Role of the teacher in facilitating growth and development

ROLE OF THE TEACHER IN FACILITATING GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

What we know about the child is vast and impressive. However, what we do not know is even more vast and overwhelming. Every new insight opens up new questions. Therefore, as a teacher we need to update our knowledge about the problems of children, in the context of the media explosion, economic strivings, resultant social, cultural and value changes. With this, we will be able to make a reliable diagnosis and apply the knowledge of child psychology to better their adjustment with themselves and with the world around them.

We, as a teacher, should know what to expect from the child (student), and what he needs physically, socially and emotionally. The routine teacher-taught relationship would not benefit him unless the students are dealt with empathetically as a social being, as an individual self, and as a biological organism.

A teacher should accept and make our students accept the reality of physical and biological changes so that the transition takes a smooth course without causing any psychological disadvantage. We need to create such challenging conditions, which may lead to the effective coordination of physical, mental and other functions in order to ensure adequate adjustment to probable life situations.

Yet another task that teacher should ensure is to secure effective and desirable responses, and prevent or eliminate ineffective or undesirable ones. One way is to arrange conditions in a way that make desirable responses satisfying and not annoying. Positive training in self-direction and self-control should be given to students. Some of the following points should be kept in mind while guiding them:

1.     Control and guidance must come from the student himself under the teacher's supervision.

2.     Harsh, strict and unsympathetic control and prescription of every detail of conduct leaving no place, for self-control and self-direction are not conducive to student’s mental health and adjustment to life's events.

3.     Proper guidance, rational shifts of treatment, and principles of autonomy should be judiciously applied to ensure smooth passage through the turbulent period of student.

It is around the adolescence stage that students reach the higher levels of their school education. A teacher need to receive adequate knowledge and skills with due preparedness in order to handle their emotional and social needs. As a teacher, we need to appreciate the fact that students at this stage are prone to revolt against established norms, rules, and authority. You should keep yourself ready to provide explanations and rationale for the beliefs and values, which your students would question. Students at this time need proper guidance to decide on the right course of action.

They need supportive judgments to do things, which provide them self-confidence and self- assurance. The range of individual differences in mental ability among adolescents is wide. You need to use some plan of classification to secure homogeneous groups in respect of significant abilities and achievements so that curricular and instructional needs can be suitably met. Studies have indicated that in certain tasks a student's performance would improve when others (teachers) are around.

This phenomenon is called social facilitation. However, this is not a universal phenomenon. Still other studies have shown that when a student is first trying. To learn something new, the presence of others is detrimental. In such a situation, the teacher has to assess the situation (considering the class as a social unit) and the personality traits of his students and accordingly he should facilitate their growth and development.

COGNITIVE THEORY:

Theorist Jean Piaget suggested that children think differently than adults and proposed a stage theory of cognitive development. He was the first to note that children play an active role in gaining knowledge of the world.