Last month I went for a job interview at a very successful school. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job. When I asked for feedback I was astonished when the Head told me that he was somewhat ‘suspicious’ that I had remained in full-time education ‘longer than I had to’ in order to get my MA and that my current Ed.D. research would likely to have had a negative, rather than positive effect on my capacity as teacher at his school. A few thoughts on that…

Why should teachers also be learners? Well first and foremost, teachers are role models. If we as teachers aren’t interested and intrisinsically motivated by the learning process, why should we expect our students to be? I’ve broken down my thoughts on this subject into four main points:

Reasons why teachers also need to be learners:

1. To improve teaching style
2. To keep up-to-date
3. To remain enthusiastic
4. To give something back to the community

1. To improve teaching style

Whilst I’m not advocating that every teacher undertake some kind of postgraduate degree (although that would be great), I do think it’s necessary for teachers to put themselves in the position of learners regularly. Not only does this prevent the ‘know-all’ syndrome, but it allows one to develop empathy with one’s students. I don’t know how many times I’ve had the comment made to me or overheard it during an all-day INSET, “I know how it feels for the kids now – I’m glad I don’t have to do this everyday” – or words to that effect.

Putting yourself in the position of learner, the non-expert, allows you to see the world in a different way. Even a simple informal learning situation such as asking a colleague for some interactive whiteboard training whilst you sit in various positions in your classroom can reap rewards. I think we forget all too often that learning is an emotional process which is impacted by a number of factors, including classroom environment. Some research on this, whether extremely practical (visiting colleagues’ classrooms during lessons) or more theoretical (reading the latest research on the topic) can only help to improve one’s teaching.

Something that trainee teachers have to do a lot of during their training is observe other teachers. I was shocked to find, once I’d qualified, that observing other teachers is something that one has to go out of one’s way to do and is far from the norm. Whilst I can understand that the atmosphere of teachers’ classrooms can be fundamentally altered through outside observation, nevertheless casual and informal observations of colleagues can only serve to improve one’s own teaching. This can be through the positive – through picking up little tricks and tips, or through the negative – by finding out which things you perhaps both do which serve to harm the learning process, self-esteem of the student, or motivation of the class.

2. To keep up-to-date

Although the central tenets of education haven’t changed for millennia, the context of learning changes constantly. Learning should always be relevant to the learner, start from ‘where they’re at’ and move them from there to a place or level of understanding that you wish them to reach. To this end, then, the teacher must be up-to-date with new teaching techniques and guidelines, as well as being familiar with the cultural context in which students find themselves. The former can be easily obtained through following the latest government advice/directives (although not blindly!), reading blogs such as this one, and creating dialogue with other practitioners. The latter, however, the ‘cultural context’ is more difficult to determine. It’s more of an immersive thing where one has to be aware (although not necessarily part of) the pressures and expectations placed upon young people from various sources. This is done best through making oneself acquainted with TV shows they watch, websites they visit and language they use. Although there’s nothing more cringeworthy than a teacher trying to be ‘cool’, it does pay to actually know what they’re talking about sometimes to phrase concepts in ways they might better understand!

Something which teachers really need to keep up-to-date with, now more than ever, is the realm of educational technology. The learning gains, although not necessarily in testable ‘achievement’, are real and can pay off in terms of motivation and relationships with one’s class. Whilst I’m not saying that all teachers should be using blogs, wikis, interactive whiteboards and the like every day with every class, teachers should know how to use, set up and integrate these elements into the curriculum. Unfortunately (at least in the UK) teachers cannot rely on their schools to provide training in these areas. It is vital, therefore, that teachers have the nous to seek out new ways of presenting similar material.

3. To remain enthusiastic

When I was on teaching practice the Head of Department (HoD) was in his mid-50s, gave off an aura of ‘knowing everything’, was proud of his ‘scary’ reputation, played ‘Solitaire’ on his laptop whilst pupils ‘got on with it’ and derided the whole education system every break and lunchtime. In contrast my Dad, who’s the same age and also a HoD, is the most enthusiastic person about education you could ever meet. He’s constantly bringing in new ideas to his teaching, shares tips and tricks with others, organizes weekly informal ‘ideas’ meetings with his department, is part of the School Improvement Group, delivers INSETs to other departments in the region for free, and gets students in from two or three universities at a time for their teaching practice.

What’s the difference between the two? Learning. My Dad keeps himself up-to-date with the latest news, policy and ideas in education whereas the other HoD had ‘stopped’. Whilst both probably had the similar levels of ICT expertise in the mid-90s my Dad has continued to learn (both from me and others) how to use, for example, his interactive whiteboard to best effect and to cut down his workload through the use of ICT. The other HoD, through his own lack of professional development, probably finds his job increasingly hard to do as he hasn’t ‘kept up’.

Teaching is perhaps one of the hardest jobs in the world. You can never do your job perfectly – there’s always some way in which you can improve learning. In that sense it’s very difficult to remain enthusiastic, especially if you’re a bit of a perfectionist! I would, however, suggest that by keeping up-to-date in various ways teaching can remain an energy-giving, fun occupation rather than one which – as one unfortunately sees fairly often – people feel ‘trapped’ in.

4. To give something back to the community

Too often I have found the implicit analogy in directives and ideas which flow down ‘from above’ that teachers are more like ‘Rambo’ than the ‘A-Team’. That is to say that each teacher has to go it alone fighting the forces of evil in their classroom, occasionally calling on backup. Instead, teaching should be more like the ‘A-Team’ – planned, collaborative and using each team member’s strengths. The trouble with teaching is that you’re expected to perform many different functions equally well and that’s just not how most human beings work! It makes sense, therefore, for each (whilst attempting self-improvement in all areas) to work most in the area which they excel. If this is making resources, then these could be shared with those not so adept in this area. If this is training other teachers, then they should be given time to do this.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: blogging is a great professional development tool. Not only is what you say read upon and commented on (usually!) by others, but the process of writing something down helps you to formulate it more coherently in your own mind. Sharing good practice is what helps educators to get better at their art, for that is what it is – an art. If you’re somebody who scours the Internet looking for the fruits of other people’s labour (and there’s nothing inherently wrong in that) perhaps you might want to start giving something back – to your department, to your school, to the educational community at large? Even the smallest seed (an unfinished resource?) can spark ideas and grow into a mighty tree… ;)