THE NATURE OF TEACHING

Teaching is one of the most demanding of all professions. It exacts a tremendous demand of the
teachers teaching skills and personal qualities before they can satisfactorily perform the multiple roles
and manifold responsibilities it entails. A more important role that teaching evokes is the unwavering
commitment and loyalty to the profession. Their adherence to the ethical and moral standards is elicited
through a code. Ultimately, an impeccable integrity, honesty, and sincerity it brings forth make them
worthy of emulation by the students, co-workers, and other professionals.
On the other hand, a teacher, as a person and as a professional is depicted as a well-spring of
knowledge and skill and a model of values, thus deserving to be called professional. Competent,
compassionate, and caring, her attitudes are reciprocated with love, respect, and emulation. Such is a
rewarding life of a teacher.
Teaching is a challenging profession as it requires long hours of work and preparation. Moreover,
it necessitates skill in planning and skill in classroom. In the earlier times, teaching is universally
acknowledged as a respected and highly esteemed career. Its lifelong mission consists of a persistent
pursuit of knowledge, development of skills and proficiency in work dimensions and inculcation of values
and attitudes of all practitioners. It is a profession committed to serve children, adults, community and
nation.
Teaching as a time-honored career, is viewed as a dynamic activity aimed at awakening and
nurturing the childrens spirit of inquiry, at the same time catering to their learning abilities, interests, and
aspirations. Regarded as an art, teaching is a conglomeration of a teachers talent and skill in reaching out
their hearts and minds.
Teaching is described by an educator as a moral activity. Whether conscious of it or not, a teacher
teaches values both implicitly and explicitly by the very way he relates to his students. He teaches respect
by being respectful, reasonableness by being reasonable and truthfulness by being truthful. Anyone who
embarks on a teaching career is a paragon of virtues, a staying quality in such a magnanimous calling.

Teaching can be regarded in three ways- profession, mission, and vocation.

1. TEACHING AS A PROFESSION

Teaching is universally accepted as a profession. It is a noble profession. The term profession

commonly refers to ones occupation, job or specialty. It has defined goals and from its performance,
one derives self-fulfillment. Educators and others in field of education view profession as ones
vocation, employment, or field of lifelong endeavor.

Teaching is considered a profession if its choice is motivated by any or all of the following:

1. You must be willing to go through a period of long preparation.

2. You must be willing to go through continuing education.
3. You must strive for excellence (not pwede na mentality)
4. Involves direction borne by proper planning.
5. Display you must love, care, and compassion for children.
6. You must commit yourself to moral, ethical, and religious values.
7. You must dedicate yourself to service.

2. TEACHING AS MISSION
The word mission is derived from the Latin word Misio which means to send.
According to Websters dictionary- a task assigned
If you consider teaching as a mission, then:
a. It is a task entrusted to you in this world.
b. It is your assigned task thus; you have to prepare for it.
c. It calls for a continuing professional education. (Once a teacher, forever a student.)

3. TEACHING AS VOCATION
The word vocation comes from the Latin word Vocare which means to call thus
vocation is a calling. (Many are called but few are chosen)
If you consider teaching as vocation, it means:
 a. You said YES to your call to teach.
b. You commit yourself to the total transformation of the learner.
c. You consider teaching as a lifetime commitment. (This aims through the years towards
quality teaching.)

TEACHING CONCEPTS

Garcia quotes Ronal Hyman (1970) - a teacher must know what teaching is because his concept of
teaching guides his behavior and his own interpretation of teaching becomes essential to his performance
as a teacher. (Example: a father to his teenage son)

1. Teaching is a complex human activity (Highet 1954)

It is so because teaching involves a wide range of human interactions, organizational
arrangements, and materials or resources covering the teaching-learning process.
It is involving more of the learner than the teacher- from monopolist to mediator function.
a. Human Interactions- teaching is considered a system of actions varied in form of content but
directed toward learning. It is in the performance of these actions and in the interactions if the
teacher with his students that learning take place.
b. Organizational arrangement- teaching is an activity with four phases:
Curriculum planning phase- helping to formulate the goals of education, selecting content,
and stating objectives.
Instructing phase- creating intentions regarding instructional strategies and tactics,
interacting and acting on situational and feedback about instruction.
Manipulating Models- selecting or creating measurement devices, measuring learning,
organizing, and analyzing measurement data.
Evaluating Phase- evaluating the appropriateness of objectives of instruction and validity
and reliability of devices used to measure learning.
c. Material/Resources- the process of teaching includes:
The selection and development of instructional units
Planning individual lessons
Organizing materials for instructional purposes
Designing methods to be used
Classroom management
Evaluation of pupils achievements
Reporting of pupils grades

2. Teaching is considered an art. It signifies the way a teacher expresses his emotions and
communicates his feelings through his teaching chores. In this light, teaching is a conglomeration of
ones talents, skills, and expertise in reaching out and enriching childrens lives. It aims to achieve an
enjoyable and fruitful learning depending on teachers attributes, crafts, and finesse in developing their
knowledge, attitudes, and values. A skillful teacher displays a caring, compassionate, and creative
approach that makes teaching a masterful act of touching peoples hearts and minds. It is an art which
is more suited to satisfy the heart. It makes teaching more adaptive and flexible to meet highly varied
and complex needs of learners. It views a teacher as a craftsman.

