03/08/2015
Should teachers teach?
This may sound like a weird question, but nevertheless, the fact remains that most people assume that the role of the teacher is to “Teach” the student. If however you are to look at the same thing from another point of view, you'll think that students learn by themselves, the teacher is just the “Enabler”.
In the first scenario, the assumption is the the teacher is a storehouse of knowledge which he then imparts to the students.
While this is not untrue per se, the fact remains that this form of teaching started hundreds of years ago, and may not necessarily be the best way for this day and age.
In the second scenario, the assumption is that the curriculum is developed for a certain age group, and that children of this age group will be able to grasp certain concepts. This means that when the children learn themselves, they are still able to grasp concepts easily.
Of course, the job of the teacher is not eliminated in this process, on the other hand, it is increased.
In a new form of teaching called the “Flipped Classroom Model”, children are asked to prepare for the next day's class, rather than revise that day's class. This is a radical departure from the “set” model, that of the teacher “teaching” something in the school, and the children revising it at home.
In the Flipped Classroom Model, the children are given the portions for the next day's class, and are asked to prepare for it. When they come to class the next day, the children are encouraged to question what they have learned.
The classroom therefore becomes the place where the “Revision” takes place, but because the teacher is supervising this process, it becomes a “learning” session for all children. The teacher “Encourages” self reliance in learning, using the natural creativity of the children themselves to explain concepts to them.