General Concept of Teaching

1. Definition

Teaching requires that it be considered as one part of the larger processes of education and instruction. English teaching involves many teaching variables that require teachers’ ability to manage them to become good contribution in teaching -learning process’ result.

Teaching also involves not only the conduct of instruction; it reflects one’s social philosophy regarding how children should be treated, what the ultimate values of education are, how the results of learning are to be demonstrated, how teachers and children should interact, and a host of similar issues.

According to Green (1978:52) in his book stated:

The activity of teaching, at least in the sense of instructing, as the effort, to reconstitute the structure of our belief systems so that the number of core belief and belief clusters are minimized, the number of evidential beliefs are maximized, and the quasi-logical order of our beliefs is made to correspond as closely as possible to their objective logical order”.

Furthermore, he adds that teaching is an activity aimed at transferring what is reasonable for men to believe, in the object sense of “reasonable to believe”.

Carr discusses the work of Schwab as quoted by Woods and Jeffrey (1995:3) elaborates further about teaching.

“Teaching is a primary a practical rather than a technical activity, involving a constant flow of problematic situations which require teachers to make judgments about how best to transfer their general educational values…..into classroom practice. Interpreted in the language of the practical, teaching quality would have little to do with the skillful application of technical rules but instead would relate to the capacity to bring abstract ethical values to bear on concrete educational practice – a capacity which teachers display in their knowledge of what, educationally, is required in a particular situation and their willingness to act so that this knowledge can take a practical form.”

Webster’s new Twentieth Century Dictionary (1966:1870) defines teaching as the action of a person who teaches.

From the definitions above, the writer concludes that teaching is the action or the activity of teachers to transfer the general educational values into classroom practice.

Good teaching is the application of common-sense principles. For example, when one is interested in something, he is more likely to want to learn than if he is uninterested in it. Consequently, anything the teacher can do to create interest would be beneficial to learning. There is nothing wrong with the application of common sense to teaching.

Characteristics of Effective Teachers

Good teaching is a difficult work, requiring a lot of physical and mental energy. When examining all the aspects of good teaching, the teachers should remember that students can bring enjoyment to teaching.

The successful teachers are able to create a situation where children like and respect learning for learning’s sake, and this requires that the teachers have this quality, too. The ability to organize is an important qualification. Without it the teachers would be enabled to navigate successfully through a normal school day, which contains numerous transitions from one activity to another.

The effective teachers instruct students to spend more time working directly on academic tasks in texts, workbooks, and instructional materials. They assign and hold students responsible for more homework and tests students more frequently. Hamachek as quoted by Jarolimek and Foster (1976:3) identify several traits that good teachers posses:

1. They view teaching as basically-first and last- a human process;

2. They feel good about themselves and they have positive view of others. Thus, they identify with people rather than withdrawing from them;

3. They are knowledgeable and well informed on a wide range of subjects;

4. They are able to communicate effectively. They understand that the communication process includes more than presentations.

Every teacher hopes that she/he has to precise in these activities in line with Mercer and Mercer’s suggestions as follows:

a. The teacher initially counts only priority;

b. The teacher identifies strategies to make timing and recording behavior easier;

c. The teacher evaluates the recorded data frequently(preferably daily);

d. Probing or criterion-referenced testing is used;

e. The system remains a tool for teaching rather than a cause (Mercer and Mercer, 1989:78)

Good teachers are, in a sense, ‘Total Teachers’. They seem able to be what they have to be meeting the demands of the moment. They seem able to move with the shifting tides of their own needs, the student’s and do what has to be done to handle the situation.

It has been stated that one of the aspects in teaching-learning process is teacher. So, teachers have an important role in it or the teachers’ influence contributes to succeed the teaching-learning process. The following statement supports the opinion above:

“The teachers’ attitude toward children and education determines to a very real degree how children perceive school, themselves, and each other and how much progress the actually make. Teachers can make learning pleasant or punishing; they can create motivation or fear; they can produce excited anticipation or dread. A teacher’s personal style and approach, more than anything else create the climate and mood which will characterize the classroom.” (Smith, Neisworth and Greer; Mercer and Mercer, 1989:50)

It is apparent that in good teaching the importance of providing the students with success cannot be overemphasized. Lack of success can lead to anxiety, frustration, inappropriate behavior, and poor motivation, attitudes, academic progress, and classroom behavior.