UNIT 10 EXPECTATIONS FROM THE

TEACHING PROFESSION
Structure
Introduction
Objectives
Importance bf Teacher's Role
Teacher as Knowledge Creator and Transactor
Teacher as a Facilitator of Learning
Teacher as a Motivator
Teacher as a Counsellor and Guidance worker
Teacher as a Mental Health Worker
Teacher as a Role Model
Teacher as Sensitizing Agent
Teacher as a Trainer for Citizenship
Teacher as an Agent for Social Change
Teacher as a Researcher
Teacher as a Reflective Professional
Let Us Sum,Up
Unit-end Exercises
Suggested Readings

10.1 INTRODUCTION
In the present scenqrio the teacher has moved far ahead fiom hislher traditional
role of just being a subject transactor played during the colonial times. Today,
helshe plays a far wore important and significant role not only in a student's
life but also in the development of society. Society itself has undergone a lot of
transformations and changes. As a consequence, expectations from the teacher
have also changed. It is very important that teachers become aware of their
new and multiple roles and are ready to take them up with zeal and enthusiasm.
We shall discuss various roles of a teacher in this unit. You might agree with
us that some expectations are attached with every role of the teacher.

10.2 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you should be able to:
discuss the importance of the teacher's multiple roles in the present day
world,
identify ydurseltf with these multiple roles in different situations,
take up these roJes effectively and integrate them with your personality,
become sensitive to the development of the affective domain of your
students.

10.3 IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER'S ROLE

Just before you study about the multiple roles of a .teacher and their
significance in the society, it is important for you to undergo an experiential
exercise to realize how you analyze your role at present. Given below, is the Expectations from the
Teaching Profession
circle of influence-your influence. Close your eyes for a few seconds and
introspect on what are the various ways in which you can influence the life of a
student, hislher parents and the society at large. On each ray, you can write one
point. You are free to draw as many rays as you can think of.

Repeat this exercise after you have read this chapter and you will be able to
analyze that your circle of influence is so big that it reaches each and every
family in society.

In today's society, where change has become an important part of our society
as well as a component of an individual's life, the bearings are positive as well
as negative. Today's child is getting various facilities and a lot of exposure
through information and communication and technology and therefore has
access to many sources of the knohledge and understanding. However, the
mental health problems of today's child are also increasing. Parents are
spending less and less quality time with their children due to the present life
style and breakdown of the family system. Therefore, today's student would be
completely lost without a helping hand. With the shrinking role of families,
schools need to take up the responsibility for the future of the students of our
country. The other important reason for the schools to take up the
responsibility and particularly in case of Navodaya Vidyalayas is that the
students spend maximum hours of alert wakefulness in the school and it is the
only place where so many students can be addressed at one time. The schools
can fulfill this major responsibility only through you-the teachers. Since yours
is a residential school, you can make a major difference in facilitating the
growth, development, personality and mental health of your students.

You must remember that in the present day context the teacher's role is not
visualized as that of an authority figure following a top-down approach to
teaching. Rather, helshe is seen as a facilitator of learning who acts as a
guiding light for the student as well. Thus, helshe influences a student's
cognitive and affective domain which gives rise to the multiplicity of hislher
roles. Let us now see how the multiple roles which the teachers have to play,
are not only for the complete development of the students but also for their
(teachers) own professional development.
Professional Excellence of
'reachers 10.4 TEACHER AS KNOWLEDGE CREATOR AND
TRANSACTOR

Given below is a preview of an advertisement that would appear in the paper in

the year 20 10:

"TECHNO SCHOOL"
"Admission open for classes I to XII.
No human teachers.
We teach through computers.
Best of software packages available.
Flexitime facility available."

Just analyze the above advertisement and think whether 10-20 years down the
line, is it possible? If you see your role as a subject transactor who delivers
lectures and evaluates the students, then the above advertisement is not too far
away in the future.

But you are not only a subject transactor, you are a knowledge transactor also.
According to the constructivist approach, every time you teach a topic in the
class, you reconstruct the whole topic. You already know that now-a-days it is
not possible to stick to the practice of notes giving and the lecture method. The
teacher as a knowledge transactor needs to try new and alternative
methodology stressing on the practical application of the topic. Your role is to
help the students reflect on their learning to derive new meanings from it, to
construct new meahings and to apply those meanings to future situations. You
need to focus more on "how-we-come-to-know" by presenting evidence and
information, and encouraging a student's questioning, and acting as a
collaborator. You also need to focus on creating an environment where the
students can come out with their doubts and inquiries without any hesitation
and feel free to talk to you about their problems. Let us now see how this
works in a practical situation.

