With over a decade of teaching experience at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, I have acquired immense value in terms of knowledge and continuous learning. In my observation, the underlying qualities of being a good teacher require two important aspects, namely, love for the subject and a liberal dose of humour—both within the classroom and beyond.
Therefore, spontaneity is an essential prerequisite because it’s almost unpredictable for a teacher to foresee the questions that students will come up with while teaching in a classroom.
To address this, the teacher must not only possess educational knowledge but stay current with current data and contemporary trends. In addition, it is imperative to avoid complaints about student competence. Instead, a diligent commitment and focus on enhancing teaching methodologies are essential in bringing out the best possible outcomes from the students.
The widely known proverb, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” is common among the teaching fraternity at all levels. Nonetheless, the role of a teacher doesn’t end at guiding the horse to the pond but extends to instilling the thirst within itself, thereby enabling it to find water on its own.
Another frequent concern is the students’ lack of proper behavior in the classroom. This happens because we often disengage them from the learning process, and it’s the teacher’s role to bring back their engagement by making the learning experience captivating through compelling stories and relevant examples.
Much like a manufacturing process, education encompasses input, processing, and output. If, at the end of a course, a student is still the same as they were at the start, the student isn’t to blame.
Subsequently, the question arises: What was the teacher’s function in the process? Let us recall the words of renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, who encapsulated the essence of teaching in the following words: “A teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. The teacher who has come to the end of his subject, who has no living traffic with his knowledge but merely repeats his lesson to his students, can only load their minds, he cannot quicken them.”
Therefore, the major stakeholder needs to be properly motivated and guided to bring the best out of the students, which shall be achieved through commitment, a genuine interest in the work, and a consistent undercurrent of humor.
Dr. Nusrathunnisa
Associate Professor & Program Director – UG
Alliance School of Business