“Teaching In Freedom, Empowering Teachers”

The formal education system has been structured to reward students for their ability to retain and regurgitate what has been taught. The teacher in this system prepares the notes with prescribed answers, offers it to students and sometimes offers the students the ever desirable “area of concentration” prior to testing or examination. Students who are able to retain and remember what is taught are usually positively rewarded. On the other hand, the student who generates original answers and is rather open to having a different perspective to approaching examination questions, more often than not, is usually not as lucky. While this pedagogy style has worked over the years, abundance of research has found the limiting factor inherent in this system or style of education. In recent times, we have seen the rise of Montessori style of teaching from an early stage, where each student is allowed to learn at their own pace, arrive at solutions from doing and learning by making mistakes.
No two persons are the same, hence the uniqueness of a person and their characteristics,appears to be a vital factor to consider in how we learn, take in information to solve problems and engage our world. This is recognizable in the three (3) acceptable learning styles. The-

• AuditoryLearning Style: These are people who learn best when the information is in a form that appeals to their auditory sense organs. Such people are more inclined torhymes, dictating, short lectures, chants, music, group discussion, debates and story telling.
• Visual Learning Style: These are people who are able to learn and understand best what they observe and see with their eyes. For this group of people, pictures, gesticulations, maps, notes, physical movements, diagrams, videos, charts and manuals resonate with them.
• Kinaesthetic Style: People within this category have a core-learning requirement for physical strength or dexterity. They learn best by doing and practicing. These people will be naturally be inclined towards engaging in varied experiments, activities requiring body hand coordination, giving presentations, engaging in drama, stage plays etc.

Teachers are the second-highest determining factor in the development of individuals, after the parents, preparing students for their future careers and teaching them valuable skills. It must not be forgotten that children take on role models while learning and that is why the behaviour and attitude of teachers, which they spend the most time with apart from their parents, has an effect on their personality development and outcome.

Understanding learning styles and the role of learning styles in the teaching/learning process is a key component in effective teaching. According to Sarasin, “teaching cannot be successful without the knowledge of learning styles and a commitment to matching them with teaching styles and strategies”. Teachers require knowledge of the unique skills that each child brings to the classroom in order to effectively target instruction towards students’ learning needs.

The changing world of work has brought to light the possible skills that will be needed in the workplace. These skills appear to have shifted from what we have always known. Business leaders and recruitment experts have over emphasized the growing need to hire for attitude and soft skills while being open to train for hard, technical skills.The published report of World Economic Forum (WEF) identified skills that would be critical by year 2020 to include amongst other skills “Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking and Decision-Making.The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) groups these skills as “higher order skills” with their research linking the possession of these skills at an early stage and application of them to be predictive of desirable outcomes in work and life.

While these known facts have become deafening, what options are available to teachers who are key influencers in the outcome of a country’s workforce? How do our education systems ensure that –

• The needs of all students are incorporated in their teaching style or method to guarantee learning;
• The teachers are competent enough to intellectually engage students and ensure a proper knowledge transfer is achieved;
• Students are equipped with the right skills in preparation for world of work?

Given these realities, all stakeholders concerned with people development (academic, technical, socio-emotional, physical etc.) will need to significantly and intentionally review their terms of engagement to make shifts to what works. If teachers are to be truly free, endowed with the ability to deliver the kind of workforce that guarantees economic growth, we suggest the starting point to be-

1. A review of the curriculum used in our education system to make more globally relevant and competitive;
2. Introduction of value-driven development programs into the educational and vocational systems;
3. Policymakers to roll up their sleeves and churn out policies that advance the growth of our knowledge systems through financial and intellectual investments in youth development programs, teacher training, supporting learning environments and general culture of the nation that rewards the needed attitudes and behaviours;
4. Awareness of the importance of soft skills, financial literacy and the implementation of critical soft skills and entrepreneurial learning in our formal education systems;
5. The encouragement of the use of different learning tools and resources to empower teachers to accommodate the varied learning styles of students;
6. Intellectual investments and Continuous attention on teachers in the form of professional developments, upskilling as critical success factors in the development of a nations human capital.
7. Review of the remuneration of teachers, in recognition of the value they bring as a tool to attracting high quality teachers who are innately inclined to people development and progress;

The list can be endless however where these are incorporated in the formal education system with a continuous improvement mind-set to ensure an alignment with skills developed in formal and vocational settings with the skills needed in the workplace at each time, the teachers, students and indeed the country will be better for it.
Quality teaching initiatives are very diverse both in nature and in function. Some of these initiatives are undertaken at teachers’ level, others at departmental, institutional or country level. This has a major career influence on children and the future workforce, it goes beyond simple knowledge transfer, and it’s a lifespan course. As such, teachers should impact knowledge based on the need and situational context of the students and all development stakeholders must encourage teacher to give their best.
In celebration of teachers today, let us be part of the movement to let Teachers teach in Freedom. Happy Teacher’s Day!