It is a little weird to ask this question because we tend to take schooling, and therefore teaching, as a given. We do not sit and wonder about whether it is necessary at all. In a teacher education programme, this is even more so. Everyone in the department is a teacher- a student teacher, a teacher educator. Thus, teaching is all that we talk about.
And yet, the focus seems to be more on assessment than on teaching. For most of us, the focus is on grades and how ‘good’ teaching will lead to high scores. So the entire process of learning to teach, understanding students, growing with them, boils down to whether it will fetch us marks. How does this help anyone? We will end up sending teachers into the system who are as focussed on assessment as the teachers in the existing system are. The process continues and no real change is initiated.
Today, one of the students asked if a ‘less innovative’ teaching plan would fetch her marks. I wonder what that means. If plans are suited to the needs of students, they should by definition, be innovative. Does innovation only come if we have a bag full of circus material while we go to the classroom? And do we need to have innovation in every class we teach? Something new that may be at the cost of content that we bring to the class.
For all practical purposes, this is a façade. The whole dependence on assessment and the constant fear that I see in students. I wonder if they hear anything about what I say. They listen when I talk about how they can get more marks with less work. And I also wonder, if they would be listening at all if they did not know that I have to finally grade them.