Why teach?

Teaching and learning have been integral to the human community from time immemorial and everyone is potentially a teacher one way or the other. In spite of the high regard for the profession, the choice to become a teacher is often a personal one. For me, I was largely influenced by an exposure to inspirational and dedicated teachers, who in various ways became role models, and also by the recognition of teaching as a kind of activity with a strong sense of community and likely to bring a sense of fulfillment from positively influencing young minds. Seeing teaching as an avenue for one’s creativity is perhaps quite critical as that will help generate the necessary passion and energy.

Becoming a teacher

The earliest anxiety for a lecturer is that of taking on the title of a teacher before having achieved any level of competence, a feeling further reinforced the moment students come into the picture. The appointment therefore was to become the official beginning of a search for directions in teaching, and in many ways it was the students who would become key players in providing guidance. Under their influence, a gradual process of evolution occurs over the years especially in the absence of formal programmes in teaching methodology in one’s chosen field.

Coping with information

The basic sciences in Medicine are factually intensive and the only advantage as a novice teacher then was to have been in the same profession and therefore endowed with some working knowledge but often lacking the broader picture and most of the details. The early efforts at ‘competence’ were therefore primarily driven by the acute awareness of appearing factually deficient to students. Details therefore frequently took priority over a meaningful structuring of information.

Structuring of learning material

Exposure to students’ learning activities around lectures, practical classes and tutorials has a profound influence on the next stage of development to move beyond information. Lectures are ‘safe’ activities for the beginner teacher, almost totally within one’s control and easily designed to appear exhaustive to avoid being assaulted with embarrassing questions. Comprehensive handouts that match the actual presentation will give students a perceived sense of security. It is also desirable that the allocated lecture time be filled completely so that questions (if indeed they could be generated) could be answered late (if ever).

It is soon apparent (from the kind of questions students actually come up with) that lectures can provide the ideal platform to deliver important visual or functional concepts. This, as opposed to detailed information, will allow students to develop the kind of understanding that will facilitate reflection and encourage the pursuit of self-directed expansion of knowledge. Essentially, they provide the basic tools for navigating the ocean of knowledge without getting hopelessly lost. Aiming to be comprehensive in the delivery of information in a lecture is often a futile attempt to outdo the reference texts which develop the ‘big picture’ that students lack. This should be an integral part of a lecture even at the expense of seemingly important details. Students need a sound framework onto which they can add the details comfortably. The promise of the big picture is often what attracts students to a lecture.

Practical classes provide great opportunities to get to know students as individuals and to understand unique difficulties faced by different individuals. A degree of teacher-student bonding is likely to facilitate interaction and better learning. The management of practical classes in human biology should focus more on the right approach and emphasis as well as aspects of application to stimulate interest in the subject matter. To be effective, the number of students per tutor therefore requires to be the bare minimum. For the teacher, these classes are often the setting for discovering one’s own shortcomings. Being humble will help towards continued personal development and fostering respect from students who are often sharp enough to know who is trying to ‘bluff’.

When conducted in a small group setting, tutorials give students the opportunity to demonstrate a level of understanding of the subject as well as its application. In addition, stragglers can often be identified and given the appropriate advice and encouragement. The opportunity for mentoring should never be overlooked. Small group teaching is the closest one can get to an apprenticeship where close attention can be paid to the development of individual students, and opportunities taken to impart values and attitudes that help develop professionalism in students.

A personal teaching style

Being sensitive to the difficulties faced by students will help develop a personal teaching style. Tutorials and practical classes are ideal settings to determine the areas where students falter and pick up new directions in teaching methodology. Positive reinforcement from students on experimental methods is therefore an added impetus. However, any experimentation with unique methods has to be balanced by an awareness of the broader curriculum requirements and an understanding of students’ capabilities and limitations.

Sharing and exchanging of teaching approaches

It would be a shame if existing good teaching practices are overlooked in favour of a personal style. Of subtle benefit is the habit, among colleagues, of sitting in at one another’s classes and exchanging ideas. Not only is one able to pick up different styles (both good and bad) on teaching but the exposure to related fields (taught by others) helps one develop a better integration of topics and broaden one’s own big picture. There is also the added benefit of generating team spirit among teachers who often have to work together towards common goals such as curricular development.

Technology

The advent of IT offers a whole new dimension to the learning environment. User-friendly technology provides an outlet to one’s creativity in generating interactive software to facilitate the visualisation of complex structure/function so essential to the understanding of biological processes. The teaching/learning experience enjoys a new level of efficiency which literally frees up a lot of useful knowledge from being categorised as ‘information overload’. With the current enthusiasm for trimming contents in the interests of relevance and integration, IT should be positioned to restore relevant disciplines closer to a state of completeness (for the learner). The added advantage of an IT teaching package is that it could be structured at various levels (or strata) to suit the learner’s abilities without being incomplete. However, it is difficult to see how, without the direct teacher/student interaction, IT (e.g. online programmes) could have the same kind of profound influence on the continued development of teaching.

Newer challenges

One has to be constantly aware of changes in the arena of teaching other than the teacher. Reference here is made to both the curriculum and students. While the explosion in new knowledge is allowing for the better integration of material, there is also tremendous increase in the volume. It is necessary here to review curricular requirements in light of newer developments and to redesign teaching material so that the fundamentals and the big picture are complementary to the new details and students are not confronted with something progressively insurmountable.

Students, in recent years, have become something of a concern. Firstly, unlike 20 years ago, the current school grades do not seem to reflect the aptitudes. When a grade ‘B’ is equated to a fairly capable student some years back, today’s straight ‘A’ students are often seen to struggle. Have schools been training students for grades at the expense of developing learning skills and fostering the spirit of inquiry?

There seems to be a greater expectation for spoon-feeding. Learning seems to be little more than preparation for exams. In spite of improving the learning environment, enthusiasm does not seem to be keeping pace. If one were to treat students as ‘customers’, with the prevailing attitudes to learning, the feedback system for ranking teachers could become a weapon that will see an erosion of educational standards as teachers adopt styles aimed primarily at pleasing students.

Behavioural changes progressively seem to reflect a lack of connectedness with the wider community manifesting at times as lack of due respect both towards classmates as well as the teacher. Is the class getting too big to foster a sense of group identity? Or is there a weakness in the selection process for admission? Perhaps part of the answer lies in a traditional family environment where strong values were instilled at an early stage in a relatively non-competitive, secure and loving environment. For the average human child, this process went on for many years well into the teens. It may be either too late or mistimed to try and instill values concerning a sense of community, of caring and sharing as well as respect in a school environment where students are essentially competing for the same cake! Is it too late for change?

While the trends in the development of knowledge and emerging new technologies will have a continued impact on the way teaching develops, it is becoming harder to see how the present day student will impact educational styles in a desirably positive way. The once indispensable ally to the development of teaching seems to have taken on a diminishing role. Meanwhile, the search for directions in teaching continues amidst the changing scenery and is likely to be a lasting challenge to those in the profession.