The changing role of the teacher

by Deshamanya Dr Indira Lilamani Ginige
Former Deputy Director General
National Institute of Education

The simple and static societies of the past becoming complex and dynamic over time, has brought about a paradigm shift in the role of the teacher. The purpose of this article is to make the readers aware on how the transmission role of the teacher that was there at the beginning changed over to transaction after World War II, to cater to the rapid developments of an industrial era, and later to transformation to meet the new needs of the post-industrial era. Considering the fact that the majority of our teachers are still in their traditional roles, the writer intends to compare the three teacher roles under 10 selected themes to expedite the movement of the teachers to their new role of transformation.

With all three teacher roles under consideration starting with a “T,” it is the 3T Model that is used today to introduce the changing role of the teacher from transmission to transaction first, and from transaction to transformation later. Let us now try to identify the contents of the 3T model by finding answers to the philosophical question ‘Why children come to school?’ with respect to each of the three eras, and also by conducting a comparative analysis of the characteristics of the three teacher roles on the basis of the 10 themes selected.

The children of the pre-industrial era that changed very slowly, have come to school to get the knowledge available to the teacher to adopt as it is. Although the children of the industrial era have also attended school for the same reason, the changing circumstances of the day have not allowed them to use the knowledge they acquired from the teacher, as it is. The rapid developments that were taking place after World War II have called these children to adapt the knowledge received from the teacher as suitable to the context. The children of the post-industrial era, however, do not come to school to get the knowledge available to the teacher. These children attend school to seek for new knowledge and meaning to prepare for a future that is becoming highly complex and dynamic. All this brings to light that it is the changing situations from time to time that has brought about a change in the role of the teacher.

Identifying paradigm shift

Let us now try to identify the paradigm shift that has taken place in the role of the teacher on the basis of the 10 themes that are referred to as Emphasis, Basis, Mode of learning and teaching. Titles given to the teacher, Titles given to the pupils, Class setting, Communication patterns, Use of inputs, Assessment, and Evaluation.

The first teacher role of transmission also referred to as the jug and the mug method and the chalk and the talk method, emphasized teacher and teaching over and above pupil and learning. With the latter coming forward in the next era, both teacher and teaching, and pupil and learning have come to the same platform, resembling the two sides of a coin. In the third era of transformation, the original emphasis has changed totally to bring the pupil and learning to the fore, while pushing the traditional concepts of teacher and teaching to the back.

First role of transmission

The teachers conducting the first role of transmission have come to class well prepared to talk on the basis of a list of topics that are pre-determined. The teachers playing the transaction role, acting differently, have come to class with a lesson plan developed to realize three types of objectives coming under cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of education. The teachers of today, who are expected to play the transformation role have to consider the learning activity as the basis of pupil learning. These activities planned with focus on competency levels drawn from the syllabus, attempt to achieve two types of competencies referred to as subject competencies and generic competencies. The subject competencies derived from the subject integrate knowledge, attitudes and skills related to the subject. The generic competencies derived from the learning-teaching process, on the other hand, contribute to the development of a whole lot of soft skills classified under inter personal and intra personal.

The teachers, who played the transmission role in the simple and static societies of the past, have used the lecture as their main mode of teaching. The teachers moving into the transaction role in the mid era of rapid development, acting differently, have used the questioning method to support the dialogue and the discussion that formed the heart of learning and teaching. The knowledge explosion that is taking place at an alarming rate today, invites the present teachers to accept student exploration as the main mode of learning. The pupils thus getting involved in problem-based learning, have ample opportunity to develop the four learning skills – creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication – referred to as the 4C’s.

The titles given to the teacher have also changed with the changing times. The teachers imparting knowledge under the first role of transmission have been transmitters. The teachers raising questions one after the other to keep their classes going, in the second role of transaction, have acted as facilitators. The teachers playing the transformation role today, who are expected to intervene in pupil learning as and when necessary, are called resource persons.

The changing role of the teacher has also brought about a change in the titles given to the pupils. This group of stakeholders paying attention to lectures under the first role of transmission have been mere listeners. The pupils answering questions raised by the teacher first, and later by the peers in the second role of transaction, have functioned as respondents. The same group taking the responsibility for a variety of tasks under the new role of transformation are referred to as thinkers, information seekers, communicators, collaborators, explorers, sharers and elaborators of exploration findings, and evaluators.

The seating arrangement in the classroom is another aspect that has changed over time. The traditional classrooms of the first era have got the pupils to sit in rows to listen to lectures. The dialogue and the discussion that came forward in the second era, have called for a slight modification in the above seating arrangement. Class settings such as the semi-circle and the horseshoe that have resulted, had been mainly to promote the eye contact of the teacher as a means of facilitating responses from each and every child in the classroom. The activity-oriented learning that has come forward today, starts with the whole class to engage the pupils for learning. Small groups formed next to make the explorations productive, and the whole class formed once again to facilitate the sharing and elaboration of exploration findings, have put an end to the fixed seating arrangements that have existed in our classrooms for long.

