Teachers can only gauge the strength of their teaching prowess if students give them immediate, honest and genuine feedback. Students are the very centre of the instructional process, and what they say and do in the classroom and as soon as they step out of the classroom matters a lot. Perhaps one should delicately add a word or two to what teaching is not. Teaching is not a circus, nor is it a showcase of what the teacher knows about the subject matter. It is not about a classroom or public display of the teachers’ teaching prowess, which may not necessarily cause a behavioural change on the part of students. Teaching is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Teachers do not go to class and teach for their own sake but they interact with the students in the presence of content for the sole purpose of creating a harmonious relationship between the three core elements of teacher, student and content, which must forever be present if a classroom instructional operation is to be executed successfully.
The point one is driving home is that students should be the epicentre of teaching and learning activities. There can never be any other consideration assuming precedence over the students themselves. At this juncture, I should perhaps bring in one’s personal teaching experience as a novice teacher. This is an experience which I think could benefit all rookies and new entrants in the teaching profession. I started my teaching journey without any induction programme. Raw and fresh from the University of Botswana, I can honestly say I was thrown into the deep end, literally left to my own devices to navigate the unfamiliar teaching terrain. It was not that I was not educated enough to teach. Without necessarily losing modesty, I was perhaps too educated for the target group I was teaching.