Activity 1
Consider the following two situations:
1. Try teaching the same topic in two different sections using different
methods. Analyze how the two sections are different and how each of them
could have been made more meaningful for the students.
2. Try an alternative methodology of case analysis for senior classes or a
small interactive group activity for junior classes to teach one topic in one
section and use only lecture method to teach the same topic in the other
section. Analyze the difference in terms of students' responses, their
learning and how you felt about your classes and which gave you a greater
feeling of success. You will find that the first approach worked much better
and was more rewarding. Discuss your experience with fellow teachers in
your school.
 Expectations from the
10.5 TEACHER AS A FACILITATOR OF LEARNING Teaching Profession

While the student today has access to various sources of knowledge your job as
a teacher beconies more important since you have to lead the students towards
locating resources. You have to provide them with different ways of viewing
the world, colnmu~iicatingabout it and successfully coping with questions and
issues of daily living. Let's get a first hand experience of this by analyzing the ,

case vignette given below:

"Aditya is in class VIII. He has high nuisance value for the teachers. For he
spends all his time reading encyclopaedias and knowledge books in the library.
He generally finds out a lot of advanced level informatioil from them regarding
various topics being taught. As a result, he has lots of queries. The teachers
find it tough to handle his queries and feel that a lot of time is wasted with him.
They have started snubbing him in the class. He is now turning out to be a real
problem student who is not ready to listen to his teachers and has also become
very defiant."

As a teacher, your job is to alialyze and find out ways of harndling Aditya in
such a way that his quest also gains direction and other students who do not
read as much as him can also participate. Thus, your job shifts from being
knowledge source to being a facilitator of knowiedge who helps students in
finding access to various other knowledge sources. You also help the students
in organizing the information by increasing more and more their thirst for
knowledge. I11 the classroom, you are expected to create a conducive
environment where the students are encouraged to learn more and more. As a
result, balanced learning takes place in the class. Balanced learning can be
understood with the help of Figure 10.1.

Concrete experience

WHAT WHY?
lF?
Active Reflective
experimentation observation
HOW? WHAT?

Abstract conceptualization

Fig. 10.1: Balanced Learning

Four questions referring to four different areas of learning together form a

balanced learning. These questions can help you to know what four areas
should you cater to, to make sure that all the aspects of a student's
development are covered. Consider Figure 10.2 which explains all the four
aspects in detail helping you to know which aspect of a student's development
is catered to by each question.
Professional Excellence of
Teachers
Why?
Gives the students the
motivation for why they
- How?
Examine how that
knowledge is used in
are studying the mateqal. specific problems.
A
BALANCED
LEARNING

I
'I

-
What? What If?
Explains the general , Attempts to move the
terminology of the subject students to synthesize
at hand. and evaluate new
problems.

Fig.102: Various Aspects of a Balanced Learning Cycle

Balanced learning will not only solve the questions and inquiries students have
regarding a concept but will also make them more and more interested in the
material. This in turn will increase their thirst for knowledge and will also
make you a more eflfective teacher. Let us now try to do some self-reflection
and analysis.

Activity 2

1. Evaluate any onc of your classes in terms of balanced learning cycle. Look
at how many aspects of the cycle your class covers. Analyze what else you
need to do to beaome more effective.

2. Develop a lessom plan on any topic keeping the balanced learning cycle in
mind. Try to coper all the aspects of the cycle. Use this in planning your
teaching activities.

10.6 TEACHER AS A MOTIVATOR

Nothing which the teacher does results automatically or magically in students'
learning. For today's students ordinary school activities may have little
immediate appeal. Therefore, whatever the teacher does in the class right from
introducing a topic to the way helshe evaluates the students has an effect on
their motivation lepel. Have you thought about what would happen if you
started &aluating your students' work by giving suggestions and descriptive
comments instead bf simply signing it. This increases their motivation level
and they work towards better grades. Also in regular teaching, the topic needs
lo be related to the students' everyday life such as, when talking about the
topic 'sound' in the class, the teacher can expose students to various types of
music and sounds they listen to and how they are able to differentiate between
them. If any student knows how to play a musical instrument, you can ask
himher to play that instrument in class for a few minutes. Therefore, any
classroom material chosen with students' interest and ability in mind will help
in motivating them to learn. To be an effective motivator, you will have to ask
yourself everyday while preparing your lesson plan, "How can I keep my Expectations from the
Teaching Profession
students' actively involved in learning?"

