So
what it means to be an ideal teacher. We all are student of life as
well as serve as teachers to others at many juncture of life. Lots of
people come in our contact and learn many thing about us and from us
while sometime we take this formal role of teacher. I was writing my
teaching philosophy and came up with following write up. Please go
through and share your view on being an ideal teacher. This will help me
to take different perspective as well as this exercise will help you as
well to be a better teacher when situation needed. I am sure many of
you remember this pic:
Teaching
is one of the most noble profession which is mother of all other
professions. Since childhood, I have had a passion to learn anything and
everything, not only knowledge but also the style of great teachers who
shaped me. Now, when I look back; I find, it was not just teaching but a
character-building process. This realization has helped shape my
temperament to be an inspiring teacher who aspire to learn as he
teaches.
My teaching philosophy has developed as a result Over the years I have learned few underlying principles which inculcate a healthy learning, if present in teaching process. Firstly, Nobody want to do anything if there is no interest. I have experienced, the teachers who were able to kindle the fire the interest about their subjects pulled most of me toward their subjects. I still remember in my high school, I devoted much time reading about Chemistry & Physics experiments rather than history books, one of the main reason was I was thrilled with the experiments I could do about the theory which I learned in the class. Second, if the fundamentals are missing, no matter how much enthusiasm and effort was poured by my teachers, I was not able to relate them and class used to be a burden, as I was not able to catch up with my teacher and friends and I used to feel somewhere low inside. This gave me a lesson for life, if I want to learn anything, I must have strong fundamentals of that subject. Third, I found it very helpful and supportive to have a friendly and warm-hearted teacher for conducive learning, because in my undergraduate, in spite of having intense desire to learn physical chemistry and even with strong fundamentals, my interest for physical chemistry in second year of college died down due to repeated rude, rash and unresponsive lectures. Fourth, short-cuts can be and mostly are impediments on the path of making a strong student on the long run. In spite of giving direct solution to the question being asked, I feel it's more valuable to understand why student can't come up to answer, where student lacks in fundamentals or analysis to reach the final answer which he/she looking for. This process helps the student much more than just giving the answer. The essence of this process has been reflected in saying, "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime". This one thing has propelled me so far in Organic Chemistry. In spite of just knowing the end product of reaction, I could learn the basic principle of reaction mechanism which govern not only one reaction but many. In our group meetings, when we discussed reaction mechanism, I always enjoyed the way, my advisor Prof Fleming, always asked us to see if particular component as acid/base or electrophile or nucleophile. He used to tell us if we can identify this fundamental we can start drawing the arrows in the correct direction and reaction mechanism will emerge and I can say during this process I learned much more than reaction mechanism, I also learned the fundamental behavior of chemicals. Learning basics rather than short-cuts to final answer is a way for strong command over the subject. Fifth, being creative really helps, sometime same thing explained from different angles and phrases and examples get easier to understand which sometimes are not clear even after reading 10-15 times from text-books. I still remember in my freshman year of college, I had such a hard time understanding Joul-Thompson Effect in Thermodynamics chapter which states, "In a free expansion, the gas does no work and absorbs no heat, so the internal energy is conserved. Expanded in this manner, the temperature of an ideal gas would remain constant, but the temperature of a real gas may either increase or decrease, depending on the initial temperature and pressure." I read this statement again and again, discussed with my friends but all in vain. Then, one day when the class ended, I went to my Chemistry professor, and asked him could he please explain that to me and he smiled and rolled his lips as if he wanted to whistle and gently blew air out on my hands, I could feel the cool air striking my hands. He also asked me repeat the process myself and experience the change in temperature of air. Then, he went on saying, this cooling of air is Joul-Thompson effect and I just got it! And the most amazing part is this, I have forgotten many concepts in Physical Chemistry, but I still remember this learning. Sixth, strong communicating skills are essential as it fills the gap between students and teacher. Seventh, being inspiring and relevant to our world through scientific research teacher can keep its appeal among student.
So this is what I feel. Means teaching is not just sharing of ideas and concepts but is a wholesome process which involve loving and careful nurturing of mind and personality. And when it comes to helping others with life lesson, teacher need to be even more friendly, loving and patient. These all qualities make Sri Sri Ravi Shankar the best and ideal teacher of life. My Guru :-)
Share what you think make an ideal teacher.
All Glory to Gurudev!
love
Dinesh
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