Teaching, in an atmosphere of serenity and conviviality is fun and meaningful. The teacher and his learners interact meaningfully, and it facilitates understanding. A significant academic progress is noticeable in Learners who are privileged to learn in such an academic environment.
There is nothing wrong with the education system. It is either the teacher has nothing to give or his learner is unwilling to receive when the teacher is obviously ready to give.
It is most important we acknowledge that teachers don’t know it all and they too should not claim they do.
While they are masters of their subjects, they know little about other subjects outside their intellectual jurisdiction. The teacher may be pedagogically paralyzed when tasked with a responsibility far above their cognitive capabilities and physical strengths.
As practised in most schools, teachers,even up to the secondary school level, are believed to be masters of all subjects. A teacher is saddled with teaching of almost six unrelated subjects.
A teacher will be rendered incapable when teaching facilities are not provided. Teaching is an arduous task. Available relevant facilities and aids help cushion the rigours. The pedagogic efforts of a teacher could only be fruitful when all necessary teaching-learning materials are abundantly provided and properly put into use.
Teaching has transcended the age of abstractness. Students retain concrete teaching indelibly in their memories. What they see, they never forget.
Teachers will not teach well when their unrelenting dedication and commitment are miserably rewarded. Meagre salaries demotivate industrious teachers. They can not afford to keep their rewards in heaven.
When a teacher performs poorly during a class, his problem might not be traceable to occasional forgetfulness that teachers experience; probably, the teacher is busy ruminating over his remuneration and thinking about any available opportunities that could transform and better his life. Penury is a distraction.
Teacher’s performance will be poor when those facilities and incentives that can better their lives are hardly guaranteed. Teachers, even those who possess the intellectual gravitas and tech skills needed to perform excellently, will be obviously incapacitated to meet up their ethical expectations of the teaching profession.
21st century teaching goes beyond outlandish pedagogic practices and methodologies. Successful teachers are trendy teachers. Teachers that are shorn of competence will never perform.
Teachers are expected to know more than the learners, especially in their field. In a situation whereby the converse is the case, learning will never take place. A teacher that is performance-challenged will never produce good results.
Every child can learn. What a child learns, says and performs differ from child to child. We should note that every child can learn. The learning pace may be different. A child will be unwilling to learn when the school’s environment is hostile. The hostility in this context is unlimited to teachers’ attitudes to the learners. An unventilated learning ambience is hostile. A classroom must not only be moderately cool to arouse the interest of the learners in their studies, it must also facilitate understanding. A learning environment that lack all essential facilities that can make learners feel comfortable at all times is hostile.
A learning environment that denies learners the liberty to exhibit their potential is hostile.
Any academic setting that does not discover a learner’s potential is hostile.
A hostile academic environment murder children’s willingness to learn.
Akeem Alao teaches at Kith and Kin Educational Schools situated at Ibeshe Ikorodu Lagos.
