PRIOR IMPRESSIONS VS. REALITY IN THE CLASSROOM

Prior Impressions vs. Reality in the Classroom

Prior Impressions vs. Reality in the Classroom

Teaching is not everyone's cup of tea. It requires a certain aura, attitude and a particular frame of mind. Not to mention a teacher must possess necessary and fundamental willingness to teach. Teaching includes many responsibilities, from imparting knowledge to the recipients to grooming the personality of the students. This process includes effective socialization, provision of emotional and spiritual support and providing the foundations for the stabilization of the adult citizen. (Adelman, Donnelly, Dove, Tiffany, Wayne and Zucker, 2008)

The initial impressions of teaching are formed in the student life when one sees and admires the role of the teacher in one's life and this creates a great impact on the mind that teaching is a noble profession that always provides for the student academically, emotionally and spiritually. The childhood interaction with admirable teachers makes one admire the profession not for the actual substance in it but die to the effective teaching of some teachers and this efficiency becomes a source of inspiration for the young student who creates the image of the teaching profession as an exciting job. The practical work and hassles associated with teaching are not considered, as the student does not come in contact with such instances.

There could be two approaches to explain the contrast between the initial expressions of teaching and the reality of the same, one when it turns out to be unfavorable and second when it is in conformity with the initial impressions. (Adelman, Donnelly, Dove, Tiffany, Wayne and Zucker, 2008)

In the first case where a person who has a certain impression of teaching starts his or her career in teaching, enters the classroom. The classroom, which he has always seen from the student desk seems to give a different feeling and sometimes may be uncomfortable. Now considering that he had a positive impression of teaching and was very willing to take up teaching as a profession, this may come as a negative stroke. Further more people who carry the impression of teaching as a simple knowledge delivery task and expect only fun and excitement in the process are most likely to have this notion blown away as soon as they enter the practical and real side of the teaching profession, that demands responsibility, determination, effectiveness, communication skills, creativity, and a certain level of hard work. This might not be some people's idea of a teacher's job.

Another variation to this may be when a person holds great esteem for the teaching profession and expects to attain a respectable status by adopting the teaching profession. But in the modern days this might not be supplied by every region and culture. As there are various educational channels, students do not only depend on the teacher and the increasing say of students in their academic life has held the teacher in a vulnerable position. At some points teachers are at the mercy of the school administration or the choice of ...