Are inspiring teachers born or trained?

An inspiring teacher often eludes description. Teachers who spur students to seek further and probe deeper are both rare and differ on various intangible parameters. No two teachers are the same, even accounting for the basic differences in the personalities; do excellent teachers share any commonalities? Is inspiring teaching an art that cannot be taught or is excellent teaching a craft that can be nurtured in the right kind of environment?

Research conducted by educationists tends to view teaching as a learnable craft, if so, India can revamp its current teacher education program to make it more relevant and meaningful.

In his book, ‘Teach like a Champion’, educationist Doug Lemov has listed down 49 “specific, concrete and actionable” techniques that can be used by teachers to be effective in a classroom. He encourages teachers to introspect on how they handle the specifics and the nitty-gritty of teaching to become more effective.

Relevant observations
Great teaching, as Doug points out, is a lot more than having appropriate expectations from students and treating them right. It also includes the actual mechanics of teaching that can make a significant difference to lessons being delivered in a classroom.

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For his research, Doug observed master teachers in action, in actual classrooms. The teachers Doug observed were true masters as they were able to beat the odds stacked against their disadvantaged kids. These teachers were able to motivate and inspire kids attending low-income schools to shine on state assessments, outperforming the state average and often excelling. So what did these teachers do differently?

In a technique he calls Double Plan, Doug says that it is imperative for teachers to plan for both what the teacher and the students will be doing for each part of the lesson. Good teachers also make their presence felt, both physically and intellectually, by walking around the room rather unpredictably, making sure that they can survey the entire class at most times, while engaging students.

Cold calling
In an interesting play of words from the Sales terminology, Doug calls the next technique ‘Cold Calling’ where to maximise participation and keep students alert, the teacher ‘cold calls’ a student to answer a question, not just those who raise their hands. Of course, the intention of this technique is to keep the class alert all the time and not to single out a child for humiliation.

Good teachers are also aware of the fact that all students needn’t know all the answers all the time. In fact, Doug leads on to another technique called the ‘No Opt Out’ technique in case a student doesn’t know the answer to a question. Let’s consider teacher A asking a question to student X in class, the student doesn’t know. The teacher then moves on to student Y for the answer who promptly gives the correct answer. At this point the teacher will turn back to student X and ask her to repeat the answer. Using this single technique, the teacher has conveyed many important pedagogical lessons.

Firstly, she does not chastise a child for not knowing an answer. Second, she destigmatises ignorance and conveys that it can be remedied. 

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James Stigler and James Hiebert argue in The Teaching Gap that teaching is actually a cultural phenomenon. By comparing 231 video-taped lessons of eighth-grade Mathematics in classrooms across Germany, Japan and the United States, the researchers were “amazed at how much teaching varied across culture and how little it varied within cultures.”  The emphasis in German classrooms is on “developing advanced procedures,” whereas in Japan, children engage in “structured problem solving.” In contrast, in the US, children learn a lot of Math terminology and practice procedures. Interestingly, Japanese students do remarkably well in international Math assessments.

On further examining Japanese teaching practices, the authors found that Jugyou Kenkyuu or lesson study is an integral aspect of school culture.  Teachers meet periodically to plan and anticipate almost every aspect of a prospective lesson including materials to be used, the kind of problems posed, potential stumbling blocks for students etc. Further, many times teachers observe each other teaching and share feedback with the group on what is most effective. All this information is often recorded as a report, which is then shared with others. Thus, teachers create a vast body of practical knowledge from which they draw.

Now, when the HRD ministry and the state education departments are consciously focussing on increasing the quality of teaching resources, there is a need for evolving more structured, practical and teacher-friendly training programmes that can help teachers refine their skills. Only if we unleash the potential of all our teachers, can expect the same to happen with the millions of children under their care.

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