Teachers As Lifelong Learners!!!

Teachers As Lifelong Learners!!

Teaching is one of those rare professions’ that keeps one’s brain young, allows continuing one’s own journey as a student and a lifelong learner. 

Teaching is a job that encourages one’s own growth because to do it well requires one’s own continuous enhancement. Teaching provides that environment where one encounters people of different ethnicity and religions with different philosophies, learning styles and backgrounds which in turn helps one to grow as a person.

 Being a teacher allows learning something new; immerse oneself in a distinct universe with each project and so much more as-

-Each school year brings new people into one’s life.

-Each unit and lesson brings new perspectives.

-Each failure, when looked at formatively, can help solve new problems.
-Each success, when used reflectively, can be even greater, the next time.

The eight features which impact the effectiveness of teacher learning:

Life and career experience

Teachers are influenced by what goes on in their lives, both on a daily basis and over time. Their priorities and lives are therefore important. Each teacher also experiences their own individual career pattern that influences their desire and readiness to engage in improvement activities.

Beliefs

Individuals’ perceptions and actions about changing and developing their teaching are highly influenced by what they believe, as well as by their knowledge. 

Emotional well-being

Daniel Goleman (1996) has argued that emotional intelligence influences students’ self-concepts and motivation. But teaching is also full of emotions. A school’s readiness for change is influenced by teachers’ psychological state. As valuing individuals as people and valuing their contributions enhances teachers’ self-esteem and builds trust.

Knowledge

Another influence is the detailed and deep knowledge a teacher has on general pedagogy( style of teaching)  and pedagogical content, as well as their subject discipline(s). This incorporates knowledge about each students’ strengths, weaknesses, home background, cultural experiences, and learning styles. It also includes teachers’ understanding of how their “deep knowledge” interacts with the classroom context; and a self-awareness, that enables them to be conscious of their own thoughts, feelings, intentions and behaviours, and of other’s values.

Skills

As Bob Garmston and Bruce Wellman (1998) note, “Like the queen on a chessboard, the teacher with the most moves has the most options and the greatest degree of influence.” Individual teachers are influenced by the extent of their repertoire of teaching strategies and their ability to experiment with their own practice, by working through a learning cycle of: activity, reflection and evaluation, extracting meaning from a review and planning how to use the learning in future. In particular, when teachers plan for students’ learning, their “bag of tricks” includes tasks and processes to promote active learning, collaborative learning, learner responsibility and learning about learning, and skills related to handling relationships.

Motivation to learn

Motivation is the starting point for learning. For a busy and often overworked teacher to devote effort to change and new learning, there has to be a good reason for the change: some sort of catalyst or urgency – a sense that “what I’m doing doesn’t seem to be working”. Also, faced with a new teaching strategy, the teacher needs to know it is practical and useful - “relevant to me in my classroom with the students”.

Confidence that (s)he can make a real difference

Confident teachers believe that what they do and can makes a significant difference to their students’ progress and development at school and lives beyond school.

Sense of interdependence

Teaching has been described as the second most private activity, and yet the majority of humans are social animals with a need for connections, relationships, and social support. While many teachers may express individuality and choose, at times, to work and learn alone, some also see the potential within groups, and know they are their work benefit from collaboration.