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Danyal Hakakzargar, Low Entropy Volunteer Writer

 

Despite its challenges, teaching promotes self-development by providing the opportunity to develop critical thinking, negotiation, leadership, and conflict-resolution skills.

• Critical Thinking

Teaching is a great way to develop several abilities, including critical thinking. Before making a decision, people can critically evaluate and analyze situations, offer solutions and consider the ramifications of those solutions. Although they can range in complexity, most scenarios involving students demand substantial thinking and consideration because they are also learning from their teachers and mentors as examples in addition to the course material. For instance, students at all academic levels frequently request last-minute alterations and deadline extensions, which could interfere with the meticulous planning and schedule. Teachers must evaluate the time remaining before and after prospective modifications and their impact on other parts of the course to prevent mismanagement.

• Effective Decision-Making

People in senior roles often have more difficulty making decisions in complex situations since those decisions frequently have a lasting impact on many or all of the members. Before making an informed decision, it is essential to use critical thinking and weigh available options. Nonetheless, certain decisions necessitate careful consideration, review, and approval from faculty members to guarantee compliance with institutional standards. For instance, during the pandemic, institutions offered teachers significant autonomy over how the curriculum was implemented; many of these professors eliminated certain concepts or switched them to an online learning format. While these modifications were overseen by the faculty, several courses including seminars, exams, or presentations had to be significantly changed as a result of the pandemic, even having some sections of the course removed. 

• Negotiation

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching is grading, where many students are either dissatisfied with the grading or are not aware of the grading criteria. While some teachers remain confident and can defend their grading, many fail to offer sufficient justification for awarding students a low grade. Teachers must maintain consistency in grading, and employ factual and logical mark distribution even though grading can frequently be a major challenge. Although negotiating and changing the criterium might seem effortless and basic, doing so can be just as difficult as developing the exam questions or grading criteria in the first place. Thus, negotiation must include constructive criticism, justification for the grade, and suggestions for how students can develop and learn.

• Leadership and Planning

Teachers must show effective leadership by setting exemplary standards and behaviour, while some teachers falsely behave more like bosses than leaders due to the power and authority bestowed upon them. This fear-inducing behaviour deprives students of the excitement and educational opportunities that learning should be providing. Although certain courses may contain more difficult concepts, professors should act as mentors and provide material in a way that is both reviewable and comprehensible, giving students the chance to seek assistance. Teachers should also use planning as a technique to develop a realistic schedule sufficient for finishing each task and covering any measurable contingencies for change, due to the rushed nature of post-secondary semester length. 

• Conflict-Resolution

Another difficulty that teachers frequently encounter is conflict resolution. This conflict may involve staff, students, or other members of the institution. Teachers must employ conflict resolution strategies to discover a workable settlement that is advantageous to all parties, rather than trying to convince the parties of who is right and who is wrong. Effective strategies include identifying the challenge, the current obstacles, and the barriers that lie beyond the conflict, as well as developing a common goal and exploring how it might be achieved. For instance, teachers frequently deal with instances where group members refuse to continue working together because they are dissatisfied with one another’s work. Teachers must hear the perspectives of both or all sides and explain the project’s or group’s common goal before coming up with an agreement, with the resolution being the primary goal.

• Collaboration and Social Competence

Collaboration and social competence are other vital skills necessary for teachers to understand and empathize with students while maintaining confidence and respect in their position. Teachers must create a healthy learning space with respect and dignity, where all students are welcomed and feel comfortable reaching out to teachers or assistants. This collaborative environment helps teachers identify each student’s strengths and weaknesses and accordingly help them improve, encouraging participation in office hours or exam preps, which are also helpful in their future careers.

 

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Danyal is a fourth-year criminology and business student at Simon Fraser University with a keen approach to business lawyering, authoring articles about various topics including self-development, education and conflicts.