Given below are some media that you can use to make your lesson interesting.
Try to develop a lesson plan using at least three of these and see yourself as to
how you are able to motivate your students to learn.

Overhead projector
Flip Chart or Display boards
Chart
Examples from movies
Audio-visual aids
Case studies
Games students play
Any other

10.7 TEACHER AS A COUNSELLOR AND GUIDANCE

WORKER

When interacting with parents, how many times have you heard comments
like, "Okay, my son has even told you this. I am hearing this for the first time.
'Are you sure my daughter said so?" These comments clearly bring out the fact
that many a times students trust you, their teachers, more than their parents.
You already know that students also come to teachers with their personal
problems which they do not know how to handle and are afraid to go to their
parents regarding these problems. In such situations, you play the role of a
counsellor and guidance worker to your students. Since you are in a residential
school your students will automatically look up to you for guidance and
support. You are in fact a substitute parent.

For problems relating to the stream they should take up after class X or which
courses they should opt for, your job would be that of a guidance worker where
you tell them about the various streams available and the career prospects of
each stream.

When your students come up to you with their personal problems, your role is
that of a counsellor who is an empathetic and an active listener, non-
judgemental and has a positive attitude. You should always keep in mind that
no bias should arise against your student or in his/her favour after listening to
hirn/her. Given below are a few cases. Analyze what you would do while
playing your role as a counsellor.

Case one: "Ankita is in XI class and is not doing well in her studies. Her class
teacher decides to talk to Ankita about the decline in her performance for she
had scored very well in class X. The class teacher tells Ankita that she needs to
work hard and at no cost will low scores be accepted, without trying to know
Ankita's problem."

What can you do besides this?

Case two: "Reena is in IX class. She is a very intelligent girl who scores well.
But she does not talk to anyone in the class. She stays alone and answers only
Professional Excellence of
when asked to. This behaviour is consistent in all the classes. Even during her
Teachers
games period, she sits quietly and does not play."

Is Reena suffering from any problem or is it just her temperament?

What should your role as a teacher be?

There may be a few students like Reena in your class who may be different
from others. Observe such students and try to talk to them. Refer them to a
counsellor for extra help, if needed.

In all the cases, you need to remember that counselling is not an advice giving
act. In counselling, you help students find their own answers to their problems
and not give solutions, which you might do in giving advice. Counselling helps
students to bloom to their maximum potential.

10.8 TEACHER AS A MENTAL HEALTH WORKER

As teachers, you are expected to play the role of a guidance counsellor. On

similar lines, you are d s o expected to play the role of a mental health worker.
You are however, not expected to be expert in any of these areas but to be
sensitive observers of human behaviour.

You are expected to rlspond constructively when a student's emotions get in

the way of learning. You should also know you limits and must know when a
particular student needs the help of a mental health specialist. In the role of a
mental health worker, you are expected to help at all the four levels, namely,
preventive, promotionbl, curative and conservative. At the preventive and
promotional level, you can address issues of concern to adolescents in the
class as a group and also incorporate the discussion of such issues in their
teaching of various subjects. At the curative level, you can provide information
to the experts regarding your student's behaviour in class and in other school
settings which will help the expert in doing the correct diagnosis. You can also
help in rehabilitation bf such a student in school at the conservative level.
Sensitizing other students and their parents and taking steps to help the student
to adjust to the class is also important.

Activity 3

1. Make a check list of' all the activities that can be taken up by a teacher as a
mental health worker at all the four levels.

10.9 TEACHER AS A ROLE MODEL

Although there is no doubt that as students have access to more than one
source of information and are getting more exposure to the media, there is no
dearth of role models in their lives. Nevertheless, this does not stop the
teachers fiom being role models for their students. A simple reason being that
they are in direct contact with the students and talk to them every day. Thus,
you have the inevitable edge over others to mould their behaviour.
 Expectations from the
i No matter what you do as a teacher, you will be acting as a model for your
students. Teaching a subject cnthusiastically is likely to have more impact than
Teaching Profession

1 a bored instructor lecturing on the value of the subject. At times, you can also
use modelling intentionally. The demonstrations of experiments or various
activities done by the teachers in class are examples of direct modelling.

