Teaching as a career has distinct features that make it stand out among other career fields. The uniqueness lies in the reality that the choice made by a student like myself to pursue teaching in the field of education did not begin with a blank mind. It was utterly influenced by the prior impression about what teaching really entails. In some professions students do not get the privilege to meet those already in practice. However, in education, students have personal experiences that stem from coming into contact with the teachers. Before reaching at a decision to become a teacher, I had the opportunity to learn about teaching as a profession. I had the knowledge of what a teacher does which I got from personal observation of my former teachers when carrying out their duties.
Teaching as a profession has a myriad of responsibilities which not only involve knowledge dissemination, but also the nurturing of personal attributes of the pupils. This can be done through processes like effective socialization, provision of support (both emotional and spiritual), and laying the foundation that will enable them to be responsible citizens in the near future (Fountas & Pinnell, 1996). Therefore, with all these responsibilities, teaching becomes a career that only those with a particular attitude and perception are accommodated.
The prior impressions of teaching were ignited in my life when I used to see my teachers teaching. My admiration of their role led to the creation of a mindset that teaching was an exciting job that not only provided knowledge, but also emotional and spiritual development. The interactions I had with my favorite teachers at early stages of life inspired me to be a teacher not because of the earnings, but to be effective, efficient, and composed as they were. To me, teaching was the noblest profession among various options. At that particular point in time, I did not give any credence to other aspects involved in teaching as I had no experience on such situations (Nash, 2012).
The comparisons of prior teaching impression and classroom reality
In explaining the difference between the expectations of teaching the reality of the same, two approaches can be used. The first one is when it becomes immensely unattractive to the new teacher and lastly when there is a conformity with the prior impressions of the new teacher. In the first case, a new teacher finds the challenge of standing before the pupils to be a daunting task and, hence, too uncomfortable. Needless to say that the new teacher previously had a positive notion of teaching and that had desired to take it up as a career, the difference may come as a striking shock of the reality.
In addition, researchers have found out people who pursue education to become teachers thinking that it is a simple task that only involves dissemination of knowledge have their perception change as soon as they step in a classroom (Morrison, 2010). Their hopes are always held high due to the expectation of a fun and exciting profession. However, that is not the reality of teaching. The teaching profession is demanding in the sense that it requires determination, responsibility, effectiveness, creativity, perseverance, hard work, and proper communication skills. All these requirements may fall far away from the actual expectations of a new teacher on the career. For instance, during training teachers are equipped with skills of preparing a scheme of work with the hope that it will be of much use during teaching. However, in realistic world students do have different capabilities of learning. Thus, a new teacher may realize that the applicability of scheme of work is greatly hampered.
In addition, most schemes of work do require additional resources that enhance learning and knowledge transferability. When these resources may not be readily available, learning process becomes difficult as the new teacher may not understand or be creative enough to improvise an alternative. A new teacher may not be familiar with the new learning environment in which he or she is in and for that reason my try to use a resource that he or she saw teachers using back in the student life. Similarly, the resource may have been recommended during training.
Another aspect of teaching is the work plans. Developing a lesson plan requires the teacher to have a clear understanding of the learning environment in which he is situated. For instance, teaching a class full adolescents can be challenging at times especially to new teachers as one needs to know their behavior at that particular stage, what causes excitement in them, their response to various extra-curricular activities, how to introduce and present a particular topic and so on.
A new teacher may lack such skills in planning and eventually ending up to be ineffective in terms of content delivery. Consequently, they may develop a teaching method that is far much above the students’ capacities thus making the content delivery not only inefficient, but also ineffective. With the realization that the content is not properly dispatched to the students, a new teacher may gradually become disillusioned about the teaching profession (Weinstein, 1988).
The similarity of the perception of teaching is normally exhibited when a new teacher discovers that the learning environment greatly matches with his or her expectations. This phenomenon is commonplace for new teachers whose background reflects education matters. This can be possible when a person has parents or accomplices who are already absorbed in the teaching or due to the familiarity with the methodologies of teaching that are adopted in the region. Having prior knowledge is very essential to new teachers towards unravelling of the reality of the teaching profession. Anyone who is driven by a passion for teaching will always adapt and adjust quickly regardless of having the information on the reality and practice of the work. He will always be excited to be always in the classroom on time and enjoyed assisting various students in their various academic needs thus making teaching no longer a burden to him.
However, there may be a friction between teaching itself and the administrative issues that encompasses teacher’s accountability and timeframes. This impacts negatively on the overall learning activities especially when there are rules and regulations that do not actually conform to the new teacher’s expectations (Weinstein, 1988). A teacher may be required to take up remedial classes or assist weak pupils when not in a class. This can prove to be a responsibility to that was not anticipated in one’s prior impressions of the job. In reality, this is what a teacher is expected to do even though is not always reflected in the job description (Morrison, 2010). A teacher whose initial expectations is far much contrasted with the reality may not be pleased with the role of bearing responsibility on student affairs.
References
Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (1996) Guided reading: Good first teaching or all children, New York, NY: San Val, Incorporated.
Morrison, G.S. (2010) Early childhood education today, London: Pearson Education Limited.
Nash, R. (2012) Teachers expectation and pupil learning, New York, NY: Routledge.
Weinstein, C.S. (1988) Preservice teacher’s expectations about first year of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 4(1), 31-40.