Teaching is a profession, just as law and medicine are profession. Should we not, then, speak of “the practice of teaching”? And should not worry teachers actually engage in practice?
When I was quite young, I wondered about expressions such as “the practice of law” and “ the practice of medicine”. The thought of a physician using me to learn diagnostic and treatment skills was a bit unnerving.
Later on, I came to realize that these traditional professions used that term “practice “ to designate their activity in the sense of both APPLICATION skills and knowledge and continually IMPROVING them through experience I was considerably relieved.
It occurs to me that teaching in considered a profession for many causes and same reasons. That law and medicine are considered professions. Why then do we not speak of “the practice of teaching”?
Surely we teachers apply both knowledge of our special fields and the skills of teaching. Surely we benefit from experience by continually refining our skills in the classroom. We reflect upon a segment of instruction that has the future. Similarly, we look back upon a segment of instruction that has not gone well, examine why, and try to determine modifications; we study our errors and try to reframe them into improved performance in the future. These behaviors would seem to be marks of professional educators.
A teacher sometimes may try a new classroom idea or behavior and find that it doesn’t result in immediate success. It’s easy to become discouraged and discharge the innovation. However, we should remember that most new things require repeated trials, each in turn coming closer to the ideal execution. Practice is the handmaiden of successful innovation.
Why should it be any different for teachers? Practice enhances our teaching effectiveness. To neglect it is to risk not becoming all that we can be.
Practice in teaching involves more than just advance trials of classroom exercises and demonstrations. It also involves things such as vocal preparation, rehearsal of movement, and refinement of timing. It involves studying of instructional game plans, including quick mental run-throughs just before class in order to fix those plans in our minds. And it is of advantage to get into character, warm-up our voices, and limber up our bodies before entering the classroom – our own special arena of performance.
Does practice make perfect, as we so often hear? Perhaps. But let us realize that perfection is rarely attained even under the best of circumstances. Not achieving that ultimate end can be disheartening. We might better set our eyes on a more realistic objective: continual improvement. John Dewey seemed to have the right words for it.: not perfection as a final goal, but the ever-enduring process or perfecting, maturing, refining, is the aim of living.
And of teaching, I’m sure he would add.
By: Florilyn C. Malit | Master Teacher I | Pantalan Bago Elementary School | Orani, Bataan
