Before Being a Teacher and After Becoming a Teacher

¶ … Teacher and After Becoming a Teacher Teachers come across as experts who have mastered their skills and always deliver quality as though it was part of them. They seem to experience no problem as they effortlessly deliver their content. This was my view as I sat in class after watching my teachers, and thus, choosing this career with its simple structure, which was easy for me. This was, especially so, because I wanted to impact lives and be an agent of change by enabling others to exploit their potential.

Teachers are a great source of change and they greatly impact lives and values (Sieben, 2013). Grant and Zeichner (1984), quoting John Dewey (1933), stated that a teacher can either be reflective or unreflective. Reflective action is more conscious. It requires that the teacher puts their teaching in the contemporary context. It involves including the relevant information from the social and political context. It demands an open mind, responsible action when it comes to choices made as well as a teacher giving themselves wholeheartedly to the profession (Grant and Zeichner, 1984).

They go on to explain that a reflective teacher must be ready to take into account the various options that are available rather than going for the norm or the easiest cause of action. Moral choices must be made, especially when one cause of action must be chosen over another. The unreflective teacher follows routine and what has been established by others. he/she will look for the readily available option to achieve their goals without much input from themselves.

A teacher must choose the type of teacher that they want to be (Grant and Zeichner, 1984). While in the field, this decision confronted me as I had expected to follow the structure and well tested traditions. However, I was called upon to be reflective because of the various situations that I faced. An example of this was in the choice of the subject I taught, as I realized that it was a moral choice.

Teaching one subject over another had consequences and placed a responsibility on me, even though the subject was part of a syllabus, and thus, structured. Constructive pedagogy as brought out by Brooks and Brooks (1999), can be difficult considering that it involves directing students to find out things for themselves, instead of following what is accepted. This is an approach that has faced a lot of opposition from teachers.

They give various reasons for this, such as fear of losing control of the classroom, unwillingness to adopt something new late in their careers, existence of tried and tested approaches, and impact on the student's learning process. Some teachers have grown accustomed to control and run a strict routine where the student must adhere to set rules, and receive teacher approval before attempting anything (Brooks and Brooks, 1999).

I experienced a challenge in constructive pedagogy, especially concerning being directed in my approach by the responses from students, and altering my way of teaching and the content I provided to them. Coming from a background of teacher control, I needed to adjust myself to a setting where the lesson was guided by the students' response. This impacted on my confidence when I considered that through this type of teaching, an unknown subject could be introduced and I would be at a loss trying to explain it.

Several writers have written on the area of problem solving. Problem solving ability in teachers has been seen as a great confidence booster (Owens, 2001). This confidence leads to a better rapport with students as noted by Baltas (2002). According to Ozmentes and Bilen (2005), teachers with confidence maintain a good attitude, have more expertise and demonstrate more maturity in their profession. The confidence that teachers draw from their problem solving skills can be linked to the fact that their students perform better (Otacioglu, 2008).

These problem solving skills are defined by Krug et.al, (n. d.), as the most efficient method of overcoming challenges so as to help achieve learning objectives. They link this ability to solve problems to subjective confidence and this grows from experience in the classroom. Kahl and Fine (1976) say that a confident teacher is more likely to ask others for advice as they do not view this as a demonstration of incompetence.

This ability to solve problems and the consequent development of confidence begins when a student teacher works under the instruction and direction of a mentor. From my experience, having a mentor was very helpful to my teaching experience. I tackled the challenge of incorporating constructive pedagogy through the help that I received. This mentorship not only made my experience less daunting, but also helped me build confidence with the students. My fears of student-driven lessons lessened and I increasingly approached my lessons with confidence.

Significant attention in the recent past has been given to the performance, disposition and participation of women and girls in mathematics (Wiest, 2009). In spite of this, males have always performed better in the mathematics as reflected in standardized tests. McCoy (2001) proposes a reason for this, stating that not being "aware of female mathematicians and scientists, they may internalize a belief that mathematics is not appropriate for women." When I chose the teaching profession, my desire was to be an agent of change.

In teaching, I was faced with the notion that I was in a position to alter the attitudes of students to subjects, and thus, make a difference. I now view the teaching profession as more meaningful, as I strived to excel at it, especially considering my influence on student's responses. It has helped me to acknowledge that I am viewed as a role model by my students. References Baltas, A. (2002). Self-confidence.