Millennial teachers required for millennial children

Update: 2019-08-09 21:36 IST

"Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers, not methods and techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system"-This remark of Sidney Hook was reflecting the significance of the teacher in an education system. The technology explosion and the accessibility of internet has percolated to the nook and corner of the country. The Generation Y of the 21 century is called "Millennials" and they have grown amid in an electronically filled and increasingly online and socially networked world. These young generations that are knocking the doors of the schools aren't experiencing better and purposeful experiences inside the classrooms. That is the reason for the persistent reporting of dropouts in the field of education across the country.

If we analyse the reasons we will find three crystal-clear factors, they are schools and their infra, teachers and their grotesque attitude and curriculum's inability to cope up with employability skills. Of course, we have succeeded to a great extent with Mars mission and Chandrayan-2 but in some areas, the progress is near to ground particularly public sector education that has been considered as a lifeline for the flourish of potent human resources.

'Don't limit a child to your learning, for he was born in another time"-This remark of Rabindra Nath Tagore should have become a bottom-line for the teaching tribe. The teachers are well aware of that the children sitting before them are born in the age of dramatic technological change. They have learned informally about texting, gaming, searching in Google and internet-surfing and attained a blend of skills. They grew up with a familiarity with the technology from their early years. The traditional classroom may not satisfy their learning needs and the subjects' that are taught have not syncing with their rapidity. So, the traditional classroom set up should have to change.

Likewise, conventional pedagogy should be replaced with "Millennial Teaching" by producing millennial teachers. When we analyse various surveys such as "Pratham "conducted on learning outcomes are reflecting the failure of the classroom. The shrink of learning levels in the generation Y still a myth for the entire stakeholders of the education system. It is an undeniable fact the governments are more prone to provide better learning facilities in all fronts with the aid of Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan & RMSA like schemes. But the customary instruction is robbing all these efforts. So it is must to convert the classroom under the guidance of millennial teacher as a modern according to the pace of change.

"Education is evolving due to the impact of the Internet. We cannot teach our students in the same manner in which we were taught. Change is necessary to engage students not in the curriculum we are responsible for teaching, but in school. Period."-April Chamberlin. To magnetize this change into the schools the government should have to think to create a teaching tribe that can be the blend of the latest technologies and content intellectuals. For this, there is a dire need f the change in the curriculum of teacher education that is still hatching a tribe that hasn't fit for the 21st century. We need a classroom where the student can learn with the help of power point, podcasts, give their responses with clickers, online lab experiences and revision of the concepts through browsing. The role of the teacher should confine to the facilitator and monitor the abuse of the teaching-learning material.

It is also noticeable that in the present-day classroom environment making the child more passive learner than active because he was secluded from the learning process. Even in this digital era the teacher tribe still leaning towards lecture method that has been considered as "Chalk and talk method". It was so rightly remarked by Marie Clay" If children are apparently unable to learn, we should assume that we have not as yet found the right way to teach them". So, it is the responsibility of the governments to find the right way of education that will strengthen the nation.

It was an ill-conceived fact that the four-fold tasks for development in the arena of education suggested by the 1964-66 education commission such as 1)Increasing productivity through education 2)Achieving national and social integration 3)Accelerating the pace of modernization 4)Cultivating social, moral and spiritual values haven't realized yet. This is owing to the improper utilization of human resources and ignoring the task to improve the existing model of the educational system. For the realisation of the above goals in education, there is a dire need for better teachers instead of presenters of information. It is very essential that the governments should have to focus on the production of modern thought teachers instead of traditional. We are all well aware that our system and its mechanism have miserably failed to instill the ability of employability through education.

This has become a major bottleneck for productivity. It is a comedy that for the children who were grown amid technological gadgets the process of learning is devoid of technology. This is affecting the teaching-learning process and also learning outcomes. To skip away from this situation the human resource department should have to pay attention to the production of a young tribe of teachers that are called "Millennial Teachers".

To instill all these traits in the teacher tribe we need a swift change in the pedagogy. It is a bad wish to expect that 21-century children/millennials by following the teaching methods of 19 century. So, it is essential to focus on producing an adaptable teacher tribe than autocratic; open-minded than intellectual; empathized than egotistical; affectionate than arrogant; we should have to respect the words of David Warlick" "We need technology in every classroom and in every student and teacher's hand, because it is the pen and paper of our time, and it is the lens through which we experience much of our world." Isn't it?

The "millennial teachers" that we are anticipating to produce should have to possess some traits that will manage the millennials/generation Y/ gen DIY (Do It Yourself) in the classrooms. They should be

1. Well educated

2. Multitaskers;

3. Tech-Savvy;

4. Collaborative;

5. Convinced;

6. Self-determining;

7. Motivated;

8. Obsessive;

9. Idealistic;

10. Versatile;

11. Probing;

12. Exploratory;

13. Cognizant;

14. Well-mannered;

15. Problem-solving;

16. Connected to trending technologies;

17. Work-life balancing ability.

18. Accepting the changes.

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