Changes in communication patterns

It is also important for you to get an idea of the changes that have occurred in the communication patterns at the classroom level. With the teachers transmitting knowledge to their pupils, the traditional classrooms have had only uni-directional communication. The dialogue and the discussion method that has come forward in the second era has called for bi-directional communication to initiate the transaction, and multi-directional communication to take it forward. The transformational role of the teacher that begins with transaction and ends with transmission, with group work at the middle, employs a variety of communication patterns. By- and multi-directional communication at the beginning enables the teachers to engage the pupils for learning, within group communication in the middle facilitates pupil exploration, among group communication taking place next helps the pupils to involve themselves in explanations and elaborations of group findings, and the uni-directional communication at the end, allows the teacher to provide a summary for the children on what they have learnt.

It is also important for you to know how the use of inputs has also changed overtime. The teachers playing the first role of transmission have had no need for special inputs. The facilities in the classroom, have been more than enough for them to adopt the chalk and the talk method to impart the knowledge available to them. The teachers playing the transaction role, however, have needed some inputs mainly to initiate the dialogue at the beginning of each lesson. Nevertheless, the transformation role of the teacher, much more advanced than the first two roles of transmission and transaction, requires a variety of inputs to implement the activities planned. At the beginning of every activity, the teachers need inputs to engage the pupils for learning.

In the second step of the activity, they seek for inputs to facilitate the group exploration planned for their pupils. Towards the end of the activity, the teachers need inputs again to make both the sharing and elaboration of exploration findings meaningful. They also seek for inputs at the end to enable a summary for the pupils on what they have learned. All this brings to light that the paradigm shifts that have taken place in the role of the teacher have called for more and more inputs to support the instructional process that is turning to be more and more complex.

The last two items to which your attention will be drawn are the ways in which the teachers of different eras have attended to assessment and evaluation. Out of these two tasks referred to as evaluation for learning and evaluation of learning, let us begin by paying our attention to evaluation for learning that provides another name for assessment.

The teachers of the first era, who imparted knowledge to their pupils through continuous talk, had no opportunity to understand how their pupils were learning. This situation did not allow these teachers to make any assessment of their pupils with a view to providing them with the learning support they needed. The teachers playing the transaction role, who posed questions to pupils continuously to receive answers, however, had some opportunity to understand where their pupils were. This situation allowed these teachers to support pupil learning by changing their questions to suit the attainment levels of the pupils under concern.

However, the teachers of today, who have to play the transformation role are not expected to transfer the knowledge available to them to their pupils, either through talk or questioning. Instead, their task is to motivate the pupils to find out new knowledge and meaning by themselves. These teachers, getting free during the time devoted for group explorations, are expected to remain in their classes, move from group to group to observe the pupils at work, and involve themselves in the task of assessment where they are expected to provide feedback to their pupils to overcome weaknesses, and feedforward to uplift strengths. All this brings to light that the teachers benefitting much from assessment that has come forward in the new era, can no longer stick to their traditional roles, where they have no or limited opportunity for such intervention.

Evaluation

All teachers of the past imparting knowledge to their pupils either through transmission or transaction, conducted an evaluation at the end of each lesson. The main purpose of this evaluation was to find out the extent to which the pupils have grasped the knowledge imparted to them either through lecture or questions raised. The teachers of the first two eras, who were implementing their transmission and transaction roles, used a few questions at the end of each lesson as a means of conducting the evaluation of learning. Happy with the right answers they received from the pupils, who had followed the lesson, these teachers were in the practice of ignoring the attainment levels of the majority of pupils, who were normally silent.

The teachers playing the new role of transformation getting the opportunity to listen to their pupils during the explanation and elaboration stages of each activity, however, are in a good position to experience what their pupils have learnt. Continuous evaluation thus taking place in every activity, supplemented by formative evaluations conducted at different points of the activity continuum and summative evaluations at its end, enable the pupils to demonstrate better performance, not only in the year-end examinations conducted by the schools, but also in the high stakes testing for which the Department of Examinations is responsible.

By now you may have realized that the new teacher role of transformation has not forgotten the basic features of the two previous teacher roles of transaction and transmission. Proving this fact, the transformation role of the teacher starts with a dialogue leading to a discussion, which is the main characteristic of the transaction role, and ends with a brief lecture referred to as a lecturette, resembling the main mode of teaching in the transmission role. The transformation role of the teacher thus nourished with the characteristics of the two previous teacher roles, also demonstrating a number of other features specific to itself towards the middle part of the learning process, is far advanced than the two roles of the past.

Among the other factors that contribute to this specialty, the steps dealing with exploration, explanation and elaboration take an important place with assessment supporting pupil learning during explorations, and evaluation, accompanying both explanation and elaboration, assisting the teachers to find out the extent to which the pupils have learnt. Thus, the transformation role of the teacher that has come forward to prepare the pupils of today for the challenges of the 21st century, is much wider in scope when compared to the two previous teacher roles. Considering all this, it is a must for everybody involved in a teaching career today to embrace this new role of transformation at their earliest convenience.