Teacher training and its vital importance in today’s higher education system

The role of teachers is changing every day and as they cater to much older students looking for skill development or tier-2 and 3 students who don’t know English or using new-age technology, the need for teacher training is of vital importance now.

With the role of teachers is changing every day along with the tranformation in the education system, the need for teacher training is of vital importance now.

Usually, we associate teacher training with hundreds of thousands of school teachers supporting millions of students. We often forget universities and higher education institutions, where we have a large teaching workforce getting students through their final education milestone. They too need training and development to keep up with a rapidly changing student composition and evolving classroom environment.

The emergence of new students with new needs

University classrooms no longer don the faces of your usual 18-year-olds. We are seeing a number of new profiles emerge with specific needs and ambitions.

1. Working professionals

There has been a sustained increase in working students returning to education with a need to upskill and accelerate their careers. For example, 1-year MBAs are one of the fastest growing programmes.

The phenomenon was pioneered by ISB nearly 20 years ago but has caught the eye of everyone from the deeply traditional IIMs to the more mass-market private universities.

These students are mature, driven and require practical, dialogue-based learning which is significantly different from the traditional 'lecturer' role.

2. International students

In 2018, the government announced the Study in India programme, to spend over $21 million to increase India’s international student population from 47,500 to 200,000.

International students need more pastoral care and academic support in the classroom considering the change in their personal and learning environment.

3. Non-urban students

If India wants to achieve its $5 trillion GDP goal, it needs to push participation in higher education way beyond its current rate of 25%.

This can only be achieved by drawing larger numbers of non-urban youth into higher education.

But these students will come with a distinct set of challenges based on their numeracy, literacy or English language skills, which will all test the capabilities of the lecturer.

New-age education needs to cater to a variety of students and tecaher training programmes need to prepare future teachers for the same.

The evolving classroom environment

Not only is the student profile changing, but so is their way of learning:

Online learning: Globally, online enrolments are growing 4-5 times faster than on-campus. In India, the UGC has invited applications from all eligible Higher Education Institutes to deliver online courses from 2019-20. But how many of our educators are ready to teach online? 

Digital resources: Today, even a student sitting in a physical classroom has access to vast pools of online information which if unchecked can lead to plagiarism and misdirected learning. Without building awareness and equipping educators with the right tools, it will be tough to channel students in the right direction.

The current approach towards teacher training

There are many education degrees for teachers offered by some of the best universities around the world (Harvard, Stanford, John Hopkins) and in India (Lady Sri Ram College, St. Xavier’s College).

However, most teacher training programmes are oriented towards K-12 education covering a range of areas from education psychology, curriculum development to policy-making.

So what should freshly-minted PhDs do when they enter today’s lecture halls that have different dynamics to what they studied in? That remains a largely experience-gained prerogative.

The traditional roles of teachers need to change drastically to adjust to the modern education system.

What needs to change in the way teachers teach?

Having trained over 150 academics, LINC Education has observed remarkable improvement in educator performance and student experience when trained in 3 areas:

1. Empathy: Having a variety of students in the class requires a student-centric approach to teaching. This means being more empathetic to the student’s personal situation, their skill gaps and most importantly being proactive in student intervention.

2. Communication: The ability to articulate and simplify thoughts into consumable bits is a key skill that will help educators effectively support a varied set of students.

3. Digital comfort: Building comfort with technology tools such as anti-plagiarism software, use of whiteboard like solutions, delivering via LMSs, etc. will help educators better direct student learning and prevent misuse of online resources.

Higher education institutions and regulators need to recognise the importance of hiring for and providing formal training for their educators. Being a great researcher doesn't make you a great teacher and vice versa.

However, institutions continue to appoint instructors on the basis of academic qualifications and not the ability to educate.

And while that system will be harder to change, it will be easier to introduce recognised training programmes focusing on specific skills to help educators adapt and ease into today’s classroom