3. Teaching as a Science- Teaching is likewise a science. While science aims at the discovery of the
nature and orderliness of our world around, teaching as a science seeks the application of a scientific
attitude and methodology in deciding about strategies to employ, instructional materials to use, and
other best practices to adopt. Guided by scientific procedure, teaching is regarded as a practical and
consistent way of modeling how a virtuous, trustworthy, and humble scientist works in raising the
ethical standards of the profession. Teaching is a science that is primarily directed to inform the head. It
emphasizes the cognitive and psychomotor aspects. It makes teaching more skillfully executed and it
views the teacher as an academician.

4. Teaching as a system of actions and interactions between teacher and his students. - It requires an
understanding of the role of more mature, experience members of society in stimulating, directing,
managing, and guiding the immature and inexperienced members in their adjustments to life. With
young and immature learners as input into the system, the processing take place in the school setting
 with the teacher playing a major role in instructing the inexperienced so that they can develop into
upright and useful members of society and well- adjusted citizens with wholesome personalities
imbued with:

a. Love of country
b. Duties of citizens
c. Moral character
d. Personal discipline
e. Scientific, technological, and vocational efficiency.

5. Teaching is one of the most exalted forms of social service

Gregorio (1976) states that the classroom is a society made up of teachers and learners working
together for the purpose of human growth and betterment. The opportunities of the teachers and
learners for good evil are boundless. For this reason, society has insisted that teachers should be
known for their high character, honesty, integrity, and skill.
Teaching is guided by the spirit of service. Service maybe defined as the performance of a task
for the benefit of others given voluntarily, by request, or by fulfilling a social need. People look
at it as a beginning and end of the teaching profession.

THE TRIAD OF TEACHING (SALANDANAN, 2005)

1. The Teacher
The critical thread that ties the learner to the lifelong search for knowledge.
Lays the groundwork by initially establishing a conducive learning environment, selects
appropriate subject matter, and matches it with a designed plan in order to achieve a
desired goal.
Should possess teaching skills and infused with a deep sense of commitment to invest
timeless effort in fostering a continued sharpening and maturing of childrens minds.
Should determine the different roles of a teacher.
2. The student/learner
The second influential factor in the learning arena.
They are the subject of the schooling process for without them, educational system will not
exist.
They may be called pupils- elementary- students- above elementary.
Their interests, needs, and abilities deserve prime consideration if teaching is to occur
smoothly and creatively.
Possesses individual differences that make teaching challenging, exciting, and in the end,
satisfying and rewarding endeavor to stay in.
3. The content
In this factor, teaching methodology is an important concern.
Interrelating content with strategies and student characteristics is the needed ingredient to
achieve teaching effectiveness.

THE EIGHT Ms OF TEACHING ( As conceptualized by Palma in 1992)

1. Milieu- The learning environment. Milieu is the physical environment, the place of work, the
classroom, the laboratory, workshop, or even the school campus where learning activities can be
done. Learning starts from reacting to stimuli in the environment, for that matter, the environment
assumes an important role in the teaching and learning process.
2. Matter- this refers to the content. It embraces everything that it has to be covered and therefore
learned.
3. Method- these are the purposeful, planned activities and tasks that are undertaken by the teacher
and the students in the classroom to bring about the intended instructional objectives. An effective
teacher employs a variety of teaching strategies that will set the mood for class activities. The
teacher must not limit his strategies to chalk talk or lectures.
 4. Materials- these are the resources, both human and physical object, made available for use by
teachers and learners.
5. Media- it is a system of communication in teaching-learning process aimed to promoting common
understanding in instruction and setting and maintaining a healthy climate in the classroom
conducive to learning.
6. Motivation- is the cardinal in learning. A learner will learn only those things he wants to learn. It
is therefore the responsibility of the teacher to arouse the learners interests.
7. Mastery- The be-all and end. Mastery means habitual or automatic changes in behavior brought
about by the learners having internalized what they have acquired through repetition and
application.
8. Measurement- getting evidence of learning. It is the final measure of how much a learner has
acquired and mastered as revealed by an instrument test score.