Modelling is a very good example of the phrase "actions speak louder than
words". A teacher asks the students to have a positive outlook and not make
fun of students with special needs. But after some time helshe is laughing with
other teachers about one of such students. What do you think students will
learn from this? Do you think they will take that teacher as a role model? What
I will they learn from such a teacher? To be a good role model it is very
iinportailt that there is a very small gap between what you say and what you
do.
I

10.10 TEACHER AS A SENSITIZING AGENT

The teacher while taking hislher classes can also act as a sensitizing agent
where helshe inspires so many students to do various things in life. Analyze
the following cases and you will be able to define your role as a sensitizing
agent yourself.

"111 a class students were discussing problems related to child labour in Indian
society. While they were discussing the problem, one of the students

~ commented that in their school canteen there were two small children working
as l~elpers.The teacher asked them various ways in which they could help
those children and inspire them towards taking requisite measures."

What was the role of a teacher?

There are no sub-jects which can not be related to the present day issues. We
should remain observant towards such issues and not leave any chance to
discuss them in the class.

It is also possible that you may not be able to bring about change every time
but sensitizing students towards such issues of deep concern will be the first
step in this direction. The students need to be sensitized not only towards
larger social issues but also towards taking small steps in these directions such
as sensitizing students towards students with special needs. You can make such
students realize how disabled students are different and how they need
empathy and not sympathy from others. You can discuss with students how
caste and class differences should not be given importance and how they
should see other children and value them for their aotivities and good habits,
thus not letting class and castes differences enter the domain of friendship. As
a sensitizing agent, the smallest and closest arena you can cover is sensitizing
students towards the simple issues that are highlighted by media. Thus you can
save the students to some extent from the negative effects of media.

'Arranging .student visits to old age homes or special schools will be an

enriching experience for you as well'as your students.
Professional Excelknce of
Teachers
Activity 4

1. Enlist the various issues you can address while completing your syllabus.
Find out various ways by which you will address these issues. Try to carry
out this exercise in your class.

2. Plan a small one-day trip to an old age home or a special school nearby to
your school.

10.11 TEACHER A$ A TRAINER FOR CITIZENSHIP

A teacher's role expands beyond that of a sensitizing agent and helshe can act
as a trainer for citizenship with civil and social responsibility. The primary aim
of schools is not only to help students score good marks in examinations and
get into good colleges but also to help students grow as socially responsible
citizens.

Small activities in schools, though they may sound useless at that point of time
yet are appropriate Steps in the right direction. You can take up small activities
such as making students keep their surroundings clean by not throwing any
paper in the corridor or spitting everywhere. You can ask them to use
homemade paper. You can also tell them not to use edible products such as
food grains, pulses, etc. to make a beautiful rangoli and thus avoid wastage of
food products because there are many poor people in the country who do not
get food. These are just a few examples of various activities you can take up to
train students to be good and socially responsible citizens.

Various cultural activities that take place in a schqol can also include such
activities as studen@going to teach some children or students who do not go to
school or who need remedial instruction within the school campus. You can
arrange a competition where students are supposed to use recycled papers in a
creative way.

The point we want to emphasise is that you need to remember your aim of
developing studentti as good citizens and you will be able to find various ways
and means to do so.

,Activity 5

1. Prepare a list of activities that you can carry out in your school to train
students to accept their responsibility as citizens.
I

2. ' Celebrate a 'citizenship week' where cultural activities such as planting of

trees by studerits, teaching poor students, cleaning the surroundings of the
school are held.

10.12 T E A C m R AS AN AGENT FOR SOCIAL CHANGE

Both the roles of the teacher as a sensitizing agent and a trainer together mark
hisher role as an agent for social change. The teacher's role as an agent for
 social change does not demand from the teacher to take out any rallies or to Expectations fronr the
I Teaching Profession
bring about any revolution. But slow and steady work with the students
I sensitizing them towards various social issues, inspiring them to take action
and encouraging them to come out with various suggestions regarding the way
change can be brought about will lead to major and long lasting changes. A
simple example of such change would be to sensitize students towards gender
stereotypes. Lots of books have stereotyped statements regarding both the
genders. It is very important to sensitize students towards such issues and to
train them to avoid using gender stereotyped statements. Also as a teacher you

I
should not show gender stereotypes in your behaviour, especially in your
expectatioils from boys and girls.

