Author: Biljana Vasileva Bojcev

Coauthor: Blagica Arizanova

THE CHALLENGES OF THE TEACHER PROFESSION

IN THE CONTEXT OF CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL SOCIETY

The globalization, which is a product of the fast-developing technology, created the

global modern society we are living in. It has major, if not the most important impact in shaping
the contemporary world; it is present in every segment of our life including business, economy,
health, culture and education; it dictates our way of living. We can no longer have the same
habits and hobbies that we used to have. The global communication has changed the way we
communicate; they technology has made us dependent on all those modern gadgets we cannot
function without; the globalization in general, has changed the way we think and do our jobs;
there is no profession that is going on at the same way it used to be 20 years ago; young people
cannot even imagine what it is like to live without a laptop, a mobile, the Internet.
The education process is not an exception; the modern society has greatly changed the
way the education process is going on; in Macedonian education system new Curriculums were
introduced which impose different educational approach; using new, innovative methods and
techniques; applying technology in the classroom full of active participants guided by their
teacher and all this have resulted in new roles to the teacher.

The dictionaries define teacher as “a person who teaches, especially in a school” and to
teach is defined as “impart knowledge to instruct someone how to do something”. According to
the definition, the teacher gives knowledge to his students. However, with technology in the
classroom, teacher can no longer be just “a source of information”, since students can find
everything they need to learn in the blink of the time. All they need is a laptop, a tablet or a
smartphone and Internet and they can find hundreds if not thousands of web-pages regarding
whatever the teacher is supposed to teach them. The Internet does not offer only words, but
images, graphs and videos; it can provide students with the most updated information and
discoveries that the teacher has not maybe heard about yet.
However, the teacher is still present in the classroom full of students. The Internet can
offer all the knowledge they are supposed to gain according to the Curriculum; but the students
cannot educate themselves, getting information is not enough to prepare them for the real life
that follows the education process. If that was not the case, the governments would have already
started to think about closing the schools, or at least, replacing teachers with computers.
Although some might like the idea, especially students, finding the information does not mean
learning. Teaching nowadays is not about providing facts, but about helping students to develop
skills such as critical thinking, solving problems and making right judgment in order to create
knowledge that benefits both the students and the society. The teacher is not here to present some
boring facts, but to work with his students and guide them to gain their own long-lasting
knowledge that would help them in their future life.
In order to succeed in all this, the teacher needs to be not only an educator, who is always
doing his best to develop higher thinking skills in accordance with Bloom taxonomy, but to
possess certain characteristics and play a few roles at the same time; he needs to be a highly
creative, talented guide; inspiration for students using new methods and techniques of teaching to
make the process of studying more efficient and at the same time enjoyable; he needs to know
how to motivate and support his students during their studying. He needs to change his roles, and
even more often, play more of them at the same time since being a teacher nowadays is a multi-
tasking job.
Roles and features that qualify the successful teacher

