in character and should be so designed as to enable the examiner to assess as objectively and comprehensively as possible the comparative attainments of individuals so as to determine their suitability for work and responsibility.

These reflection's show that the contemporary teacher is called upon to demand a radical change in the system of teaching-learning so that he can employ dynamic methods.

It is being increasingly recognized that one of the best methods of teaching is not to instruct the learner, but to present to him materials and environment in which the learner can be stimulated to discover himself what is intended to be learnt. In a model of the exploration project, teachers stimulate the learners to make direct contact with the environment after defining the objectives of intended exploration. Learners determine the procedure, and the execution of the exploration is followed by an appraisal with reference to the objectives and the personal processes of learning. A number of action projects which have been attempted include learning situations which are closely coupled with self-regulated practical action which demands of the learner competency of knowledge and skill. In these projects, a special emphasis is laid on the achievement of a certain result that practical action is intended to entail. The learning experience is closely connected with the creation of learning situations and result-oriented practical action.

The individualized programmed instruction follows an instructional model which is designed to bring about an effective communication on precisely defined goals of learning. This model makes extensive use of programmed teaching and learning materials, and these materials are used for communicating cognitive stores of knowledge, particularly in spheres of learning in which linear sequences of steps of learning appear meaningful. At one stage it was felt that this model of instruction is relevant only to a certain section of students, but some experiments have shown its direct relevance to multi-level single teacher institutions, and although this model has its own limitations, it can be used in many situations, particularly, where the pace of progress requires to be varied according to the needs of different categories of students and where the active participation of the individual in the learning process needs to be emphasized.

In a slightly modified form of programmed learning, a great use is made of work-sheets. A work-sheet is a part of a learning module, in which the contents of learning are presented in such a way that the learner is required to interact by way of filling in the blanks or correlating certain presented data or replying to some questions. Answers are often concealed in the data or in the questions themselves. Work-sheets can be of various types, depending upon the kind of learning experience that is intended to be evoked or gained. The most important among them are what are called 'heuristic work-sheets'. These work-sheets are intended to stimulate learning by discovering. The work-sheet system facilitates to a great extent multi-level teaching by a single teacher. It also facilitates 'unit' studies and unit testing. The learner is also helped in pursuing his studies at his own pace and to vary the syllabus to suit his own special interests.

In a more sophisticated approach, learners are enabled to make an adjustment between their interests in learning and their style of learning. They are also enabled to relate these again to the learning environment. In the first phase, the learner has to decide on what he is interested in learning within a given framework and on the kind of cognitive approach to it. The second phase is governed

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principally by reading activities. In the third phase, the central feature is the appraisal of the knowledge acquired and, above all, the judgment of its significance. The area of applicability of this approach, which is sometimes called 'info-bank' approach, is defined by the necessary abilities of the learner to work on his own and by the possibility of separating the categories of knowledge and processing them more intensively.

There are still several other trends of innovations in the teaching-learning process which the contemporary teacher can adopt. In a significant experimental model, the teacher constructs an educative environment, and learners receive an orientation over the possibilities of action and learning following which they enter into mutual relations with the environment for a fairly long period. In the final phase, they actualize the possibilities of a further development and moulding of this environment. This model has been employed both in the fields of elementary education and in that of higher education.

Learning by teaching is another model, which is based on the principle of transferring to the learner all or some of the functions of a teacher, whereby to a certain extent he acquires qualifications auto-instructionally. This model of 'pupils learning from pupils' is often found in operation in elementary and secondary schools, and good teachers everywhere have employed this model in varied contexts.

In a yet another instructional model, a number of locally dispersed learners learn from one another because they inform and consult one another mutually and unselfishly from time to time about individual problems relating to an area in which they have an interest. In this model, which is often known as the 'network’, every learner, who joins this learning experience voluntarily, is under an obligation to operate the network through consultation experimental testing and reporting back. This model is particularly relevant to the needs of non-formal learning.

In models called 'serious game' and 'simulation game', the learner takes over the roles of those responsible for the action and decision in simulated environments. Whilst in the serious game, the problems to be solved are frequently more complex and make the acquisition of external information necessary, the simulation game is largely restricted to information supplied in advance. These models are particularly suitable to those branches of learning in which the ability to act and to decide is to be taught.

It will be seen that the dynamic methods of teaching are learner-oriented, and special emphasis is laid on the learner's needs and his pace of progress. The old ideas where the learner was regarded as a plastic material to be moulded according to the teacher's or parent's design are fast disappearing, and we are moving into a new age of education where students and teachers will increasingly share their roles. The present moment is a difficult moment of transition, where the teacher is called upon to discard the obsolete and invent the new. It is here that he needs a framework in which he can experiment with dynamic methods and evolve a progressive system of teaching-learning.

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