Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in BAju Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Yancheng Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language.
Being a teacher is one of the noblest and most important jobs in the world. Passing on the knowledge that could enhance other people’s lives forever. In this generation, people tend to have higher education and acquire top knowledge from various subjects. However, having great knowledge does not automatically make you a great teacher. We often encounter situations that the person we are trying to teach does not understand what we are saying at all, or does not have any improvement over a period of time. Explaining ideas, lesson planning, classroom management are some of the teaching skills that we do not learn from college. Nevertheless, they are mandatory for a successful teacher. When explaining ideas to someone else, we would often suffer from the curse of knowledge. Curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias due to the speaker unknowingly assume the others have the background knowledge to understand the content. The way we think and see the world is usually base on our own experience and perspective. Simple ideas in our minds might be difficult for others because they might not have the same experience and perspective as we do. Therefore, the curse of knowledge is a huge issue in the field of teaching, especially to young learners. A class without a lesson plan could cause problems from multiple aspects. If the teacher is unaware of the timing, there would be too much or not enough content for the class. Without considering the anticipated problems, the teacher might not know what to do when the problems arise. Using similar or repetitive activities would make the students lose their interest and attention. Without planning the classwork, the material might be too easy or difficult for the student’s level. Most importantly, without a lesson plan, the teacher would not know how to make the students improve effectively in the future. Classroom management would be another important skill. Teachers would encounter all kinds of problems in the classroom and they need to know how to solve them. If the teacher does not know how to maintain the discipline, the classroom could be chaotic. The learning atmosphere is very important for students to learn effectively. If the rapport is not established properly, the class would not be enjoyable and successful for the student to learn. Some other problems in class include handling large classes, the use of native language and reluctant students refusing to participate. In conclusion, teaching is way more complicated than telling people what you know. ‘How to explain ideas with simple terminology and give clear instructions’, ‘how to plan an enjoyable and effective lesson with the suitable material’ and ‘how to manage the classroom and troubleshoot possible situations’ are some of the essential learning skills of a good teacher. Normally, we do not learn teaching skills in high school or colleges since they are separately taught in teaching institutes. However, teaching skills could be extremely useful to everyone because we could be a teacher and teach someone else at some point in our lives.
