“How to educate the educators?” has always been a hot topic for debate. How the teachers are taught to teach depends on so many political and social factors. But these factors are not the best way to determine teachers’ training, especially in the changing time.
A lot of research and man hours are put into in finding out how the teachers should be trained. However, many of these ideas seem completely useless considering the pace of change of world.
If we don’t fix the mentality that teachers can be trained to teach in a fixed manner, then we are risking the lives of next generation of staff and students.
How teachers were teaching 20 years ago won’t work today. The harsh truth is that while this world has observed a lot of change. Our schools have remained mostly the same and yet stick to the past.
Though, it doesn’t mean that we need to change our theories and re-imagine every aspect of learning. Rather, it means that we need to look back further. Yes, the key to future education is in the past before industrial revolution.
The reason is that the education at that time was mostly practical or experiential. Apprenticeships and mentoring is what was needed to master a trade or skill.
A little theory and lots of practice was the key to education. This feature is lost in today’s education. A big problem in current teacher training is that the major emphasis is on theory.
While many schools may claim to be innovative and make use of fancy tables, but they all are essentially the same. That’s because learning does not depend on the furniture or smart class but how the teachers convey their message. Most of these teachers are not engaging and thus, the student has to suffer.
Another controversial advice is for the teachers to do something different from teaching as well. Teachers who went to school and university for becoming a teacher, usually, are not that good in comparison to teachers who have done something different than teaching.
A teacher should not return to the school where they studied. This is because such teacher’s beliefs in ownership and ties with school might affect his or her judgment about nature of education.
Another thing that defines great teachers is that they have diverse experience. The one, who prepares the students to be self-motivated, teaches them to take risks, become caring and a balanced citizen. Only someone with experience in these fields can teach these things to students.
This is how we can learn from the past, in the time of apprenticeships, students used to learn directly from someone who had immense experience in the particular trade or skill. We need this back.
The time is high for reconsidering how we train and maintain the teachers in their careers. We should ensure that students are spending their time at school most effectively so that they can transition swiftly into adult lives.
