Teaching is a career that provides challenges, excitement, personal reward and a chance to encourage and support others to achieve their goals. “The educator, believing in the worth and dignity of each human being, recognizes the supreme importance of the pursuit of truth and devotion to excellence (National Education Association's Code of Ethics for the Education Profession). The teacher’s work is meant to transform the world by doing it on a daily basis and has possible strengths embedded in our education system provided, the teacher has clear picture of his/her profession as a teacher. Education is for all round development of the individual learner. All round development refers to the proper growth of body, mind and speech (Gandhi). Therefore, educators of today should be well equipped with the new strategies and skills to render the service and look for what is best for the child. As educator, broadening the ways of perceiving, being aware of how child gets attend to the lessons, considering diversity while teaching plays a pivotal role in shaping the learners in a better way. Thus, the vital part of being educated is to be aware of what is being taken for granted and be able to uncover what has faded into the back drop of any action as educator.
The time had come for us to make sure that the shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered curriculum, from subject knowledge towards intellectual abilities, from disciplinary-based curriculum to integrated inter-disciplinary learning, from supply-driven to demand-driven learning content and from individual learning to cooperative learning should make it happen in our country. Moreover, we should know that teaching is a profession where it demands a lot of potential unlike any other profession in any organization in the society. Although a biological and cultural root of transmission can also play a vital root in his/her intellectual capacity, teachers should be the guiding factor in making the children a fully learned people. There existed both strengths and weaknesses in our school education. At the same time, it is very practical scenario today, we can witness little drawbacks and we can observe today and needs for betterment in tomorrow. Thus, some major strengths and weaknesses along with recommendations will be discussed in the following sections/pages.
Developmentalism
One of the strengths in Bhutanese education system follows a sequential pattern of curriculum which we can call as developmentalism. The hierarchal nature of curriculum is well taken care by providing education according to their standards. The nature of curriculum has framed based on the basal approach which means the difficulty level of the content has been considered level wise. As stated in the book, ‘Engaging Minds’, development is not a linear but is a process of recursive elaboration, moving to more sophisticated ways of interpreting experiences. Moreover, Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system theory states that child’s development happens from the simplest system (micro) and slowly moves to other system, and finally to chronological system which is the most complex one. This supports the fact that child learn simplest the first and the complex the latter. So has our education system in the country is in a sequence of stages through which a child is expected to progress on route from their admission in school till they stops formal education. The content of the lesson follows step-by step where the succeeding standard has a great link and correlation with the previous lesson.Deconstructing is possible in the system
Deconstruction provides an individual to develop implicit associations by bringing the things forward which we usually exclude subconsciously. The formal education is usually focused on the visible part of the iceberg of knowledge, often forgetting the massive portion of the iceberg beneath the water. However, with the advancement of internet, the transformation from a traditional mode of teaching to new pedagogies for the 21st century has taken into place. A rote memorization, chalk and talk approaches are rarely seen in our country. Now the new skills and strategies of teaching became familiar in the Bhutanese schools and student- centered teaching approaches are given more importance. Students are given the opportunity to acquired knowledge on how to attain various information and insights, self-exploration and to learn. This is one of the beauties of deconstructing the sense of ‘sameness’ or ‘one ness’. Because learners/people are born and rooted under different biological and cultural norms, so is the nature of knowledge exists in different forms at different labels. Thus, it is always important for teachers to look more onto what we already know and provide our learners with more time to explore and learn. The aims of education in the 21st century should be reorganized around four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live together.Student variability is considered
