The role of a teacher in the current educational dispensation
The foundation of every educational structure stems from the basic schools whose teachers are mostly from the colleges of education and universities.
This means that if the content knowledge and pedagogical skills of teachers are not strong, then there will be numerous problems associated with the academic performance of pupils.
In addition to achieve this high standard performance, continuous professional development training must be seriously considered.
Social and human capital, what authorities say
In building this social and human capital, teachers should acquire new knowledge and attitude to make certain that the opportunities are used to expand, enhance and refine instructional skills (Cawelti, 1997; Newman, 1997; Wilson & Corcoran, 1988).
The statements resonate with the positions of Adegoke (2003) and Benneh (2006) who indicated that the mission of Ghana’s teacher education is to provide a comprehensive programme through pre-service and in-service training that would produce competent, committed, and dedicated basic and secondary school teachers to improve the quality of teaching and learning for the development of the child.
Asare and Nti (2004) added that quality teachers must add value to themselves by attending professional training programmes to become efficient, effective, innovative, versatile and competitive in their practice of teaching and learning.
Thus, teachers must participate in professional development training workshops apart from receiving higher academic qualifications which is also a boost to quality instructions.
When these professional strategies are conveniently pursued, the tendencies of teachers adopting good, effective and innovative pedagogical skills from their mentors, tutors, facilitators are guaranteed.
Education and development
Education plays a crucial role in fostering the development of human capital for nation building (Newman, 2013) where college tutors play a central role in preparing individuals to facilitate the teaching and learning in schools.
In Ghana, teacher education has been going through a process of change and development in response to the need to provide quality education at all levels.
This educational change process has become increasingly necessary due to the rapid societal transformation that needs new set of students that are molded through quality teaching to play the new roles for national development (Abudu & Donkor, 2014).
The European Union (2012) determined that within educational institutions, teaching professionals are the most important determinants of how learners will perform; therefore, the responsibilities of teachers are to know, do and care about what matters in the teaching and learning process (Newman, 2013).
Ensuring educational quality
One of the important ways of ensuring teacher quality is when teachers consider the attendance of continuous development workshops as a priority.
Among multiple factors within schools, teacher quality is so extraordinarily important to the lives of students as teachers are the most important when it comes to student learning and school improvement (Stronge, 2010).
Government’s definition of teacher education
The Government of Ghana (2002) defines teacher education as the type of education and training given to and acquired by an individual to make him or her academically and professionally proficient and competent to teach.
Teacher education is therefore the process of equipping individuals with knowledge, attitudes and skills that are required for developing children to become productive citizens.
Anamuah-Mensah (2006) stresses that teacher education is a complex and multi-faceted process which is made up of initial teacher training, in-service training and lifelong learning.
So, the need for in-service teachers acquiring professional skills in the discharge of their duty becomes crucial in this new educational dispensation.
In this regard, the Government of Ghana (2002) indicates that the objective of teacher education is to train and develop the type of teacher who is competent in, committed to and capable of, Synthesizing, applying, and imparting various forms of knowledge, developing attitudes, values and outlooks that create conducive environment for quality teaching and learning, facilitating learning for and motivating learners to fully realize their potential and adequately preparing learners to fully contribute to national developmental efforts.
Professional development
Professional development therefore is an instrument that enables career progression and empowers individual teachers to develop their current and future roles, allowing them to stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and new learning skills.
It is therefore the desire of every nation including Ghana to produce quality teachers who will lay good educational foundation for nation building.
Accordingly, the teacher is to adopt and adapt to these changes to expose students to the modern and innovative techniques of teaching and learning that promote critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
By Kofi Ashiboe-Mensah, PhD.
Source: GNA