The Role of a Teacher in Students’ Learning
The role of a teacher in Students’ learning According to a Sanskrit Sloka “A student learns one forth from the teacher, one forth from own intelligence, one forth from classmates and one forth only with time”. This sloka means different things to different people. Ask for me, the essence of it lies in the core of its meaning which focuses on the role of the teacher in students’ learning. The formal teaching and learning environment is influenced by resources and ideas from many sources.
An established fact is that teachers alone are most powerful agents of change. The growth of a tree is dependent in its hidden inner aspect.The growth and success of a learner depends on his inner development, the state of consciousness. The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds of knowledge may be grown, to grow under the flaming imagination. Our aim as teachers is to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inmost core…. We seek to help the learner in his growth, mental, emotional as well as physical.
The role of a teacher is not limited to reciting knowledge about specific subject in the class.This is the thread line of our teachers at EFLU (English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) who groom upcoming teachers like me of this generation. We were taught to realize that knowledge is all around us overwhelmed in its diversity. To live in this age is to be always learning be it a teacher or a student – which also means clearing the mind with obsolete things. The teacher’s responsibility goes far beyond the transmission of knowledge……. to teaching how knowledge can be sought, validated, assimilated and used as a basis for further learning, for forming and modifying goals and ideas, and for rational decision making.
Knowledge of a teacher should serve as a catalyst which stimulates learning and growth. The only purpose of teaching is to bring about successful learning. A good teacher can be defined as a teacher who helps the student to learn. Bruce Lee believed in the emphasis on change and discovery of self – he was completely against rigidity in the mind or body. A teacher should be open-minded and fluid, see how anything and everything is useful. The role of a teacher is diverse and has several orientations and is not confined to a subject alone.
A teacher’s role is transformed into to the role of a acilitator and as a facilitator a teacher should attempt to provide circumstances that will enable learners to engage with the learning opportunities and construct for themselves their understandings and skills. This role will interact with those of a teacher as learner, community partner and a colleague. Now, a teacher in this multifaceted role can occupy more than three quarters in the holistic learning of the student rather than confining himself to the first quarter of the students’ learning as a teacher reciting his subject in the classroom as the sloka reveals.
