RIYADH, 17 April 2003 — There is an urgent need to change the role of the teacher from the traditional disseminator of information with absolute authority in the classroom to a facilitator of learning, according to a US-trained educator.
“The teacher as facilitator is a significant change from the ‘sage on the stage’ that many of us grew up with,” said Fahd Mashari Al-Roomy, a Saudi educator and teacher of English as a second language (TESOL).
Teachers here typically dominate classroom talk with lectures and directives, said Al-Roomy, who holds an MA in TESOL from Ball State University in the United States and has taught at King Saud University and elsewhere.
“Such an educational environment results in learners assuming passive roles and relying mainly on listening skills and later recalling information during the so-called final examinations,” he added.
The output of such educational institutions is disappointing as students receive predigested material without exerting any efforts to construct knowledge, take the initiative, use their intellect, or take part in the learning process, he said. “Students are only good at memorizing previously prepared material,” he added.
Studies suggest that the amount of student learning and personal development that occurs in a classroom is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student involvement in the educational program, Al-Roomy said. “The teacher is no longer an authority in the classroom. Instead, students assume responsibility for their learning and move from teacher-centered to student-centered education,” he added.
The teacher serves as a coach or guide for student learning. “As a facilitator, the teacher challenges, questions, and stimulates the students in their thinking, problem solving and self-directed study,” he added.
The approach to the teacher as a facilitator, long the orthodoxy in the West, has led to various methods of teaching and different educational applications. “The curriculum is no longer the written textbook told by the teacher to students. The new curriculum consists of various elements which include the student, the facilitator, the administrator, the text-book, and can include everything related to the educational process,” he said.
It is not only the role of the teacher that has changed abroad. “Traditional evaluation methods are no longer used everywhere. Students are evaluated continuously throughout the term,” he said. He feels it is wrong to test only the cognitive skills of students that rely heavily on memorizing information. Such a traditional approach with all its authoritarian connotations may lead to frustration, fear and even suicide.
Teachers resist their new role for a number of reasons, he said. Some view the loss of authority with trepidation as it can mean ceding control to students who are necessarily less knowledgeable and may make mistakes.
“Also, the heads of some educational establishments prefer the teacher-centered method because that’s the way they were taught,” Al-Roomy said.
