Question

what types of change you want in yourself as a teacher to cater the need of the changing society and learner? explain with at least two example.

Answer 1

The Changing Nature of the Society Today and Corresponding Roles and Responsibility of the Teacher • Changing Nature of To-days Society: You may realize the tremendous metamorphosis taking place in the global society due to ICT interventions, today. ICT influences all walks of our life. The whole new social order is emerging in last couple of decades. There is no precedence to these changes. The technological developments and advances in the emerging society of to-day are so fast that taking place it is not possible to imagine the life after hundred years. But one can visualize the life in next ten-twenty years. What form of tomorrow’s society are we visualizing? What are the changes occurring in the purposes and conceptual framework of education due to this social transformation? How the delivery modes are changing? Is the education today relevant for tomorrow, or we are producing the misfits?
This transformed society requires an immediate Plan of Action (POA) for Education to cope up with the new social structure and its unprecedented needs. • Connected and knowledge-based society: The impact of ICT is simply astounding - changing the face of world so fast-particularly in last two decades. The all pervading applications of ICT tools and techniques have revolutionized the entire life, including education. Still, the penetration of computer with internet connection as a partner and principal contributor in the process of learning is very slow. When the whole world is getting connected we are still teaching them in disconnected way; in compartments of content, isolated disciplines, not holistically, not integrated with life. • ICT Applications in educational process: Today’s educational processes are also influenced by the ICT applications. We can see that ICT can be useful in curriculum development and delivery modes, learning processes, assessment and evaluation like online exams (large number), on-demand exams (individual), curriculum transaction and new learning processes like collaborative working, learning and developing, self-study, open education resources, L3 groups, online learning, etc. Teachers today, have to address to the issues related to this new learning process and newer learning environment. They have to find out as how to facilitate learning and accelerate the process of change. • Autonomy of the learner: Instructional processes are changing to respect the learner autonomy. The learner is supreme and has got all the choices available to select his/her learning strategy. New learning processes like self study, cooperative and collaborative learning, e-learning and blended learning, group learning-working-developing together, L3 groups of teachers/ learners, social networking like blogs / face book / twitter / web pages etc are being used with ever increasing frequency, for sharing of ideas, experiences, discussions and learning. Development and use of OERs, techniques and technologies for curriculum development and delivery, new pedagogies like constructivist pedagogy, are proving more effective than the conventional pedagogy in creation and sharing of knowledge. • Role of teacher in emerging society: Challenges of technology have created new roles for the teacher. Lorillard’s Conversation Model describes the four types of roles viz. discursive, adaptive, interactive and reflective roles of the teacher. In the new world, there are numerous roles the teacher is expected to perform. The typical roles may include: • Developer and nurturer of e-culture, • Networker and change agent, • Learning practitioner and facilitator. • Learning resource developer • Techno-pedagogue • Evaluator • Action researcher Behaviour scientist • Curriculum designer and transact or • Instructional system designer But does our education systems prepare such teachers? There are many similarities between Guru of the yore and the professional teacher of 21st century. But the conditions are altogether different. Therefore, before comparing them, it is required to see the conditions and circumstances which education had to pass through and how the modern education emerged and the role perceptions of the teacher changed, particularly at elementary schooling. RTE also has prescribed roles and responsibilities of the teacher.