The University Teacher: Great Expectations in Changing Times

Asrar Chowdhury
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The role of a Teacher in education delivery is a topic that is felt and appreciated by almost everybody, but one that is seldom seriously thought about. Teachers of different levels of education face different challenges and responsibilities. This arises from the maturity level of the target group- the students- and the goals of that particular level of education. Starting a discussion on the role, responsibilities and challenges of university Teachers will pave the way for universities to debate the challenges they face in changing times. This piece focuses exclusively on undergraduate teaching.

The university Teacher faces an audience different from their pre-university colleagues. Pre-school and primary school Teachers face the challenge of improving the cognitive skills of the individual student and the average cognitive level of the class. High school and college Teachers take the students a step further by developing their analytical and mental faculties. By the time students reach the university, it is assumed they have the necessary cognitive, analytical and mental faculties to question and challenge conventionalism. A second feature is that university students fall in the age bracket of 18-24. The maturity of this age bracket brings them on par with their Teachers. This mental parity is not observed or is non-existent at pre-university levels of education. This helps Teachers and students to develop an intellectual bondage where both sides can mutually benefit from talks in the form of debates.

Ever since the world's first university Al Azhar in Cairo, Egypt (970 AD) university students have exhibited the characteristics of maturity to learn through dialogue and debate. The university classroom differs from pre-university classrooms. This is where the role of the university Teacher comes into focus. What separates university Teachers from their pre-university colleagues is that university Teachers are friends, philosophers and guides of their students. This is one feature of learning that has remained almost unchanged throughout history.

Only the best students or researchers qualify to teach in a university. The criteria of selection includes: performance at graduate and post-graduate level and/or research output. The selection criteria do not directly assess the teaching skills of applicants. It is therefore not unusual to observe amongst those starting a career in an undergraduate programme lacking the necessary skills to teach in the classroom. Teaching is a skill that is best acquired over time through self trial and error in the quest to search for methods and approaches that have stood the test of time in a particular discipline and also for those that stand the test of time for an individual Teacher. Teaching also differs from other professions because Teachers almost always work on their own.

Class planning is the first challenge Teachers face. The duration and frequency of undergraduate classes are not uniform. Whatever the duration and the frequency of classes in a working week, researched evidence suggests breaking the class duration into few slots is useful. The First Slot would be to provide a brief review of the previous class and an introduction to the current class mentioning topics to be covered. The Second Slot is the main lecture covering topics the Teacher thinks appropriate for a day. The Final Slot is best reserved for summarizing the day's class and discussion from students. Although universities do keep the provision of separate office hours outside the class, discussion within the class is more effective. It allows the individual student to address their queries and the class to participate in group discussions.

Repeating a new or complex topic is not bad, but Teachers need to be careful on not becoming repetitive or monotonous. Research in education psychology suggests students find it difficult to concentrate if the Teacher carries on talking and not allowing scope for interactive discussion. A good Teacher is also a good story teller who knows when to pause, break and then re-start making the reader think before moving to the next paragraph of the story. Although there is no universally accepted method or technique in lecture deliberation, the aforementioned psychological experiences of students in classrooms does exhibit a general pattern.

Ever since the introduction of the Mesopotamian abacus around 2700-2300 BC the issue of technology in teaching has always been a point of debate. In recent times, classrooms have experienced the introduction and proliferation of the multi-media. Researched evidence finds mixed responses on the efficacy of the multi-media in lecture deliberation. The dominant factors for multi-media to be effective are: the nature of the topic or course; the item displayed (written text, graphs, equations etc); and the maturity of the audience regarding the aforementioned factors. Researched evidence further suggests multi-media tend to be effective when the use of technology assists the lecturer. Common sense further suggests, over dependence on technology can easily be counter-productive when technology ends up replacing the Teacher.

What is true today will not remain true for too long. Human knowledge and experience have always been dynamic and ever-changing. Subjects taught in the classrooms at any level of education are not immune or cocooned from this dynamism. The Teacher is the medium through which human knowledge and experience is passed on to students. Acquiring knowledge and updating that knowledge base is one of the crucial responsibilities of Teachers and teaching. Although this is self-evident, it is more so true at this point of changing times that has lead to a re-thinking of universities.

The university entrant of 2012 will probably be a person of the age of 18. That person was born in 1994. At the turn of the century in 2000 today's university entrant was 6 years old. From then on till today this generation has been exposed to and grown up with the Internet. Today's university entrants are the first generation products of the Internet. Like the baby-boomers in the 1960s and the 1970s, this generation is rapidly challenging and changing the landscape of universities throughout the world. Bangladesh is not cocooned from this global phenomenon. The Internet has set the wheels of motion and change from which there will be no turning back. Keeping up with changing times and being able to keep up with a rapidly changing generation is going to pose a major challenge to undergraduate Teachers in Bangladesh and the world. The first generation of Internet products in the university holds prospects for qualitative change, but a lot of that change will also depend on how undergraduate Teachers respond in meeting the aspirations of a generation that is more intelligent, innovative, enterprising and creative than any of its predecessors.

All things being said and done dialogues between the Teacher and the Student has shaped the progress of human development ever since man mastered the written word in Ancient Mesopotamia six thousand years ago. The university is the institution that has upheld this spirit. Teaching is a noble profession because Teachers can and do have the potential to move mountains and raise seas. Today's is the first generation of the Internet that has entered the university. Teachers have to come forward to meet the challenges and potentials the youth of today's Bangladesh holds. The destiny of the nation is in the hands of undergraduate Teachers more than at any point of the history of Bangladesh.

Sources:
Enhancing University Teaching by David Kember with Carmel McNaught. Routledge, 2007. And. Future Minds by Richard Watson. Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2010.

(The author teaches in the departments of Economics at Jahangirnagar University and North South University).