The role of a teacher has changed massively with the introduction of digital media.
How?
Let’s go back to History
It used to be simple before. A teacher was seen as a lecturer or someone who delivered knowledge and conducted tests. A teacher was perceived as someone who had answers to every question possible, a gatekeeper of all the resources and information too. A decade ago, teachers were responsible for delivering information.
But that was all before the introduction of the internet or digital media. Information is now easy to access. The ocean of data is before us with just a few keystrokes away.
The question is, what would be the role of the teacher if they are no longer the source and the gatekeeper of information?
Let’s figure out…
Role of a teacher in a student’s life?
Teachers play a very important role in a student’s life. As a teacher, one must bring out the best in students and inspire them to strive for greatness. Students are considered as the future of the nation and humankind, and a teacher is believed to be a credible guide for their advancement. Not only do they guide students in academics or extracurricular activities, but teachers are also responsible for shaping a child’s future, making him/her a better human being. A teacher imparts knowledge, good values, tradition, modern-day challenges and ways to resolve them within students. A good teacher is an asset to the students.
A teacher’s presence in a student’s life can boost their morale and guide them to be more valuable in life. Now to perform this task perfectly, a teacher must possess certain qualities-
- Should be impartial, he/she must treat all the students equally.
- Must be an embodiment of patience. Since the pace and speed of learning are different from one student to other, it is very important to understand students, their skills, talent, memory and treats them individually to guide them towards the best.
- A teacher must have problem-solving skills to help students overcome their challenges.
Role of a Teacher in Education?
Education has changed a lot in recent times. It’s more interactive now with the intrusion of digital media. The new-age technology like artificial intelligence, augmented reality are opening a new dimension in education.
But there is a large role that the teacher has to play here.
They are no more seen as the only keeper of information. Information is already shared and students have chewed them, digested them.
So, what work is left?
There is a gap between the information and knowledge, real education.
Teachers can gear up to help students to understand knowledge and concepts outside the textbook. More the teachers interact with the students with viable, real-life examples, incidents, etc, students will have a better understanding and more awareness of the subject. With real-life examples, they can apply their lessons to many subjects. The teacher has to be a consistent guide here to help the student in graduating from one lesson to another.
Career Counselling
Have you ever heard about “Problem of plenty”? Today’s students face that while choosing a career.
There are so many options available and for an inexperienced student that it becomes really difficult to steer their career in the right direction.
A teacher is a big help here. They have undergone similar experiences and they certainly know what will work best and whatnot.
Students need to be guided to pick the best career that suits their talent, skill and give them the best platform to expose themselves without any inhibition.
Due to the lack of career counselling, we are finding a lot of poor performances across the education sector in India. It’s not due to scarcity of skill or talent. The reason is deep-rooted and it goes straight to the lack of vision, experience, and smartness in choosing the right career.
The teacher can certainly save them from making the wrong decision. Let’s understand how.
Guiding across the career
Choosing the right career is just the first step. A teacher has to play the role even beyond that. Students across the world face multiple challenges while choosing a career for themselves. A teacher has to stand by their students to help them overcome these challenges. Here, the primary job is to be empathetic with the students. Show care and nurture students, pay extra attention, be their best pals, show confidence to build the best relationship and extract the best out of them.
Be a leader to raise more leaders
A teacher must enhance civilization while giving people the right tools to make informed decisions. They are here to bestow the power of “problem-solving skills” to the students. They are here to build up a bunch of “creative”, “Independent”, “Informed”, “Incisive” and “Innovative” individuals who can contribute to the society and build a better place for the next generation. This is a huge responsibility and a teacher has to guide the students and raise them as the leader.
Leadership is the most important trait for modern-day human beings. Leaders make connections and make everyone a part of their mission, a virtue and a quality that demands a special appreciation.
Leadership involves initiative, and in the connected world, nothing happens till we step up and begin, until we start driving without a clear map. There are this confusion and chaos and the leader helps us to guide through them towards the goal. Teachers have to play this decisive role to leave a deep impact on the lives of students and to make them the next leader.
Be the change now
If you are a teacher, hope you understand how your role has evolved. There is a lot more to a teacher than just a human being standing in a classroom to lecture students on how to find the square root of a number or sharpen an axe.
What the world needs is someone to persuade the coming generation in a positive way. Someone to push or encourage students or create a space where they want to learn to better themselves. That’s the new role of a teacher.
If all a teacher is going to do is read her pre-written notes from a PowerPoint slide to a lecture hall of thirty or three hundred, perhaps they should then stay at home.
- Time has come to understand what the new time is looking for.
- Time has come to be the right teacher for the right time and the right students.
- Time has come to adopt the new technologies and help students with all might and intention across their defining phases of lives.
Are you a game?
To enhance your knowledge and skill set as a Teacher
Sukriti is a Hyderabad-based Writer, covering the exciting world of Career Counselling and Entrepreneurship. She also writes about mega-trends in education, diversification for Teachers & other individuals with a focus on how innovation and upskilling can help them grow professionally. She is an MBA in Public Relations & Event Management. When she is not trying to understand complex changes & needs in the counselling and education industry, she enjoys travelling and watching movies with a cup of black ginger tea.
3 Comments
Teacher is a noble source of applying these all mentioned above attributes in the class,a true teacher is someone who overcomes certain gender bias too in other words, he/she creates effective atmosphere to learn equally…
I am very thankful to this website to upload such a useful material to read about the mentors… Hoping to go through more information in future.
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Teacher is Third Parent. The share views are the role of teacher for society and students.