Teachers' platform: Teachers should inspire, empower learners

Paul Swaga. Young people enjoy learning when their teachers use the right techniques of teaching. Over the years, I have observed that students establish rapport with the teachers who fully address their needs but they keep a distance from those who do not inspire them. The teaching methods that the teacher adopts to use in class should be those that give room to the students to share ideas and engage in logical arguments about the content that they get exposed to. The learner-centred approach enables learners to freely express themselves as they work in pairs and groups and they are able to explore a lot of issues that surround the aspects that they study. The lecture method of teaching where the teacher pumps knowledge into the students’ minds is outdated and boring to the learners. In the current situation, it is not helpful for the teacher’s talk-time in class to surpass the one for the learners and this could be one of the reasons why several learners leave school with relatively good grades but when they are not empowered to express themselves with confidence. The learner-centred approach inspires students to develop a number of skills as they pursue their studies. When they work in groups, they are able to enhance their communication skills since group work requires them to talk and listen to one another. There are some learners who feel shy to put up their hands whenever the teacher asks questions in class implying that they rarely talk in class in the presence of the teacher. However, in a group discussion, the participants feel free to share ideas with their peers and they study with enthusiasm. It only requires the teacher to be careful when distributing them in groups by ensuring that they do not work according to their cliques which may make the discussions to degenerate into gossip. As the students work in groups, they develop critical thinking skills which are very relevant in the world of today. Nowadays, employers want workers who have good critical thinking skills because they consider them as being able to generate ideas that help their organizations to grow. Therefore, it is imperative for teachers to create room for students to sharpen their intellect as they pursue their studies. The learner-centered approach promotes teamwork among learners in a way that they learn to work together to achieve a common goal. They are able to realize the importance of cooperating with others to solve problems and their decision making skills are developed. The teacher has to be very alert in order for the learners to benefit from group work. He should create a reasonable number of groups that he can easily monitor and each group should not exceed six members because if students are too many in a group, some of them may not participate fully in the discussions. Teachers should endeavour to cater for the various learning styles because different learners learn differently. The audio learners learn best when the teacher is audible and clear so that they can take in whatever he says. He has to stress the key points of the topic under study so that such learners can easily follow. They also enjoy listening to stories. The visual learners like seeing things and this calls for the use of teaching aids like charts, textbooks, pictures and videos. There are learners who are tactile in nature whereby they like manipulating the teaching materials by use of their hands. They like drawing, dramatising situations and doing experiments. If the teacher addresses the needs of all the students in his class, a good relationship between him and the learners is created and learning becomes exciting. I urge fellow teachers to promote the most appropriate techniques so that we groom young people who think critically and share their experiences with other people. The writer is a teacher

Education

Teachers' platform: Teachers should inspire, empower learners