People are drawn to teaching for many reasons. For some, the desire to teach might have emerged early and is nurtured by positive experiences with teachers during the formative years of childhood. For others, teaching might have seen as a way of making a significant contribution to the world and wanted to experience the joy of helping others grow and develop. And for others, life as a teacher might seem attractive because it is exciting, varied, and stimulating. Yet, the main aims and objectives remain same that is to make the children learned person in their life. Similarly, differences among students in regard to their developmental needs, interests, abilities, and disabilities are neither discriminated from the education system nor they are expelled. They are respected in all the time in Bhutan so as to achieve happiness through having at least educated. Parkay, F.W (2004) asserts that ‘to enable teachers to experience the satisfaction of helping all students learn is when devoted to student variability and student diversity (differences among students in regard to gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status).The weakness/shortcomings of school education in Bhutan
The educationalist, practitioners, and other concerned agencies work very hard in forming some new possibilities in our system. Adopting new pedagogical aspects of learning was prioritized in our education system. Yet, it has been found that some loopholes in our education system have been acting as a delaying factor to uplift our education system to an expected degree. As defined by John Dewey, ‘education as the process of living through a continuous reconstruction of experiences’. I fully support the statement as education deals with the ever growing society and it must continuously grow and change with the time. Meaning, the ways of interaction, thinking, use of teaching strategies should be given focused with the change in time due to the fact that knowing, learning and teaching are dynamic in nature.1) Unawareness on how students attend to the information
First of all, the teacher should be aware that the role of teaching is not only to teach in the class throughout the period but beyond that how well teachers make students understand the lesson is must. That is the moral responsibility as a teacher. The lack of attention creates unfavourable learning conditions to the rest of the students and the effort of the teacher can become useless. Educators must always know that mastery is a focus on isolated skills, repetitive practice, and regular testing to ensure that the chunks are learned but not to put stress in the minds of learners. Attention is an extremely important to develop on task behavior. However, many educators fail to be careful on not confusing telling with teaching. (Davis, B. et al., 2008) wrote we human typically can hold a string of not more than six or seven random digits in mind. In our country, the similar problem was there and still it is there today in most of the schools. Therefore, it is important to consider and reconsider the quality than quantity. Teacher should be attentive to what and how the child gets attended well towards learning.Suggestions/recommendations
a) Promoting students' attention
Creating learning environment a favorable condition by creating a fun and interesting class, so that the attention of the students can be ensured. Sometimes just only teaching focusing on syllabus and academic learning becomes monotonous. Beyond this implementing other creative resources and method is very important in learning and teaching. The use of cognitive, psycho motor and affective can be applied as per the need which suits the demand of the students.Considering both conscious and unconscious mind- training limited conscious mind and thinking critically and being aware of what is taken for granted.
Focus should also be quality teaching and learning, short and organized instructional hour. Sometimes teacher can encourage a mindfulness practice to improve the attention power.
b) Embraced normalism
Biologically and culturally, every student is special and unique. They are born differently with varied intellectual capacity which triggers them to learn differently. Not all children could attain nearest to the perfection at a time. Each individual requires different time for them to learn. However, our conscious mind being untrained which make us to believe ourselves in normalsim where we prioritize only the middle extreme, a mean. Other two corner extremes are left out which mean the process is not taken care. So is our school education. Teachers fail to understand that human are difference-seeking distinction makers and we are individually different. In most of the instances, bright students are picked up and supported further keeping aside the low achievers. This has somehow become entrenched in our system which actually is a total confusion in the 21st century education system. Becoming a teacher by chance is not enough to be able to teach well, just like jumping into the deep pool is not the best way to develop an exemplary swimming stroke.Recommendation/suggestion
a) Identifying the different categories of students
Although it sounds like discrimination but in reality it brings a positive development. Distribution of both high and low achieving groups, the progressive performance can be ensured in this way. The ways of learning certainly differs among the learners. But teacher fails to consider and reconsider this very fact. This is a concern that has to be address by the teachers to encourage the bright students and push up the low achieving students and the teacher must create extra friendly learning environment.Setting extra time for the low achievers and picking up extreme students and prioritizing them as mean. Also, focusing the teaching and learning more towards process-oriented.
