Methods of Teaching and Its Usefulness

Ads

TEACHING is a great art which is gained through training and experience. Upon this teaching profession depends the quality of our education. Thus in the words of Gilbert Highet. "Teaching is not like inducing a chemical reaction. It is much more like painting a picture or making a piece of music or on a lower level like planting a garden or writing afriedly letter. You must throw your heart into it. You must realize that it cannot all be done by formulas, or you will spoil your work and your pupils and yourselves."

What kind of me and women then do we want in the teaching profession ?

There is a great deal of controversy over this issue. Some point out that people having a specific qualification and experience are fit to imparting teaching in the class room. There is still others to point out that people having a training and a general qualification of a specific area are fit to creating a congenial atmosphere in the classroom. They put forward the following arguments in favour of their statement.

With the advent of science and culture, students are confronted with the problem of what constitutes good and bad conduct, with the problem of how to distinguish between right and wrong, with the problem of how to decide between duty and pleasure and other mental problems. All these problems keeping in view a psychologist is of opinion that a trained teacher is very much helpful in classroom teaching. It is because, he points out that a trained teacher, teaches students how to use their senses properly. Nevertheless, a trained teacher begins his lesson with the mother's encouraging look, the father's word of praise and approval, with the sister's sympathy, the brother's kindly help, with the flowers that one gathers in garden and fields, with the birds that one watches in meadows and groves. The students are therefore, taught to feel, to observe and to receive impressions. In this way, the mind is opened out. It is ready to receive, absorb and remember. So these steps a trained teacher may take in the class room teaching. If one attends to these, everything else will follow. By that means, the mind which had so long been receptive, will be made active by throwing some questions upon him that had been discussed in the class. John Dewey calls it," learning by doing." It is rightly claimed that this step of teaching touches the springs of action most directly. There is hardly a student who will not go into action with alacrity. Apart from this method of teaching, there are other methods, such as (i) Group method. (ii) Chalk and talk method (iii) Activity method (iv) Traditional method. Let me explain these methods in brevity.

The group method is one where the whole class is divided into groups. In each group, there will be a group leader who will respond to the question made by the teacher in consultation with other members of his group. The credit will, there fore, go to his group if he answers the questions correctly but if he fails to answer the questions in consultation with other members of his group, the credit will go to his opposite group. In this way, a teaching and learning situation may be created in the class room teaching. But in handling this method, one must be careful, for it involves the whole class that may vitiate the congenial atmosphere of teaching.
Next comes the chalk and talk method of teaching where by the teacher presents the facts of the lesson to the pupils and illustrates the essential points on the black board. This method involves two essential senses of pupils, namely hearing, and vision, while administering this method of teaching in the class, one must be careful because there are certain draw backs in this method. These are, (a) students remain passive and inactive. (b) Teachers kill much time in writing and talking with their backs to the pupils and thereby students get opportunities for talking. (c) Lastly there is always the danger that the lesson will develop too rapidly for the less gifted pupils.
Now how can we overcome these drawbacks ? First teachers should not be confined to chalk and talk only. They must remember that the lesson is meant for the students not for the teachers. Hence students full co-operation must be maintained and they should be encouraged in writing on the blackboard. Lastly a teacher must talk in a lively vital, persuasive and enthusiastic manner to make the lesson fruitful.
The another method is an activity method, where the student's participation in the lesson is required. Here students are considered as active being in stead of immobile being. The project method is one of the active methods. A school for example, may develop a project on town which involves a study of all aspects of the economic, geographical, historical, civic, racial and intellectual development of the town. But this method is defective because it requires immense materials. Above all there is a problem of preventing a percentage of the pupils from aimlessly frittering away their time.
Lastly traditional method: The traditional method is one where the subject matter gets the upper hand in discussion and the students remain passive in the class. Because the students have nothing to play in it. Students' participation in this method of teaching in less. Had this method been backed by a question and answer after the teacher had delivered his lecture, it might have overcome this drawbacks. Thus this method of teaching is at present less impressive. However a teacher who is equipped with the methods of teaching stated above, aims at something. His true object of teaching centres round intellectual discipline, a training of the powers so as to create a certain habit of mind, a skill, and temper that can be set to work on facts and ideas with equal readiness. It is for this reason. Her Spencer remarks, "Never educate a child to be a gentleman or a lady only, but to be a man or a woman only." He will be himself, "To they own self be true" and one who is true to himself can not be false in anything.

Thus closely associated with the merits and demerits of the methods of teaching, a teacher can let the students learn their lessons in an effective way. But the methods that a teacher will adopt in class room teaching will depend on the subject of a particular lesson and the teaching-learning situation that prevails over. Hence a teacher can render a valuable service to the societies and the nation and can let the students lead their lives as adjustable individuals and help in accommodating themselves to the changing circumstances of life.

Similar of Methods of Teaching and Its Usefulness