Planner and organizer - In the education process, one of the primary roles the teacher
has is being a planner and organizer of the lesson. These are one of the crucial roles that the
teacher plays every day both in preparing lessons and during the lesson itself. He needs to plan
the lesson very carefully and organize it perfectly, having in mind both the Curriculum and his
students; he has to fulfill the objectives according to the Curriculum through the most suitable
methods and techniques as means of motivation; implementing ICT and activating students all
the time. Making a perfect lesson plan on a piece of paper with applying different methods and
techniques for interactive learning does not make him a good planner, since the students do not
see it or read it; however, they are the ones who can tell if the lesson was a good one or not.
Making a perfect lesson plan comprises that he thinks about everything very well, not only about
goals that are to be achieved during the lesson, but about the students themselves - what are their
skills, what is their intellectual knowledge, how to incite critical thinking, which methods and
techniques are best to apply for that particular group. He has to decide which roles to give them,
which activities will engage and motivate them the best; are there quick learners or students who
would easily get bored and what additional tasks to give them, etc. He has to consider all these
things in order to plan and to organize the activities during the lesson; think of all those tasks that
will keep his students engaged, interested and motivated to take part in them; to think, to
collaborate, to communicate, and finally, to learn on their own. He has to make the learning
process effective, efficient and engaging, otherwise, we are not talking about a successful lesson.
Creator - Being a creator, shows the innovative side of the teacher who needs to know
how to create a pleasant environment where students cooperate both with other students and the
teacher; they feel free to ask questions, discuss their arguments, respect other people’s opinion
and express their own opinion freely, without being afraid that someone would laugh at them. It
is an environment where students show respect, help each other, collaborate, and communicate
with everyone in order to gain knowledge; a classroom filled with positive atmosphere with
activities going on that correspond to all the students, regardless of their potential and level of
previous knowledge since the good creator knows how to create and combine activities for all
the students; tasks that engage students not only to memorize and understand something but that
inspire them to research, experiment, discuss, judge and evaluate and finally, activities that
would lead to the higher-order thinking skills would develop creative thinking.
Motivator – The knowledge how to motivate students become interested and learn
independently as well as share knowledge to help their classmates and achieve goals together is
another very important quality the teacher has to possess, it is crucial in shaping people with
active desire to learn; people who never stop questioning; people who never stop searching for
the truth, for something beyond. A good motivator plans the tasks carefully so that they are not
too hard, but not too easy; tasks that make them think, investigate, discover and practically apply
their knowledge; he knows how to bring the best out them and above all, awaken their curiosity.
However, this role comprises a few aspects; motivating students by combining learning methods
and techniques to engage them during the lesson is not enough. Sometimes, the students’
achievements are below their abilities, and a good motivator needs to take some measures to
regain their interest. In order to do this, he should know what works the best – is it a lower grade,
which is not very stimulating, or a good word, since one of the most successful techniques in
motivating students lies in the feedback; they feel good when they hear the feedback of their
work said with a friendly tone and focus not on mistakes but on progress, followed by a friendly
advice; this makes them work even more harder, it motivates them prove the teacher that they
have understood his words and that they can improve. Another very successful technique of
motivating students to make them work with their heart and soul, is by listening what they have
to say very carefully and showing respect to their opinion and effort. This helps them become
people who are full of themselves, who could do everything because of their self-confidence and
who are not afraid to share their opinion and defend their attitude.
IT expert - This is the role of the modern times we are living in; a successful teacher
cannot prosper without using the modern information technology. He has to know how to use
lots of programmes and devices; how to create numerous presentations with lots of effects or
find out which programme to download if he wants to see his students’ projects, to offer
interactive education that leads to permanent knowledge. Although it is not advisable to be very
close with your students neither be friend on the social media, it is a good idea to have some
closed group so that the presentations become quickly accessible; where both students and
teacher can communicate; it can be a place for links with additional exercises for tests or for
those who want more; or a place where students send their homework and essays. ICT makes
lessons more different, fun, inspirational and creative; it offers a chance for students to actively
participate in gaining knowledge; it enables them to learn how to share their knowledge and how
to collaborate. While students are actively involved in the learning process, the teacher is
following the process of their learning, of their collaboration, of their engagement, he combines
several roles, from a guide, to a motivator, to assessor, since in the end, his job is also to evaluate
their work. Another important outcome of implementing IT is that it offers a chance to develop a
stronger bond between the teacher and the students; they feel much more free during performing
these tasks; they were born with the technology so it inspires them even more to try harder and
think deeper, what is actually the objective of the teachers who most often fake that they are IT
illiterate, just to make them work harder.
 Guide - The teacher from the 20th century, a “dictator” who rules the classroom and
speaks all the time while students sit still, afraid to ask about the things they do not understand
has been replaced with a guide who makes students creators of their knowledge, who leads them
to the goal; a guide who inspires them ask question and will never let them fall down without
rising again and pushing them go on until they come to the end. This role intervenes with some
others roles, it comprises a motivator and facilitator in the learning process; it means a
collaborator who works together with his students to get to the point; as well as a friend who is
always here for them. The guide observes their work, checks if they are on the correct path, gives
hints to make them succeed, gives feedback that encourages, that makes them be proud of what
they have achieved and strive for more; and become self-confident. This role enables students to
leave the classroom with more knowledge and experience than they had before; it enables then to
become mature people who do not give up on the first obstacle that comes in front of them, since
they know that they can fail, but they can succeed, too, if they try harder and who learn from
mistakes.
Life-long learner - This is probably the most important role which brings benefit both to
the students and the teacher himself. A lot of people are specialists in their field, but to succeed
in this profession, they need to invest a lot of their time and energy and learn every day; to
follow the new trends and technology, and what is more, they cannot expect their students to
learn and collaborate effectively, if they do not have those characteristics.
On the one hand, in order to succeed, one needs to be even bigger enthusiast than his
students and more eager to learn than them, so that he can prove that it is never too late, that one
learns all his life. Being a teacher does not mean that you know everything. Modern-era teacher
needs to follow the new trends and be proficient with new technologies and media; he has to
develop new skills and adopt techniques and methods to make each and every lesson different,
he should learn to cooperate with his students and with other teachers so that he transforms more
easily and accepts mistakes as challenges, not as failures.
On the other hand, in our country, the teachers are obliged to be life-long learners; the
Macedonian Law on Teachers in Primary and Secondary Schools regulates the conditions on
continuous professional and carrier development and it is their duty to plan and develop their
professional development through collaboration; to participate in seminars and trainings as well
as to use IT and actively involve students in the educational process.
 The list of roles does not end here. Today, a teacher also means a mediator, facilitator,
collaborator, etc. and they are all very important. What I most important to mention is that the
successful teacher plays them constantly without even being aware that he is switching them on
and off, since they are all part of him; he does not pretend to be something so it is not hard for
him to be a guide this minute, and a motivator the next; they all intervene and they are all
inseparable part from his personality with hope to find the best way to prepare students for the
real life, to make them active participants and competent citizens in the contemporary society
ready to use all their knowledge, skills and abilities.

