The Learning Continuum of a Professional Teacher

Teaching is considered as one of the oldest profession in the human history. Historically the individuals who have guided, led or taught people, usually, have been marked as teacher. Almost all the prophets were known as teachers because they guided and led people. Some of the influential philosophers and thinkers, as Aristotal, Plato, John Dewey, have been considered effective teachers. The teachers in today’s world are expected to be well equipped with the skills, knowledge and attitude required to teach effectively. Teachers use different sources to fulfill the expectations and students needs.

There is not a single answer to the question that ‘How teachers learn to teach?’ Some authors described a continuum of teachers’ learning that is, their learning beginning from their own schooling and continuous throughout their teaching career. This continuum of teachers’ learning includes all the teaching learning opportunities whether formal or informal, during their time in schools, colleges and throughout their career. In the following paragraphs these different opportunities of teachers’ learning would be discussed.

Some people come to the teaching profession just because they were inspired by their teachers. It is observed that after their family members, students come in-contact with their teachers more often and get inspired from them. This leads to the teacher’s development as he/she adopts the way those inspired teachers used. The teaching profession is a challenging one and demands a constant change, hence inspiring by some and adopting their ways might not be enough for better teaching.

Observing other teachers during their student life provides an informal platform for future teachers to learn. Observing their teachers and learning is different from inspiration. In inspiration, a student is inspired by one teacher and acquires some teaching skills from that particular teacher but in observation the student may observe many teachers and adopt some selected strategies from many of them. New teachers, especially in our country often are left with the only option of using their learning through observing others because most of them enter into the professional without any prior understanding of the profession. Sometimes this practice is induced in the children from their childhood. I remember when I was in my primary years, I used to teach my toys the way my teachers taught me. However relying only on observations have negative impacts as it gives a way for the traditional teaching styles to pass on from generation to generation and sometimes these teaching styles contradict with the contemporary teaching styles. Hence to cope up with the changing world one needs more than relaying on the teaching methods adopted from their teachers.

While new teachers spend their first year in the profession using their learning from observation, they also learn from on-the-job experiences. By the time these new teachers enter into their second or third year of teaching, they gain plenty of experience to learn from. It is often said that experience is the best teacher. But experience for the sake of experience is ineffective for learning However for making effective use of the experiences, one needs to be a reflective thinker. Reflection is a thinking process where one critically examines his/her actions and improves it. Hence experience and reflection go hand-in-hand if one wishes to learn from work experiences. Inspiration, observation and experience provides quite a good bunch of how to manage the teaching job, but are only limited in terms of new initiatives. How can innovation or change be brought in teaching learning still needs to be answered.

For many teachers all the mentioned platform of learning might not be enough for the changing demands of education, hence they like to attend short professional development courses. Sometimes schools also provide in-service training activities in order to bring a change in the school. In such in-service programmes, a one-day or one-week or summer courses are conducted outside the classroom. Such sessions are effective in improving the teachers’ knowledge about teaching and learning, however improvement in their teaching skills, for most of the time depends upon their willingness to try out the new strategies learnt from the session into their real classroom. Since the world is changing very rapidly which also affects the teaching and learning conditions at a global level, hence these session may not seem to be sufficient in coping up with the rapidly changing world.

Formally Professional education such as B.Ed and M.Ed is generally considered as important and effective in a teacher’s entire career because these degrees are authentic in terms of its length and intensiveness of course. Effective professional education inculcates the thirst for knowledge and teachers become enthusiastic in obtaining the knowledge, skills and attitude they require for their professional demand. In obtaining any degree, there are two phases considered important; one is the process and the other is the product. The process of learning is as important as the product. If the process of obtaining a professional degree is given due consideration, the quality product can be achieved. But unfortunately in our country except few, many teachers focus the later only as these degrees are used for promotion or increment and no effective change takes place. It has been found that there is little impact of the teachers professional qualifications on the students’ learning in developing countries due to ineffective teacher development programmes (UNESCO).

Obtaining a professional degree does not make a teacher prefect. As the pace of change increases, so does the demand for good teaching. Hence an on going professional development is considered as important to keep oneself updated. A good professional education inculcates the skills and attitude to search for knowledge in their past and present times to be prepared for the future. Such searching can be in the form of reading latest research papers, discussing, reflecting on their experiences and implementing new ideas in the classroom or their work place.


In conclusion teachers learn to teach using different sources and mediums as mentioned above as not the only medium but there are other factors such as the school culture, the staffroom interaction, the management style and their own family background do effect their learning. It is needed that we identify the sources, outline our professional goal and keep going as there is no limit to learning.