1. Facilitator

The teacher role as a facilitator is integral in every teaching act and practice inside and outside the classroom (the case of online and blended learning). Because learning is a complex cognitive process, it requires an individual’s attention, motivation, effort, and resilience against different bumps.

So, the primary role of any teacher is to run the lessons smoothly and help students learn, instead of making things so hard and frustrating for them.

Facilitating is also about how to use the teacher’s control and intervention to help students build on their experience and develop confidence.

During practice, teacher interventions can include giving students information, checking for their understanding (what do you mean by…?), showing approval (yes, keep going!), posing closed questions to guide students (what causes…?), paraphrasing to seek further explanation or for the purpose of correction, asking open questions to probe for or require exploration (why do you think.. ?), etc.

As a facilitator, the teacher should know when and how to intervene and not during students’ practice.

For instance, the degree of teacher intervention in experiential learning is less than that in guided practice activities. With experiential learning, students should be allowed to build their theory from practice, learn from trial and error, and share their experiences.

So, facilitating can have different degrees of interventions depending on the teacher’s goal or intended learning outcome.

Still, it is pertinent to know that facilitating while exerting less or no control can help students get more motivated in learning as Martin Ford (1992) said:” Facilitations, not control, should be the guiding idea in attempts to motivate humans” (p.202).

Besides clarifying instruction and providing guidance and feedback for students to progress, another function of the facilitator is to create a meaningful, engaging, and memorable learning experience.

We all want our students to be the best, participate and engage fully in class. We want them to develop the necessary knowledge and skills we consider relevant.

But, we cannot deny that we also want that learning experience to stick in the memory of every student, to have a long-lasting impact.

So, the teacher’s role as a facilitator involves as well creating and maintaining a constructive atmosphere that is safe, healthy, and inclusive. To learn more check out How to Create a Positive Learning Environment?

2. Activator

Learning is an active process. People learn through a process of building mental representatives of the concepts and ideas they are exposed to. For long-term retention, understanding, and transfer, it is necessary to apply the material in different contexts, analyze it, and get more productive.

In fact, research has shown that learning environments are more effective when they elicit effortful, cognitive processing from learners and guide them in actively reconstructing meaningful relationships rather than encouraging passive recording and storage of information (Wittrock, 1992).

Therefore, instead of focusing always on acquiring information for regurgitation, the teacher should seek ways to get students involved in their own learning and to think more about meaning, application, and analysis.

Her role is to carefully plan direct instruction to help students think hard and relate their new learning to existing ideas to make progress.

The teacher’s intervention is necessary in this case.

As an activator, she scaffolds tasks: providing the necessary support for students as they work towards a learning goal. That support is withdrawn over time and when appropriate to allow them to develop independence.

The teacher role as an activator also involves differentiating instruction to cater for the different learning needs and supporting students continuously with feedback about their progress and performance.

3. Monitor

Monitoring is the process of assessing the progress of individuals and providing an indication of what to re-teach or practise further. So, the teacher role as a monitor is to reach out to students and get to know how they are getting on with learning her subject.

Research findings reveal a strong connection between teacher monitoring and students’ learning progress. Indeed, monitoring can help you keep track of students’ learning to make relevant instructional decisions and give them feedback about their learning progress.

Monitoring students’ learning has different functions:

• Checking for students’ understanding of the material

There are various ways to check for students’ understanding, such as addressing questions and using quizzes (learning probes). Yet, it is important to observe who is answering and get all students involved in such a process.

• Moving in the classroom during seatwork

Monitoring also involves talking individually to students about their work, needs, and interests. So, never wait for them to ask for help but initiate more interactions. While talking to students, note down the names of those who need extra assistance and the areas that need more explanation and practice.

• Monitoring assignments

Assignments like homework and projects require teacher correction, recording of completion, and grades. So, monitoring is necessary to check out all these tasks.

Also, you should monitor students when you focus more on the learning process or how they are going through a task.

In the case of project-based learning, students need the teacher’s scaffolding and encouragement throughout the process. So, monitoring them is necessary to decide the kind of scaffolding and guidance for each student.

For effective monitoring, those activities should be carried out frequently and regularly. Besides, expectations and guidelines for assignments or class tests are to be set from the start so that students are held accountable for their work.

After using monitoring activities and collecting data about students’ performance or learning progress, it is necessary to review such data to bring up the necessary change in instruction.

In addition, feedback should be communicated to students about how they are doing or what they need to do to close the achievement gap.

4. Motivator

Students’ motivation is the driving engine for their learning progress. It pushes them to make efforts, overcome their learning difficulties, and reach their achievement goals.

We need, therefore, to be a source of motivation for our students. Yet, motivating students is not just uttering words of encouragement, praising, being friendly with students, and being available for help. It is an educational goal that requires deliberate decisions and plans.

As a motivator, the teacher’s role is to make learning more interesting, fun, and engaging. So, selecting materials that appeal to them, being flexible over time, and differentiating instruction when necessary are required along with using humour in class.

Besides, motivation stems from the desire to make personal choices, share ideas, and feel a sense of belonging to a community.

Therefore, to motivate your students, give them some responsibility. Allow them to set learning goals, and reflect on and monitor their learning progress. Supply them with the necessary resources and support to have some control over their learning.

As a motivator, you also need to inspire a love of lifelong learning among students by sparking their curiosity, challenging their creative thinking, and drawing out the best in them. They will get more intrinsically motivated.

5. Learner

Teaching requires more learning than any other job (I believe in that!).

Why?

Because, as teachers, we meet students with different learning needs, interests, attitudes, etc. Still, every year we come across new challenges: maybe new grade levels to teach, new struggling/difficult types of students to teach, or school/university requirements.

So, there is always the need to learn to do well.

Yet, this does not mean a deficiency in teaching knowledge and skills. Our world is changing we should refine these further.

The teacher’s role as a learner is a must to thrive and not just survive in teaching.

Your learning to grow starts in the classroom, from your daily classroom observations and regular reflection and questioning. You cannot turn a blind eye to what is going around you if you want to streamline and get more effective.

Avoid making assumptions, and rushing to do everything, and start gathering data about how your students are learning. This learning will help you make effective instructional decisions.

As a learner, you should be eager to know about the latest trends in education, read, connect with educators, attend conferences, and learn about what works best for students.

Before Covid-19, we barely had an idea about online teaching. With the abrupt switchover to virtual environments, we wished that we had prepared to handle this teaching.

We should learn on the go and stop complaining that there is never enough time. As A.J. Juliani said, we should focus on the time we have. Not how much we have.

So, learning must be part of every teacher’s life. Do not expect your school/university or anyone else to do it for you. Learn on your own. You know well what you want and need to grow in your career.

These are the five essential roles of teachers in 21st-century education. Be the facilitator to pave the way for students learning, the activator to empower their thinking, the monitor to boost their learning progress, the motivator to stimulate interest and engagement, and be always the learner to thrive and enjoy every day in teaching. You CAN do all these roles.

References

Wittrock, M. (1992). Generative learning processes of the brain. Educational Psychologist, 27, 531-541. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15326985ep2704_8

Martin E. Ford. (1992). Motivating Humans: Goals, Emotions, and Personal Agency Beliefs. USA: Sage Publication.