Disciplined Teaching

      I was on the phone talking to one of my students. He was waxing eloquent on the academic and administrative system of the college where he recently appeared for an interview. He was talking about the academic environment, discipline in the college. He told me that the college belongs to a group of institutions. The senior faculties are in coordination with each other in preparation of teaching material called as notes. That new faculty is groomed under the guidance of seniors. This really impressed me for when one enters into the teaching profession there comes the unwanted baggage of nervousness. He then is venturing into a world which is different from the world he lived as student. Learning in the class and studying for the examination significantly differ from studying to teach. Student has to prepare for one examination but for a teacher every student in the class is a question paper and all papers he has to appear at the same time. The challenge always is to write an answer that correctly responds to all papers. Obviously it can never be the best for all. It is always for the general good. And it has to address the weakest to push for studies and encourage the strongest to explore the world beyond the examination.  This perception is beyond the boundary within which students live. It is the world of teachers. So the guidance from the experienced faculty could be of great help to the nascent teacher.   

        The appreciation of the college continued for a while and I was a willing listener. He talked about the professional approach of the management. The academic discipline of the teachers, students, how teachers have to plan teaching meticulously… the information continued to flow. He was fairly impressed by the college. If you are serving in a college which is not professionally managed such a college becomes a dream destination for working. From system in complete disarray you come across a system that is working according to rule book and is managed in corporate style. So not surprisingly you drown into admiration for it. The information went down to classroom teaching. The teachers have to prepare notes, plan teaching and execute accordingly. The teaching plan must carry minute details. The university syllabus also specifies the number of lectures for a unit and so on. These recommendations are implemented to the core. I really appreciated the approach realizing with honesty that I was never able to follow the teaching plan given by university or prepared by me for the sake of visiting committee. Not really a good approach though, I admit.

      At the peak of the best practices followed by the college, he said, the teacher has to prepare teaching plan clearly noting what he is going to teach in every class. But that was not enough he has to give details splitting down to minutes.  What he is going to say, how he is going to explain and so on. The words struck the rebel chord in me which was buried under the structure of planned teaching. My instant reaction was it is ridiculous. I, for instance cannot go to class with line to line explanation planed in advance. I prefer a plan of topics to be covered but rely on the spontaneity of verbal flow. Planning the teaching minute by minute is beyond my comprehension. The admiration for the college was then replaced by the dominant rebellion. The conventional teaching plans I never was able to follow. I often paid the price by engaging extra lectures.

    If this is considered as fault then I am guilty of it but I am confident that my students are testimony to my sincere efforts that not a student is left without properly understanding the topic. I tried my best to explain in such way that every student understood the concept. And whenever possible I made an attempt to venture beyond the examination. Where completing the syllabus is the only teaching programme there I am a misfit, I feel. To explain the topic I relied upon an already contemplated line of explanation and more often on extempore. The plan I prepared as part of mandatory preparation for a committee visit often stayed on paper. I am at fault no doubt but have the satisfaction of trying to ensure that every student understands. Not that I was successful every time but was at peace with myself.  

        I strongly believe that overzealous attempt to implement the teaching plan to microscopic details kills the spontaneity. And if it is lost, the lecture will become monotonous, devoid of life. Then there is hardly any scope for encouraging and responding to queries from students and pushing them to go beyond the syllabus. This is not to advocate an absence of framework for teaching but to throw light on the limitations of planned approach. It is necessary but it cannot be a substitute to creativity and imagination of a teacher. Discipline is good to set the order but excessive intrusion of it in our life is an invitation to dissipation of creativity.

      If a teacher plans and executes with minute to minute details where is the fun in teaching and learning. Fun originates through creativity, imagination. The loss on this account will not reflect in the score sheet of students but they certainly will be deprived of experiencing beauty in teaching. It is the loss far intense than non execution of teaching plan. The necessity of teaching plan ends when teacher is alert enough not to deviate to irrelevant topics but there must be enough space for him to use imagination. And if we really think that imagination is of no use and it is syllabus and plan for its completion only matters then do we need teachers? A robot is good enough to replace teachers, untiring, supremely efficient, and exceptional in time management and yes never demands salary.  If robots teach imagine the consequences.

      The disciplined mind, conditioned thought don’t produce Steve Jobs. Creativity and imagination blossom in mind unbound. Needless to say the talk ended wiping out the germinating thought of the most favoured destination for me to work.