COMPONENTS OF TEACHING (Acero, 2000)

1. The Teacher-
One of the elements in the teaching-learning process.
One who teaches good manner and behaviors.
A second parent who thinks good for the learners future.
A person who brightens the future and a candle that lights the path of others.
In education, a teacher is a person who educates others. A teacher who educates an individual
student may also be described as a personal tutor. The role of a teacher is often formal and on-
going carried out by way of occupation or profession at a school or place for formal education.
Here are some important roles of teachers in the Teaching-Learning Process:

a. Manager- the teacher is responsible for effective management of various activities directly
related to the teaching-learning process. The teachers role is to provide instruction to the
students on tasks, ask appropriate questions and emphasizes comprehension, monitoring,
and learning skills.
b. Motivator- sets the mood of learning by way of stimulating the interests of learners and
gets them more involved in class activities.
c. Leader- as a leader, teachers direct, supervise, regulates, control, and support class
activities to realize optimum results. Leadership skills of teachers would be an agent of
change and will enliven the interest and energies of the learners to make learning
experiences meaningful.
d. Model- teacher demonstrates good traits of a person worthy to be emulated by pupils.
They maintain dignity and self-respect when dealing with students.
e. Surrogate-Parents- while in school, learners are under the supervision of teachers who act
as second parents. They act as good and responsible parents who look into the welfare of
these learners.
f. Social catalyst- teachers as agent of change should make things easy for the process of
change. The teachers assists the learners in the process of good love, how to see, feel, think
etc.
g. Facilitator/Instructor- most important role is to facilitate learning among learners. All
other tasks a teacher does are parts of his sworn duties and responsibilities.
h. Guidance Counselor- every teacher should act as a guidance counselor. Although there is
an existing guidance counselor for schools or institutions, the teacher is in constant contact
with learners during school days and so he can integrate some guidance pointers to
learners.

TYPES OF TEACHERS:

1. Teachers by Choice
2. Teachers by Force
3. Teachers by Chance
4. Teachers by Accident
RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TEACHER

1. Explains clearly the objectives of learning and the objectives of the program.
2. Ensures that the learners learn quickly by giving enough activity, experience, and practice.
3. Be familiar with every learning method for him to select most suitable one to make learning easier.
4. Ensure that every learner completely understands the lesson.
5. Show an example of desirable attitude towards work to the learners.
6. Assess and monitor students progress.
7. Help learners develop effective and efficient study habits.
8. Applies discipline, teaching rules, and other classroom management routines.
9. Equipped with enthusiasm and sincerity.
10. Assist learners individually considering their individualities.
11. Performs administrative activities (instruction)
12. Maintains technical and instructional proficiency.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A TEACHER

Must be able to communicate

Must know the Know-How of teaching
Must have the PKAS (personality, knowledge, attitude, skill)
Must observe maturity continuum DII (dependent, interdependent, independent) and adopt
it in a particular situation.
Must be effective (doing the right thing) and efficient (doing things right)
Must take initiative and responsibility to make things happen.
Must remember EPL (Ethos- credibility, Pathos- emphatic side of individual, Logos-
reasoning) in presenting/delivering lecture.
Must have KISSS- knowledge, Integrity, skills, self-confidence, and sensitivity.
Must be proactive (smart, value-driven, resourceful)
Must be a magician (uses magical words and touch)

QUALITIES OF A TEACHER

A. As a Person

1. Innate Qualities (inherent or inborn)

Aptitude- a strong inclination for some tasks together with corresponding skills.
Mental ability- ranging from average to superior is a positive base to start. A mental
ability that is above average and higher equips a teacher to carry on her multiple tasks.
2. Personal Qualities (Physical characteristics and personality)
Good health condition
Personal grooming
Friendly and kindhearted
Active and lively throughout the day
Humble in speech and action
Understanding and approachable
Smart and full of humor
Time-conscious, punctual, regular in attendance
Simple, honest, and sincere
Respectable and respectful
3. Social and emotional qualities
Rich in interpersonal skills
With winsome personality
Attuned to moral and ethical norms of the profession (Dignified)
A mature individual
 Not prone to anger and irrational arguments (self-control)
Practices good examples
Imbued with spirit of professionalism and loyalty to the profession
B. As a Professional
Needs to pass the Licensure Examination for teachers
Equipped with teaching competence
a. Knowledge of the subject matter and methodologies
b. Teaching skills (delivery, art of questioning etc)
Equipped with proper values and attitude
a. Compassion and concern
b. Critical-mindedness
c. Creativity
d. Patience and tolerance
e. Perseverance and persistence
f. Objectivity
g. Commitment
h. Loyalty
i. Humility
j. Self-esteem