Teaching the Teacher

One of the most frequently asked questions in the field of education is ‘Are good teachers born or made?’ It is believed that good training, skills and support can help teachers become better at the profession. Teaching is like any other skill – it can be acquired and honed. Most teachers can learn tools, strategies and skills to transform themselves into effective teachers who connect with their students and motivate them to excel.

So far we have explored the lives of teachers. In today’s blog we are going to meet two teacher trainers from different backgrounds who are working in different settings and see what they have to say about teacher training and what led them into the profession. .

Q. What made you become a teacher trainer?
Ritu Marwah	Dhruv Singh
“Sharing ideas with my colleagues in school, implementing them and seeing the joy of learning on my students gave me a high. This slowly transformed into teacher trainings which helped more teachers across the country and the feedback from them about their experiences made me go on.”	“I became a teacher trainer to facilitate teachers to reflect on the onus of being a teacher and to spread the passion and respect I have for this profession. Unless the teaching community looks at education both in terms of the social as well as the individual perspective there cannot be citizens who are able to balance social and individual concerns. If the education system needs to improve it is the teaching community that needs to be the role model; a responsibility that it no longer wants to shoulder.”
Q. What has your experience as a trainer been like?
“It has been amazing interacting with teachers from across the country. To help them with their constraints and make ideas work within their resources gives me immense satisfaction. I have learnt a lot from all the teachers I have interacted and it is amazing to see how diverse teaching experiences in our country are.”	“My experience as a teacher trainer has been rewarding: spiritually, cognitively and monetarily. I am idolised by many and teachers look forward to trainings. The flip side however is that in spite of teachers reverence, the idolising, the conviction with which they talk of the philosophy, their class room practices are devoid of the constructivist touch because it calls for perseverance, hard work and humility: so easy to appreciate but so difficult to practise.”

Q. What do you think works with teachers-content/mode of transaction.

“The best approach is a hand on approach keeping in mind the situations the teachers work in and their limitations. It works best when you customize the modules according to the school resources, student strength and the teacher background rather than giving them ideal solutions which may be very difficult to implement practically. Scaffolding the teaching strategies for teachers work best rather than giving them all at one time. Frequent trainings are the need of the hour rather than one training and then forgetting all of it later. “

“A balanced mixture of both: firstly the mode of transaction and secondly the content. People connect to you first for what you are and then with what you have to say. The mode of transaction should be what you want the teachers to do in the classroom, the content would determine they way and how teachers reflect on what they do in the classroom.”

The key to effective teacher training is understanding the adult. Adults are independent and self – directed. They need to be free to decide on what they want to learn.

A training program can be effective only if it is based on a real and felt need, and is attuned to the reality of the classroom situation. A trainer needs to be sound in pedagogy, but she needs to provide a practioner’s insight into how pedagogy will translate in class. She should be a skilled communicator, an empathetic mentor and a strong motivator. A tall order indeed! The goal of teacher training should be such that the teachers become stakeholders in the training process rather than passive receivers of knowledge.

Parallel Teaching Worlds

Every corner of our country has a school and every school has teachers. We have been intrigued by this fundamental question: Do teachers in different geographical, social and economic settings differ significantly in their approach to teaching, their interactions with the students as well as their career goals and aspirations. We decided to talk to some teachers from different settings to try and find answers to our questions.  Three Teachers were interviewed:

Ritu (name changed):- Working as a PRT teacher in a Government School.

Prachi (name changed):- Working as a PRT Teacher in an Urban International School.

Irfaan (name changed):- Working as an educator in an NGO.

Ritu: Most of my students are first generation learners. Their families are usually economically backward. As a result, you would find the boys employed as part time workers in factories and the girls doing household chores. For these kids, coming to school is in itself a struggle.

Prachi:  Almost all my students belong to a very affluent background. This automatically influences the performance of students. The education that they get in school is supported by the additional resources like story books, language games, internet access etc. that they get at home.

Irfaan: I teach at an NGO which provides free education to underprivileged rural youth. Our students come from very poor backgrounds, and realize the importance of the opportunity they are getting. They dream of not just doing well themselves, but of making a difference around them.

Ritu: I follow the syllabus as prescribed by CBSE. I use NCERT books in the classroom. Honestly, there is not much of teaching resources that I use in the class. In the kind of school environment we have and the kind of work teachers are required to do in the government school set-up, it becomes next to impossible for me to use any teaching aids.

Prachi: I teach Grade 1 students. In our school, we have a concept of buddy teachers for primary grades. Under this, each class has two teachers. The idea behind buddy teachers is that each child should get individual attention. What we do is that all Grade 1 teachers sit together and plan the curriculum for the coming months. We make sure that we include a lot of activities and resources that provide students hands-on-experience.

Irfaan: Our curriculum is based on the NCERT textbooks, though we do not limit ourselves to them. Resources like reference books, internet, and teaching aids are used.

Ritu: First, there is no kind of support that I can expect from the families of students. So, giving home assignments, expecting them to learn or revise something at home is out of question. Second, as government teachers, we are expected to maintain accounts, go for census duties and election duties along with teaching which wastes a lot of time.

Prachi: I don’t feel that there are any challenges or struggles that I face in school as such. The school environment, my colleagues and everyone for that matter in school are very supportive of each other.

Irfaan: I have been extremely fortunate not to have faced any struggles as such in my profession. In schools where I worked previously, creativity in teaching methods was somewhat curbed, but in my present employment, I get to experiment, learn and hone my teaching style.

Ritu: It would be the time when I was acknowledged by the whole staff and the principal as the only teacher whose students are able to speak and understand some amount of English. It is good to see that they are learning gradually.

Prachi: This year, just before the summer vacations, when we ended the school day, I in my usual way, said good bye to my kids. Everyone responded. That is when one of my students came near me, hugged me and said “I will miss you. I enjoy learning from you; you always listen to what I have to say.” That one incident really touched my heart.

Irfaan: A student was having trouble with life in general. He had become a bully, and was about to be thrown out of school, after he was detained in class 11. Through gentle, non-invasive guidance, we helped him, and today, watching him in-charge of his life is very comforting.


Ritu: If I look back at the training sessions that I have attended, I think that there are hardly any that benefitted me. They don’t talk practical things. I feel people who come to train us live in a dream world. They visualize classrooms that are not practically possible in our situations.

Prachi: Of course, teacher training is essential. We should not only have a strong grasp over the concepts we teach but also possess the skills that would help us efficiently transact the concepts to our students.

Irfaan: Yes, teacher training is essential. Teachers can come up with new thoughts and ideas when questions are asked of them, and they are given the time and space to search for the answers. Also, training offers a new perspective on what teachers are already familiar with.

The relevance of a right kind of support system comes to light clearly in these interviews. On the one hand we have a teacher who is learning and growing because of the school environment and parental support while on the other hand we have a teacher who is struggling with trying to keep her students in the school.

To make education a meaningful and evolving process, it is essential to have an innovative yet simple curriculum and also provide teachers with training. It is evident from the interviews that teacher training itself should change with the school setting of the teacher. Teacher training is an extremely effective tool to make better teachers and help teachers grow. However, there is a need for practical teacher training which is in touch with the reality that teachers face each day.