What should School Managements do to Train and Mentor their Teachers?

Prof Bhushan Lal Handoo
Educationist,Teacher Educator, Mentor, Management Advisor,Owner, INDIRA EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Teachers are poor in content, lack communication skills, have no commitment, their pre-service training has not equipped them with the requisite skills, their knowlege of Teaching-Learning is inadequate and the Managements think "God is in His Heaven, All is Right with the World."

Steve Durkee
Market Strategist/Analyst/Executive Director

Best Answers in: Education and Schools, Occupational Training

Good question. It begs the additional question, why do we have a teacher certification for K-12, but not for post secondary? I think that the shortfalls are common ones across industry. Often we train in a very short sided method, where we look at the task the person will be performing on a daily basis and structure training to give them insight into that task or tasks. However, what is ultimately going to make that person successful and become more career oriented is often overlooked. I think that communication skills are key, especially public speaking and interpersonal (and sometimes multicultural). Empathy would be another key trait, and sometimes it is inherent to a personality, other times it needs to be recognized and addressed so the person is aware that they need to work on it. Finally, there needs to be some assessment metrics to see where the person is lacking in their skill-set to adequately teach the course content. Then they need to be brought up to speed on those items and reassessed until they have the tools they need to teach. I think the lack of commitment stems from being put in a "go figure it out," role, when individuals feel better prepared for their daily tasks, and see the overall impact that they are a part of, they are almost always more committed. Thank you for your question, please keep me posted with what direction you are taking things in the future.