Teaching has been an art for ages. Many people have proved their worth in it, from Aristotle to modern professors. But the arrival of Covid 19 revolutionised the entire system. Now, only those with digital expertise are finding success. The excellent have been those who could influence their students even while sitting miles away in a virtual environment. Post-Corona times have regained the status of in-person classes in our educational institutions, but with ever-new challenges and requisites. The learner of today has new demands because of his familiarity with digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Google classroom etc. He is no more in need of getting information in the classroom and rather expects that he would learn something new and useful in his classroom.
Science classrooms are sufficiently equipped with machines, and students are loaded with an ample amount of practical work. Though science classrooms also need revamping, the humanities classrooms are in dire need of overhauling to make them adjustable with the demands of 21st-century students. It is right that being a progressing country, we may not be able to equip all our classrooms across the country with such facilities that can fulfil the expectations of the learners. But the feasibility of revamping the classroom is still there.
There are three basic components of the classrooms: the students, the teacher, the paraphernalia. Out of these three, if the teacher is equipped with sufficient digital and teaching skills, a lot can be improved. The teacher needs to abandon the attempt to become a Plato or Aristotle in the classroom. I mean, a total break-up between the teacher and the lecture. The teacher must become a facilitator, a moderator in the classroom to share and develop knowledge; making it easier and handier for the students to learn. But before doing so, the teacher needs to familiarise with the topic and know all the ins and outs of the subject. He may develop activities for the creative work of the learners and encourage them to perform, first as controlled activity and then, as an independent person.
Where funding is scarce, the well-to-do, the rich and the NGOs may be involved to provide a neat and workable environment to the students.
The teacher must make his students work in the class rather than making them sit and keep looking blankly at the teacher or the board. He can divide the class into groups and make them read the text from different angles. For example, if he is teaching English literature, he can assign one group to go for the grammatical structure of the passage, the other one for lexical and syntactic structure of the same, still other can be assigned the thematic aspects or the controversial statements in it, and so on. Before the class time ends, the student may be required to reproduce his point of view about the specific assignment and then everyone should share with the whole class. This would not only create a thorough understanding of the text but also raise new questions to develop critical thinking. The teacher may take a few questions from the students to let them share their point-of-view and to develop a comprehensive discussion.
At the level of the students (the 2nd component), the teacher may encourage them to find online sources and consult and quote them wherever they feel it is useful. This would provide them with a diverse opinion about the text they are reading. Students must find every opportunity to discover new ways of knowing. They should try their best to do things with their hands, create with their imagination and relate it to the world around them. They may also find real-life situations that could be related to the text they are reading. These days, video journalism is increasing to its maximum capacity and is the best source of learning. How fascinating it would be for a student to listen and watch his subject being taught in the reputed foreign institutions of the developed countries. Not only this but online connectivity with the reputed institutions of the field may also be established on regular grounds. And after consulting these sources, a learner who has developed his project must be put to peer reviews and their opinion should be equally considered and given weightage.
At the classroom level, there is always room to improve. The basic goal should be to provide a comfortable working environment to the students. It can be done wherever funding is available for this purpose. Where funding is scarce, the well-to-do, the rich and the NGOs may be involved to provide a neat and workable environment to the students. The better the environment, the better the learning. These measures are the need of the hour and may help address a few issues of the education system in Pakistan.
The writer is a professor of English at Government Emerson College, Multan. He can be reached at [email protected] and Tweets at @Profzee