Teachers are teachers. Their job is to teach people. They teach children and adults as well. They became teachers after long years of hard struggle. In the process, they acquire the necessary tools and skills for teaching. They acquire skills for learning how to learn skills. In other words, the teachers are equipped with the skills for imparting knowledge as much as well as the skills and tools for self-learning. If education is a lifelong process, teachers can educate themselves without the aid of others.
While teachers are in the service, their superiors are bent on improving their competencies. They hold in service trainings from time to time at the expense of the teachers themselves. Let’s take a critical look at the conduct of these seminars. Originally, the idea starts from the top educators. The original trainors are experts in their field and in the process of training and retraining school personnel the succeeding trainors may not possess the skills and expertise of the original trainors. There is great possibility of deterioration in the standard of expertise and skills of the succeeding trainors.
At this point it is worthwhile pondering the ability of teachers to educate themselves without the aid of somebody else. Can teachers really learn all by themselves? Are four years of college study sufficient to equip on with the necessary tools and skills for self-learning?
Self-improvement seminars would be less expensive if we utilize all professional magazines as direct links between our top educators and the teachers. It will be in these magazines were Self-Improvement Seminars will be printed for the teachers’ use.
However teachers must meet for clarification of ideas. It is at this stage were teachers will be discussing problems in relation to the Self-improvement Seminar as well as the applicability, practicability and opinions in favor or against he subject. This is the phase where ideas will be crystallized and doubts or misunderstandings settled cooperatively. This stage of Self-Improvement Seminar is the critical analysis of the subject introduced in the seminar.
In summary, there will be two phases of the Self-Improvement Seminars for teachers, the first phase is the reading of the subject at home through self-study and the second is the discussion phase which is a critical analysis of the subject introduced in the seminar.
By: Gemma F. Dalugdug | MT-II | Sisiman Elementary School | Mariveles, Bataan
