Essay on Empowering Youth to Tackle Modern Challenges: Education for the Future

Education forms a significant medium of acquiring essentials knowledge and skills, and hence, it is more than just learning from books and other classroom materials. The contemporary society is fast changing due to technological advancement and the need for creativity and innovation. Therefore, it essential to educate the young generation on how to become intelligent people of the future capable of understanding modern social issues and design appropriate solutions and recommendations. Hence education plays a significant role in shaping a successful society, men, and women. Notably, about 43.74% of the world population is considered educated adults, regretful in 2014, approximately 61 million primary school children have not enrolled translation to 53%, and out of the population, 39% of the world's population was not exposed to formal education (Menon & Nagalakshmi, 2020). The above statistic shows how education is an important aspect since it changes our environment for a better tomorrow. As Adtiya (2006) notes, education helps individuals in achieving and exploring new ideas hence need to for exposure (Menon & Nagalakshmi, 2020). Different methods of education exist, including student-centered and teacher centered. The word teaching approach or method entails the basic principles, management techniques, and pedagogy used in classroom instruction. The choice of teaching approach depends on what is appropriate for the students, the educational principle of the teacher, course or subject, classroom setting, and school mission statement. Two common teaching approaches exist, including student-centered and teacher-centered approach. Even though, some teachers have opted for student-centered education, section, so students have still maintained that teacher-centered education is the most effective teaching strategy

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First, the opponent argues that teacher-centered education lacks recourse and sources. They believe that the method is only effective when the teacher can make the lesson interesting to the learners. However, in the absence of this fact, students' minds may wander, leading to boredom and, in the long run, miss important information. However, proponents believe that students who prefer teacher-centered education learn independently and are capable of making their own decisions since they study on their own. When students work on their own, a lot of cooperation skills are missing, and they cannot talk or express more, also the student will have a lot of questions to be asked, but he would not be able to ask if he works on his own. However, in teacher-centered learning, learners are capable of asking questions and seeking clarifications for areas not understood in the topic (Chall, 2000). They often seek clarification of 'how' ,'what' and 'why' type of questions and the teacher is able to give prompt feedback. The teacher can also further improve the cooperation skills among students by giving them extensive research on a particular topic through organized group discussions. Another supporting idea for teacher-centered education is that the classroom stays silent. When education is teacher-centered, the classroom remains orderly. Students are quiet, and you retain full control of the classroom and its activities. In the classroom, silence is mostly perceived as a contemplative reflection or period of thinking about the lesson (Chall, 2000). Notably, while silent may not fit on a busy day, it assists the student to open and greater learning. Moreover, it offers the opportunity for students to concentrate without distraction and helps them in absorbing the taught concepts. They can process multiple ideas and feelings expressed by their colleagues and also consider each other perspective.

Second, opponents argue that classrooms may be noisy because students are talking and answering questions. Nevertheless, when a classroom operates with teacher-centered instruction, students and instructors share the focus. Instead of listening to the teacher exclusively, students and teachers interact equally. Students can have full focus on the teacher since they would be aware of particular areas of attention. Full focus on the teacher would enable both parties to have a positive interaction, thus creating the classroom environment more helpful in meeting learners' educational, development, and educational needs (Wu & Huang, 2007). Moreover, full focus on the teacher would enable the teacher to provide such support to students, including emotional support, classroom organization, and other instructional assistance. Emotional support will enable the teacher to reduce the level of autonomy is the class and allow time for asking questions of the topic. Moreover, full focus means maximization if classroom time; hence no time is wasted on other activities and focusing on the teacher would enable students to develop cognitive and linguistic skills through improved interaction. Moreover, through teacher-student focus and interaction, the class becomes more interesting. Students are more interested in learning activities when they can interact with one another and participate actively. It would be complex for a teacher to maintain the full attention of the classroom when the instructor is only talking, hence getting to hear different voices and opinions makes the students more interested in the lesson (Wu & Huang, 2007). Moreover, the teacher may slightly deviate from the topic and share real-life situational narratives to break classroom monotony, if any, before proceeding with the lesson. Student-teacher interaction is also much easier method of teaching. As the teacher designs the curriculum, it becomes easy to achieve the desired goals. Notably, participation and classroom interaction are one of the most significant teaching-centered strategies which is not only easy to implement but also straight forward and often successful in achieving learning goals. Enhancing the quality of knowledge and skills among the students and boosting their interest in the course is an essential responsibility of the teacher in the process of teaching (Wu & Huang, 2007). The teacher leaning method has been tipped to accomplish the objective of making learning interesting through enriched content, organization, and techniques of learning. Research has ascertained noticeable changes observed in teacher-centered learning on the quality of knowledge and reasoning of students subjected to this method of teaching. Undeniably, it is evident that differentiated instruction used by the teacher makes learning interesting to the student. The leaners attitude toward learning is boosted