Teacher should not be thinking just about teaching based on payment oriented. It must be service oriented based in long run. Just concentrating in teaching and creating negligence and not having awareness of the students concentration of in the class is just a hurdle and waste of effort rather than benefitting the students.
c) Teachers acting as a sage on the stage
Formal schooling is focused on the visible part of iceberg of knowledge, often oblivious to submerge the mass that enables that tiny portion to poke/evolve above the surface. The new teaching pedagogy does not invite anyone to be old aged educator in the country. However, a perception of teacher to be a sage of stage has been and is still imprinted in the minds of the people. This is the common wrong notion for both the people in the society and the teacher who is playing a critical role in learning environment that he/she should be a totally sage on a stage as a teacher. But the most important person in the lives of the children so called teacher in our country is so negligent and they only want their students to follow what they say in the class. They keep on taking almost an entire period. Chalk and talk becomes as though the only materials they could use. In this case, students become ‘yes sir or madam’ humans. The too much dependency on teacher becomes a student less active and the learning and both the intellectual capacity becomes a blur and the performances of the students are not ensured. Most teachers does not care how far students have understood form their teaching. Teachers are unaware of the fact that every student perceives the world differently.Recommendations
Combating a social stigmatization of full dependency on teachers
First of all, the people should remove this stigmatization and teacher should not spoon feed the students; an effort from the side of students plays a vital role. They are the one who is going to play the role of them in their life not the teachers in their future. Students are the first class version of themselves not the second rate copy of someone else. This is because teachers cannot be all the time with them throughout their life. Teachers spend much of their time standing in front of the class.Encouraging more of interactive teaching and learning and student-centered. The perception of teacher as a sage on the stage has increased dependency on teachers over the decades and still a hurdle point of teaching need to be addressed properly. Thus the need to change in this system must be taken as remedial measure as a matter concerned.
Conclusion
As we all know, education is undoubtedly the most daunting sector of all because of the very fact that all of the people working in education sectors are entrusted with the task of educating and shaping and molding the lives of our young children, amongst which teachers are the key component in the system. Even at the highest level, His Majesty the King himself has mentioned on every forum and opportunity that our youths are our treasures because the future of our country would greatly depend on the quality of education that we impart to our children today. His Majesty the Fifth Druk Gyalpo said, “If you don’t know anything about the subject that you are teaching, you cannot teach them; you cannot give what you don’t have”.
Therefore, the teachers working under education sector cannot afford to make mistakes in our continuous effort to educating and giving them the life skills they require as future leaders of the country. Relevant strategies and skills are important in to giving them the life skills and tools to become good future citizens and leaders, not only in academic filed but in the co-curricular endeavors. Drukpa, M (2010) stated “Not only are our teachers expected to devote and dedicate themselves to the noble cause of promoting and bringing about academic excellence but also pursuing our mission to serve as a single body to oversee every child is afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential; by working with all the stakeholders to strengthen our education system”.
The changed notion or where there is no embracement of norms like teacher being normalism-oriented, being sage on the stage, being unaware of the child’s educational needs or being unconscious of child’s ability to attend to the lesson has been always a dominating factors in Bhutanese Education system. Therefore, it is the sacred duty of the teachers to have the new set of minds in the curriculum application. Teachers should also know how to view the child in various perspectives so as to fulfill all rounds of development in them.
Therefore, the teachers working under education sector cannot afford to make mistakes in our continuous effort to educating and giving them the life skills they require as future leaders of the country. Relevant strategies and skills are important in to giving them the life skills and tools to become good future citizens and leaders, not only in academic filed but in the co-curricular endeavors. Drukpa, M (2010) stated “Not only are our teachers expected to devote and dedicate themselves to the noble cause of promoting and bringing about academic excellence but also pursuing our mission to serve as a single body to oversee every child is afforded the opportunity to reach their full potential; by working with all the stakeholders to strengthen our education system”.
The changed notion or where there is no embracement of norms like teacher being normalism-oriented, being sage on the stage, being unaware of the child’s educational needs or being unconscious of child’s ability to attend to the lesson has been always a dominating factors in Bhutanese Education system. Therefore, it is the sacred duty of the teachers to have the new set of minds in the curriculum application. Teachers should also know how to view the child in various perspectives so as to fulfill all rounds of development in them.
