Build the future; Invest in teachers now:

Teachers should be self-learners

by Samangie WETTIMUNY

World Teachers' Day was celebrated on October 5 under the theme "Build the future: invest in teachers now!" The day which is held annually since 1994 commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the UNESCO/ILO Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers in 1996.

Dr. Nihal Wickramasinghe

As UNESCO states it is an occasion to celebrate the essential role played by teachers in providing quality education to students at all levels.

In order to provide quality education teachers should be empowered with knowledge and skills.

The Sunday Observer interviewed Dr. Nihal Wickramasinghe, Director, Department of Teacher Empowerment, National Institute of Education, Maharagama to study in detail of the latest methods and steps taken to empower local teachers .

NIE which plays a crucial role in improving the quality of teachers has launched a major plan to invest in teachers. It is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of their requirements.

"Basically the following three factors are taken into consideration when dealing with this issue."

1. What are the needs of the teachers, 2. What are the activities performed by them, 3. What should be their ideal role."

As Dr. Wickremasinghe further pointed out, at the moment the NIE concentrates on issues relevant to teachers and students.

"We have introduced a new curriculum and teacher strategies. Empowering teachers with knowledge and skills is one of the best long term strategies to address the issue of learning difficulties of students." Learner challenges: The need of the hour is to develop learning organizations.

In order to fulfill that we should know what the 'learner challenges' are. The basic requirement is high quality teachers and in order to achieve that traditional teacher training methods should be changed.

Dr. Wickramasinghe noted that this is the year in which they challenge the traditional teacher training method basically through introducing more and more courses through e-learning.

Problem based learning

In order to improve the quality of teachers we have already introduced the method of problem based learning. "Teachers may come across various issues related to students in their relative schools. It may differ from teacher to teacher. Based on those issues the responses for the three questions raised earlier ( What do teachers need, what are the activities performed by them, What should be their ideal role?) would differ. Based on responses we have to introduce new methodologies and strategies. Teachers are encouraged to use Concept mapping, a graphical tool which is used for organizing and representing knowledge in order to enhance their knowledge. "It enables you to move from known to the unknown."

Special child

Another striking feature in the latest strategy is to consider each student as a 'special ' child. Teachers should have the ability to create 'individual' students. It is necessary to improve the teachers' ability to handle different types of students. "We come across different types of students in a classroom. It is necessary to cater to their requirements. So it is evident that age-old lecture method won't be sufficient to address the complicated issues related to students. Attitudes and thinking patterns of teachers too should be changed. Teacher should be a self-learner who is eager to absorb knowledge, who would go in search of knowledge.

As Dr. Wickremasinghe noted NIE is largely involved in meeting those requirements and it has brought good results. As a primary step, the number of on-line courses have been increased.

In addition to those newly introduced programs, the NIE has been conducting regular teacher training programs over the years including subject-related courses and courses on educational psychology and philosophy. The courses such as Post-Graduate diplomas, Master of Education and also Master of Philosophy in education leading to PHDs offer higher knowledge required by the teachers. As usual special courses such as courses on sign language and special education are also offered. Tallking of a recent incident where a student committed suicide in a leading Colombo school, Dr. Wickramasighe stressed on the importance of introducing counselling to all teacher education programs. "School counselling courses have been there for years. But we should pay more attention to the issue. Teachers should have enough skills and knowledge to tackle an emergency."

IT knowledge

Year 2009 being the Year of English and Information Technology, the NIE has already introduced new IT courses while also including IT as a co-subject for all the courses. "We have introduced IT for all our courses. Last year we introduced it to all the teachers who follow our courses. We have been conducting those programs for the past 3-4 years. Since 2009 is the year of Information Technology and English we have paid special attention to it particularly during this year and increased the number of courses. And also we included IT as a co-subject for all the courses.

At the moment about 10,000 teachers are undergoing training at the NIE. As stated earlier our aim is to make them independent learner.

Library facilities and IT facilities are provided by the NIE.

Dr. Wickremasinghe said that he is satisfied with the response of majority of teachers though there is still more room to improve. As he highlighted the teacher should be a researcher throughout his teaching procedure. He should always look to new avenues.

Teacher should always try out his own methods to see how best he could cater to the requirement of the child. "For example say there are 5 students who are poor in their performance. If I am an insensitive teacher I would continue to teach other students without paying attention to slow learning students.

That should not be the quality of a good teacher". The main thing is teacher should know how he should cater to the five students who are slow learners.

That is the main feature of 'practice based' and 'knowledge based' education. Teacher should be able to come out with his own method. What he stressed was if teachers could become independent learners, the NIE can give them the necessary support.