www.chitraltimes.com

LEARNING OF TEACHERS IN THE WORK PLACE

It is a generally accepted view among our teaching community that teachers can learn through structurally organized courses designed outside of the school boundary. One can not deny the fact of teacher learning from the formal and informal courses and workshops organized by some private or public sector. But it is also a fact that each and every teacher cannot get the opportunity of learning from such courses. In case of exposure to such courses some get more advantage than other due to individual differences of learning approach. The question is should we ignore those teacher and let them to remain stick with the habit of repeated practices or should we take some step for their learning. If we are sincere with our profession, department and colleagues and have enough pedagogical knowledge. The next question is how to impart those experiences to others. If we are interested to conduct training and workshop economic restrained are there in our way. We as an individual teacher cannot organize such trainings without organizational support. Hence, there are various issues in our way to conduct formal workshop or trainings as an individual teacher.

If conducting of formal workshops and trainings are not easy to conduct, what will be the other ways of teachers’ professional development. Should we sit without any effort and rely on embedded practices but as a professional it is not a right way to do because teachers are considered as the builder of a nation. Having a desire and ambition to change the nation. Being an adult we should try through our own effort to bring some reform in our practices. As literature says in this regard that, “That knowing and learning are situated in physical and social contexts, social in nature, and distributed across persons and tools might offer those of us seeking to understand and improve teacher learning” (p.12, Borko & Putnam). As a teacher school is our social context having staffs and students. There is a need of cooperation and collaboration of staff among themselves for the professional development in the area where improvement is required in the best interest of the school and students. The first requirement in this regard is motivation to learn. If someone is not willing to change and development in practices than it is difficult to work with those practitioners or teachers. In case of willingness learning can take place among collaboration of the staff by helping each other to carry out the activities inside the classroom. More experienced teacher can help the novice teachers having close and positive relationship by sharing the experiences and incorporating feedback received. As Pratt (1993) pointed out the same fact by saying that, “First, Knowledge is assumed to be actively constructed by the learner, not passively received form the environment; and second, learning is an interactive process of interpretation, integration, and transformation of one’s experiential world” (p.17). Sharing the experiences among each other means breaking the ice of isolation. This means establishing relationship and collaboration to bring change in practices inside the classroom by sharing ideas which promote professional expertise. In this way the environment of the school will change in to learning centre not only for the students but also for the teaching staff.

In our context Chitral two organizations such as Aga Khan Education Service (AKES, P) and Professional Development Centre Chitral (PDCC) are working hard in the field of teacher education and school management. They are offering both in-service and pre-service program for teacher to improve the practices inside the classroom. This means that most of the teachers in our context are aware of the improved pedagogical practices. The need is to further strengthen the practices by establishing collegial relationship inside a school for professional development.

In conclusion I can say that we can improve our practices by establishing collegial and friendly relationship among each other inside a school. This can be done by sharing our experiences with each other and by reflecting on our practices.

Assadullah Khan
AKU-IED Karachi