Farhan Jumani
As a Teacher educator, I visit different schools and educational institutions in Karachi to conduct teachers’ development programmes on regular basis. In one of the recent
cohort of teacher refresher training programmes, I conducted series of sessions imparting soft skills including classroom management, lesson planning and resource development etc. This experience helped me in realizing that people learn in different ways and with different strategies.
In Islam, a teacher is considered to be a spiritual father, therefore, he/she plays a vital role in learning process; the effective teacher is one who transform students into more elevated being. This is an art acquired by putting passion, zeal, love and interest into practical efforts towards improving one’s skill of teaching and subsequently building by deep observation of teaching practice.
Nowadays, much literature is easily accessible which surely helps in teachers’ improvement, however; putting theories into practices rarely works. For said purpose, a small questioner was developed to know how primary students look at their teachers and what characteristics they view for their teachers. The collected data was then evaluated and analyzed the expectations of students verses available theories. Such analyses provide a guideline for teachers to help improve their teaching practices from students’ perspective. Here the article would share some important tips for those willing to excel in teaching methods and pedagogical improvements to become effective teacher with the intention to help elevate future generations of Pakistan.
The first phase is an effective lesson planning. Teacher must be aware of what is going to be delivered and how. This effective planning helps a teacher to know the outcome of the class. But due to any error in teachers planning or students’ mood of learning did not flourish in particular class. The teacher should not be recalcitrant regarding the lesson. Rather the effective teacher should have plan B to change the lesson to gain the students attention and then slowly come back to the lesson.
The second step is to set the classroom routine. Especially, the teachers who have to teach the class whole year, the initial time is good to set the rules and regulations with students which they need to keep in mind for the whole year. Some teachers involve students into process to take their commitments. Henceforth, it helps teacher to deliver lesson instead of managing classroom hindrances. One way is to control hindrances is to plan the activities while lesson planning, do not left any single moment for students to talk within. Teacher should plan the task for each and every minute of their lessons. Active involvement of the students enhance the interest and learning in the class. It saves teachers time while delivering the lessons in the class.
Further, a teacher should also monitor the students to confirm their progress. Moving around the room so students have to pay more readily attention, give students non-verbal cues about their actions and behaviors, make sure that the environment is safe and comfortable. During planning process, the lessons should incorporate with learning activities and plan the questions for review of every lesson to make sure the desired outcomes are received. Be prepared before coming to class so that you can show confidence in your teaching, learn the names of students as soon as possible, it helps one control the disruptive behavior in possible ways. This interaction enhances the opportunity to develop sound relationship between teachers and students and it is one of the important factors in students’ motivation for learning.
There are many paths to learning; sometimes a disruptive behavior occurs when students in class are not in same pace. Therefore, it always suggests teacher should apply different teaching methods to make sure every student is learning and contributing. The best way is to plan the learning in small steps and the teacher should be able to link the prior understanding and experience of child with new information so that each and every student takes maximum benefits of their learning.
Students are motivated when they are involved actively in the task. Often students perform better when they are responsible for their own learning; teacher should facilitate their learning. These encouragements, motivation and teacher confidence in their students’ abilities, increase the student confidence and they demonstrate their learning in terms of changing their behaviors’ and classroom involvement. It helps teacher also to explain the concepts and to achieve the desire outcomes.
These are some tricks which the teacher should follow in their classroom. It influences the physical behavior and mental growth of the students. Some teachers are more effective at positive classroom management than others. It is their pedagogical skills which succeed them in classroom. We should learn that nothing helps nurture positive student behavior better than an engaging and meaningful lesson. There are many courses available on the better classroom management, try to search and join the program to improve teaching. Furthermore, do not hesitate to consult other professionals: your principals, co-teachers, educationist, psychologist or counselors. They have likely to confront the same problems. Allow yourselves to learn from their mistakes and successes. A secondary benefit is that they will probably flatter that you come to them for the advice.
The writer is an educationist farhanjumani@gmail.com
