Teaching is a divine mission that requires a multidimensional thinking to be successful. Indeed, while it is not given to everyone to teach, teaching remains undoubtedly teachable for those who really care deeply and consciously to improve themselves in mastering all the skills related to teaching. Also, if we go back to history, we will find out that the concept of teaching is as old as the human race. However, despite the fact that we, humans, are designed to learn anything we are exposed to, teaching what we know is not always obvious because the perception of the world we live in differs from person to another.
Indeed, while some people are unable to explain the easiest idea without making huge efforts, others are stunningly amazing in clarifying and elucidating a point effortlessly because they have empathy in them. They are unambiguously empathetic people. Furthermore, the beauty about the way we learn is that it is rarely the same. Despite the fact that we are always thrilled to learn, no mind in the world is eager to receive information the same way all the time. Our mind tends to approach anything we learn from a variety of angles. The mind is designed to adjust the level of joy of learning while creating spontaneously strategies that fit our understanding.
As a result, we, humans, feel proud and joyful when we realize that we have learned and understood something new by ourselves or when somebody has taught us in a way we can grasp. Nevertheless, when the mind is confronted to any difficulty in assimilation, it tends to freeze, invaded by frustration, discouragement and notably boredom. It is at that point where the passionate teacher intervenes to eradicate that frustration, revive hope of learning and get rid of that boredom in order for the mind to open up and welcome cognizance and embrace understanding.
Oftentimes a lot of people choose the career of teaching because they simply master the subject they want to teach. What these teachers may not know is that being excellent in a specific subject doesn’t necessarily make someone an excellent teacher. In fact, reality shows that the most brilliant minds in any matter are often the worst in conveying what they know because teaching is like a management skill. There is more into it than what meet the eye. As a student, I remember I had many teachers who were excellent in the subject they teach. Yet, they were terrible in teaching it because in teaching it is not enough to know what to teach. Teaching requires that we know how to learn what we teach. Meaning that a teacher has to dive himself into the process of learning while questioning and cross-examining every step of teaching.
Consequently, a classroom should never be handed to a teacher who knows nothing about learning and teaching. A classroom should never be given to a teacher who was never trained nor observed in teaching a real classroom. In fact, a teacher who was never exposed to teaching in countless hours should never be appointed to teach without a closer support and supervision. A classroom is like a beehive and the teacher is like the Queen bee who ignites the dynamics of that beehive and set the mood of inquisitiveness, productivity and creativity.
Make no mistake, the teacher who keeps his students very often writing endlessly in the classroom just to keep them busy and quiet is not a teacher. The teacher who monopolizes the speech all the time in the classroom without engaging his students is not a teacher. The teacher who uses frequently a projector (data show) reading endless content to his students is not a teacher. The teacher who doesn’t activate his students curiosity about what he teaches everyday is not a teacher. The teacher who talks to himself using a language that his students don’t understand is not a teacher . The teacher who teaches sitting at his desk and thinks is OK is not a teacher. The teacher who teaches aimlessly just to kill time is not a teacher. The teacher who lacks the charisma of inspiration is simply not a teacher.
Having said that, there is one critical point that any teacher in the world should know about teaching is that it doesn’t start and end in transferring information from one mind to another. Teaching doesn’t end in mastering solely what we teach. It takes more than that to be able to teach properly and succeed in teaching. A teacher has to be alert and flexible in thinking all the time. A teacher has to be explicit and eloquent in his speech, structured and organized in his presentation, appealing and alluring in his moves within the classroom because the purpose of teaching is only attained when the students leave the classroom with something new in their mind indelibly even if it is solely one word. Then, that single word is likely to trigger something newer in them when they are outside the classroom creating a huge desire to come back to your classroom the next day to know more. In short, it is not enough to know what to teach because teaching requires that we know how to learn what we teach.
Finally, I must say that a teacher who doesn’t remain constantly conscious about how he learned what he teaches, he can barely make an impact on his students. A teacher who doesn’t strive to understand the mechanism and ambulation of learning, he can hardly impress his students to learn. In other words, teaching becomes effective only if teachers understand the dynamics of learning to learn. As a result, learning about learning is more critical and significant to any teacher who cares to teach wittingly and successfully.
Rabahi Yazid M.ED.
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