Teachers have been enjoined to make their work have an impact on their students.
The Provost Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED) Noforija, Epe Lagos, Prof Olu Akeusola, gave the advice at this year’s National Conference of School of Education, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Otto/Ijanikin, Lagos, where he gave the keynote address.
Speaking on the theme, Competencies and strategies of teaching in the 21st century learners, he said: “Any teaching exercise that does not lead to learning is a wasteful exercise”.
He argued that the 21st century development requires sound education grounded in virtues such as commitment, passion, competence, and updating of knowledge, among others.
Akeusola, who was represented by Dr Popoola Olaosebikan, a lecturers in MOCPED, stressed that the development in society and economy require that education systems equip young people with new skills and competencies, which allow them benefit from the emerging new forms of socialisation, and actively contribute to economic development under a system where the main asset is knowledge.
He said new standards for students’ abilities are replacing the basic skill competencies and knowledge expectations of the past, adding that to meet this challenge schools must be transformed in ways that will enable students acquire the creative thinking, flexible problem solving, collaboration and innovative skills to be successful in work and life.
At the centre of this challenge are teachers, whom Akeusola said must be equipped to deliver.
Said Akeusola: “The task of meeting the needs of the 21st century teachers and learners is enormous. It thus requires all hands must be on deck; the government, the private sectors and the parents must collaborate and provide the infrastructural facilities to train and retrain the teachers and make them absolutely competent and skilful; motivate them by paying them good salaries and fascinating welfare packages, the learners (students) should be assisted at home to take their studies serious,” he said.
Akeusola said teachers of 21st century skills need to be expertise in their careers, and will have to take conscious efforts to communicate and collaborate with each other and with students by becoming flexible in managing new classroom dynamics, with willingness to support and adapt their teaching styles to accommodate new pedagogical approaches to learning.
In her address titled: ‘Developing the future ready educator in Nigerian colleges of education and Universities’, a Professor of Educational Technology and former Dean, Faculty of Education, Lagos State University,(LASU), Ojo, Cordelia Nwaboku, said teachers are supposed to be ‘change agents’ for the transformation and development of the society; hence the need for overhaul of the training curriculum, review of the admission requirements and procedures, train the trainers and change in the assessment strategies.
Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Education, Mr Abdul Fatai Olukoga who was represented by Mrs O. R. Oyedele, the Director of Monitoring and Investigation, Ministry of Education, observed that the 21st century learners have the advantage of ICT, which Olukoga describes as the gateway to the new world. He called on teachers to help students discover their talents and interests as well as create a learning environment where they can use those gifts to learn more.
“Just like parents, teachers should come to understand each student’s strengths, what their interests are and how they can learn best. Good teachers have always had this capacity, one of the ways teachers gain this insight is through ongoing informal classroom assessments,” he said.
Earlier in his welcome address, the college, Dean of the School of Education, Mr Ige Nelson, said the theme of the conference aimed at advancing the frontiers of teacher education while generating issues and ideas for the development of teaching and learning.
The occasion was attended by stakeholders comprising deans, provosts, curriculum developers, school administrators, policy makers, lecturers and students .