After all this being said, it is clear that the 21st century teacher working with the 21st
century students has to feel comfortable with all those multi-tasking demanding young people,
who take for granted the digital environment; who are familiar with interactive learning and
technology that allows them to follow the world events in real time and even participate in them.
As a teacher directly involved in the process of education, I could say that in order to help
students develop skills such as collaboration, communication, sharing, independent thinking,
problem solving, etc. and to motivate them stay focused on one task, one text or one graph at a
time, the modern-era teacher in the contemporary world has to bear in mind the ability for
parallel-processing that is in his students’ nature; since they can listen to music, chat online, do
homework and surf the net at the same time. If he wants to shape them and transform them into
role citizens, he also has to work on himself a lot; he has to invest a lot of time and effort on
predicting all the possible scenarios during the lesson and last but not least important, on learning
new, innovative methods and techniques, ways of including ICT in the education process, and
many other things to make the lesson more effective, more different, more enjoyable which leads
to students’ involvement, interest in participating and finally, achieving the objectives.
References:

Szucs, É. U. (2009), The role of teachers in the 21st century. Retrieved from: http://www.sens-
public.org/article667.html?lang=fr

Rotherham, A. J. and Willingham D. (2009), 21st Century Skills: The Challenges Ahead
Teaching for the 21 Century, Pages 16-21, Volume 67, Number 1. Retrieved from:
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/21st-Century-
Skills@-The-Challenges-Ahead.aspx

Palmer, T. (2015) 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher, Retrieved from:

http://www.edutopia.org/discussion/15-characteristics-21st-century-teacher

Teacher (n.d.) in dictionary.com, Retrieved from: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/teacher

Teach (n.d.) in dictionary.com, Retrieved from: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/teach?s=t

Blooms Taxonomy, (n.d.), Retrieved August 27, 2016, from Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_taxonomy

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