10.13 TEACHER AS A RESEARCHER

Teacher's role is now not only to transact knowledge but also to act as an
action researcher. You might already be one while passing the school
corridors: or while talking to students discovering that they have numerous
problems. You should not only discuss these problems but also carry out
proper action research to find solutions and to apply the same to deal with the
problems. Being a part of the school, you know about each and every system
adopted by the school. Therefore, you can through systematic research find out
the cause(s) of the problem and the various ways to deal with it.
Figure 10.3 indicates various steps for carrying out action research.

Identification, evaluation and

formulation of the problem
I

Interpretation of data and Preliminary discussions among

overall evaluation of the project teachers and with the principal
t
1 Implementation of the project

I Review of related literature I

I Choice of evaluation procedure 1
Redefinition of the initial
I Selection of research procedure I problem, if required.

Fig.103: Action Research Cycle

Professional Excellence of
Actloll research starts with the identification and formulation of the problem by
'I'eachers
ideritifying its exact nature. The second step involves discussions anlong
teachers, with the principal and concerned staff regarding the problem and the
w-ay the research should be carried out.

The next two steps involve finding out if any research has been carried out in
some other schools regarding similar problems and how they were dealt with
and if you need to redefine your problem in the light of other researches. The
research objectives and assumptioils need to be explicitly stated so that
everybody knows what we plan to achieve after carrying out action research.
The next two steps deal with selection of research procedure i.e, how we are
going to carry out research and how we are going to evaluate our research
procedure. Finally, we implement the findings of the research and then the
final e\~aluationof the research prcject is done in the light of the objectives. In
case we have not been able to meet all the objectives: we start all over again. If
we ha\-e met all the objectives, we look for various areas where we can
improve and continue with further research.

Activity 6

I
1. Pick up any inajor problem the school is facing and try to deal with it using
various steps of an action rescarch cycle.

10.14 TEACHER AS A REFLECTIVE PROFESSIONAL

Teachers today need to take ~ ; their

p roles as reflective professionals in order to
Srow as teachers and a5 human beings also. Reflective teachers try to
understand why pal-ticular actions have certain effects in their classes; they
analyze thew teaching from a number of different perspectives or theoretical
orientations. 'Their analysis is guided by a rich store of knowledge about
students, classrooms, schools, learning, teaching and the subject matter being
taught. They enjoy tcaching but are never completely satisfied with their
current level of expertise and are always trying to improve. Reflective teachers
.are not content by simply trying to reflect, analyze and study. They act in
deliberate ways on their reflections. They plan and experiment with various
methods of teaching. I l e y are collal~orativeas they prize any suggestions of
their colleagues and freely give the same in turn.They are researchers on their
own teaching effectiveness.

Today's teacher cannot sumivc without living this role of a reflective

professional. Therefore, he/she needs to undergo this experiential learning
cycle at every step of hidher teaching.

Fig.lO.4: The \Experiential Learning Cycle

 Expectations from the
Teaching Profession
The cycle aims to show you that whatever you do needs to be reflected upon.
This will lead to learning of various new aspects or ways to improve and
finally apply your learning to various situations.

You have read more about a reflective teacher in Unit 5 of MES-001.

10.15 LET US SUM UP

After having read this unit, you should now be able to look at your role from a
different perspective and realize the potential of your role as a teacher in terms
of being a creator of knowledge, transactor, facilitator, motivator, counsellor,
sensitizing agent, trainer, role model, action researcher and finally a reflective
professional. We have discussed the various roles that you can play in the
school so that you are able to produce productive citizens. We have also
highlighted that for being a resourceful teacher, one must have a positive
attitude toward students and society as well. We have presented some exercises
for you to work on and discuss with fellow teachers.

10.16 UNIT-END EXERCISES

1. How is the role of a teacher as knowledge creator and transactor different

from hislher role as a subject transactor?
2. How can a teacher motivate students in the class? List any five specific
activities related to your subject.
3. "Teachers are prime agents of social change." Comment.
4. "In the present scenario, the teacher's role can be easily taken over by
computers." Comment.
5. "Teaching is not a job, it is a profession." Comment.

10.17 SUGGESTED READINGS

I
1. Bhatnagar, A. & Gupta, N., (1999): Guidance and Counselling: A
i Theoretical Perspective (Vol. I). Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
2. Bhatnagar, A. & Gupta, N., (1999): Guidance and Counselling: A Practical
Approach (Vol. 11). Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi.
3. Kapur, M., (1995): Mental Health of Indian Children. Sage Publications,
New Delhi.
4. Kapur, M., (1995): Mental Health in Indian Schools. Sage Publications,
New Delhi.