There are three common views of teaching: “teaching as transmission”, “teaching as transaction”, and “teaching as transformation”.
1. Teaching as Transmission
This view perceives teaching to be the act of transmitting knowledge from the teacher’s head to the students’ heads.
A Teacher-Centered Approach
This view supports the teacher-centred approach in which the teacher is the carrier of knowledge, the judge of truth, and the final evaluator of learning.
The Teacher Job
The teacher’s job from this perspective is to provide students with a certain body of knowledge in an order that he decides in advance.
Learning Assessment
From this perspective, standardized tests are considered to be a suitable measure of students’ learning.
The teacher uses these tests to assess students’ academic achievement as students demonstrate, replicate, or retransmit the specified body of knowledge back to the teacher in them.
2. Teaching as Transaction
This view perceives teaching as creating real-life situations and experiences that encourage students to interact with the learning material in order to construct knowledge.
New Knowledge Generated Individually
Here, knowledge is not passively received, rather, it is actively built up or constructed by students as they connect their past knowledge and experiences with new information.
The teachers start by helping students generate what they know about a topic before a lesson. This helps them to strengthen the connection between known and new.
Generating prior knowledge can be done through the use of advanced organizers, anticipatory sets, or pre-questioning.
And just as each student’s past knowledge and experiences are different, so too is the interpretation,
understanding, and meaning of the new information that each student constructs.
The Teacher Job
The teacher’s job from this perspective is to create experiences where students’ old information can transact with new information to build meaningful knowledge.
In other words, the teachers, here, don’t pour knowledge into the heads of learners; rather, they assist learners in their construction of knowledge.
Learning Assessment
Learning assessment from this perspective includes students’ ability to use the newly generated knowledge to solve real-world problems or to create products or performances that are valued in one or more cultural settings.
3. Teaching as Transformation
This view perceives teaching as creating conditions that have the potential to transform the learner on many different levels (cognitive, emotional, social, intuitive, creative, spiritual, and other).
A Learner-Centered Approach
This view supports the learner-centred approach in which the teacher leads the students to a greater understanding of and care for themselves, others, and the environment.
The Teacher Job
The teacher’s job from this perspective is to discover students’ full potential as learners, members of society, and human beings.
The ultimate goal of teachers is to develop students as human beings in all aspects to enable them to better perceive and cope with the environment around them.
Learning Assessment
Learning assessment from this perspective includes discovering and developing students’ unique talents and capabilities to the fullest extent possible.
It also involves assessing students’ awareness and consciousness of the multiple dimensions of themselves and the environment around them.
Final Word
These are the three common views of teaching. Learning can take place using all three views or approaches.
While there are instances when “teaching as transmission” is useful, I personally don’t support this view as a general teaching philosophy.
I always emphasize the idea that teachers can create the most powerful and effective learning experiences when they focus more on “teaching as transaction” and “teaching as transformation” approaches.
What about your own view? How do you view teaching? How does this view affect your teaching practice?
Let me know your thought by leaving a comment below or by emailing me at: eltguide@gmail.com
Thanks For Reading
Your Next Step & You Won’t Regret
If you feel drawn to the content I write, don’t wait too long or hesitate to subscribe to my ELT Premium content. EFL teachers, who are already subscribers, have a competitive advantage over their peers.
Click Here To Subscribe
As the famous saying goes, “A year from now, you’ll wish you started today.”
Think now about what it is that you really want to be and do?
Are you dreaming of making a real impact while teaching English in a traditional school or online?
My ELT publications are the right starting point for that, as they give you the knowledge that is suitable for you to develop your four language teaching skills and more.
And trust me — they get results because I focus with each one of them on practical ideas, tips, steps and procedures that help you tailor effective lesson plans for individual students and gain control over your ELT career.
These publications are the best fit for teachers who:
- Have no experience in teaching EFL;
- Are not comfortable with explaining grammar;
- Need more knowledge of how to create an English exam;
- Want to make a difference in their students’ language learning
Click Here To Take a Look at Them Now
Moreover, you will find below links to some more of my featured articles that I’d love you to check out to get a better sense of what I’ve been publishing on my blog for EFL teachers’ professional development.
40 Activities For Developing Critical Thinking in EFL Classes
The 3 Most Widely Used Grammar Teaching Methods And Approaches (Premium Content)
What Every Novice Teacher Must Know About Lesson Planning
The 2 Most Important Things You Must Consider When Planning For Grammar Practice (Premium Content)
The Main 10 Steps To Teach Functional Langauge
24 Brain-Based Elements To Consider In Your EFL/ESL Classes (Premium Content)
What You Must Know About Assessment
Like any skill, TEFL mastery takes time and you will thank me for advising you to take action as soon as possible!