Last but not least, opponents claim that individuals who prefer teacher-centered education are inactive in their studies most of the time. However, teacher-centered education learners are more active by having a lot of tests and assignments. Teachers engage learners through tests and assignments after teaching for some period. Through tests and multiple assignments, students can explain their thinking so that teachers can give the best feedback to the answers. Student tests and assessments keep the learners active and thus forms an important process in learning. Not regarding the level of teaching, whether high school, undergraduate, or graduate level, it is essential for teachers to continuously evaluate the understanding of their teachings to the student (Kain, 2003). Positive performance means active participation of students during class hours. Moreover, after the test and assignment the instructor can further engage the student on areas that still need clarifications. It is the student who would reveal their areas of concern, and the teacher can organize active participation through organized groups and provide feedback where appropriate. Kain, (2003), defines assessments as a "the systematic collection and analysis of information to improve student learning." (Kain, 2003). The definition capture important components that keep student active in the entire course program. Through the test, instructors are in a position to institutionalize efficient and effective teaching and learning techniques that promote learner's activeness in class. Moreover, they can revise and adjust to ineffective teaching methods in their pedagogy. Besides, the student becomes more active through interaction with the teacher. "Students answer each other's questions and give each other feedback, using the instructor as a resource when needed." (Katie Varatta, 2017). The concept of creating an atmosphere of communication between the students and the teacher is essential in promoting learner's active involvement in class. Notably, the lesson where learners have numerous opportunities for communicating with the instructor is important since it builds students' knowledge. Therefore, it is worth noting that teacher-centered education builds active instruction by creating curiosity among the learners leading to instances of asking multiple questions being raised on the content taught; moreover, teachers will also be able to create a mind-framing behavior on the students on how they can effectively raise their concerns for prompt feedback (Katie, 2017). Students are capable of developing ideas, thoughts, which can be essential in the smooth learning process and can lead to a better class performance in the long run. Teacher centered learning promotes student-teacher interaction through designing activities where the teacher can receive feedback from the students if it is necessary to adapt to the methodologies of the coursework. The teacher can organize small study groups during lesson hours and take advantage of student diversity in finding new ideas, and that can be beneficial to the whole class inclusive of the teacher.

Conclusion

In conclusion, teacher-centered instruction is where the teacher is the center of knowledge and in charge of learning. Notably, perceived in its significance context, teachers are the main central figure in the teacher-centered learning approach. Therefore, students are considered an empty vessel who gradually gains insight and momentum as the teacher continues to teach and issue instructions. Notably, the student receives knowledge and information from the teacher through direct lectures, engagement, and interaction to achieve a positive end result that can be evident through positive performance on the test and assignments. The teacher can modify the method or techniques of teaching based on the results of the assessment to accommodate every student's learning needs and make the learning more interesting and interactive. In sum, education makes us explore new potential. As noted by Adtiya (2020), "If you consider a person who spends his entire life in a certain environment and never goes out of that place, he will get lost when he tries to achieve something." (Adtiya, 2020). Besides, Education makes us aware of knowledge, skills, ethics that has been there in the world, which we learn as it helps us to progress and develops further. Despite many oppositions and counter arguments, ideally, I think teacher-centered education is much better because it makes classes interesting and promotes active participation.

References

Chall, J. S. (2000). The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Works in the Classroom? Guilford Publications, 72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 (paperback: ISBN-1-57203-768-4, $18; hardcover: ISBN-1-57203-500-2, $26).

Kain, D. J. (2003). Teacher-centered versus student-centered: Balancing constraint and theory in the composition classroom. Pedagogy, 3(1), 104-108.

Katie V. (2017). Teacher-Centered or Student-Centered Learning Approach to Pro...