By Dr Pavan Soni
The role of a teacher has evolved over the eons. In the ages of Buddha, Confucious and Socrates, the teacher was a source of reflection not so much as an apostle of truth. Through the Middle Ages, where art gave way to science and curiosity got the better of beliefs, the teacher got a firmer grip on the matters of matter and endowed with discovering and knowing the truth. Universities came up around such people, which in turn generated scores of teachers in the wake of scientific inquiry and man’s celestial exploits. The discovery within gave the way to the search without and teachers became the gatekeepers and the torchbearers alike. The golden age of the profession coincided with large scale industrialization of education, all in service of economic growth. And then came the Internet.
The advent of Internet is the first time a teacher’s firm clasp on knowledge, as generated and disbursed, got threatened. No more is she the only beacon of truth in the class. A student has the world open before her, where the ward can co-create knowledge, interpret in her own ways, learn at her own pace, and throw up surprises at the now hapless teacher in the class. Several teachers invoked the Luddite mode, reprimanding usage of computers, free access to the Internet and proliferation of devices, just to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale and pace of technological proliferation.
Internet, the great reset point, rocked the teaching profession like no other, witnessing the easing out of the bystanders and induction of the savvy types, who embraced this exciting tool and unleashed its magic onto the ever-restless students. Resultingly, schools got onto the arms race of embracing smart classrooms, teaching teachers new tricks and hoping to remain relevant in a world of democratized learning. Some of the early excitement gave way to the likes of MIT OpenCourseWare, Coursera, edX, Udacity, Khan Academy, and India’s very own NPTEL (Swayam). Who’s the teacher here? The lines have blurred between professions and disciplines, and the role of a teacher has become both critical and threatened. The AI is current reset point, and is promising a bigger, more fundamental disruption than the one precipitated by the Internet. For one, the Internet had a largely job-creating impact and didn’t so much threaten the very intellect that we pride ourselves with.
In the wake of extra-human intelligence, what should a teacher be—a generalist or a specialist? It all started with being a generalist, much like a philosopher, and then with advancements in science and proliferation of disciplines, specialization gained currency to an extent that a child can be at loss deciding on what micro-specialization to pursue at high school. Suddenly a teacher finds herself so specialised that either she is very useful or completely useless. In a class where students are challenged for attention and spoilt for choices, isn’t being a generalist a better bet? A more useful wedge is to be a specialist and a generalist, better still a T-shaped Teacher. The stem of the T denotes domain expertise, your depth of understanding that offers you legitimacy and voice in the room. The bar of the T represents empathy, your breadth of perspectives that offers you relatability and ears in the room. Let’s look at how a T shaped teacher plays out in the class.The breadth of perspective offers a broader catchment area to pique the interest of the students. Imagine that a teacher of data science starts with a brief discourse on politics, sports, entertainment, or even dating before establishing the role data plays in each realm. She got the ears. The initial 15- 20 minutes of heavy lifting, well outside her kill-zone (read expertise) serves as a signal to the class that she understands you and that now it’s your turn. Once she has laid the super-highway and got everyone wired, the transmission becomes smooth. She can then get the class deeper into her domain (the stem of the T) and deliver. How did she get her rich perspectives? By reading widely, listening intently, observing purposefully and with her willingness to ‘waste time’ indulging in seemingly irrelevant pursuits. As the behavioral psychologist Amos Tversky notes: ‘You waste years by not being able to waste hours.’
How much the school or the university be willing to help the teacher hone a broad perspective? Wouldn’t they selfishly want the teacher to narrowly deliver on specific domains, without much of a distraction? That’s the way it should be, economically speaking. Which leaves the teacher firmly in charge of her range. The ask is to not claim expertise in a couple of domains, but rather to avoid ignorance. As AI is threatening the very profession, a wise teacher be generally intelligent than sharply ignorant, for the student can see a human in her and for the rest there is AI.
As a closing remark, teachers remain core to shaping our collective future, except that there’s a calibration in order. A technology resilient and technology savvy teacher is a T-shaped person – honing depth in select domains, coupled with a breadth of perspective that does make for an interesting conversation. Who knows your breadth can usher somebody’s depth.
Dr Pavan Soni is the bestselling author of the books, Design Your Thinking and Design Your Career.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETEDUCATION does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETEDUCATION will not be responsible for any damage caused to any person or organisation directly or indirectly.
