Academic life contributes for capacity building in prospective teachers anywhere
Academic life contributes for capacity building in prospective teachers anywhere. They learn up to date teaching techniques, methods, and procedures to impart education to their students. In broader perspectives teaching is to deliver something to the students (Stoll, 2009). Communication skills have their important role in teaching. Teachers who are equipped with good communication skills can deliver or impart better knowledge to their students in their particular field or subject. Better communication skills are combination of four skills. Form these four skills, one is called receptive skills and another form is called productive skills. Among these Reading skill and Listening skill are collectively called Receptive Skills on the other hand Writing and Speaking are called Productive Skills (Keengwe, Onchwari, and Onchwari, 2009). For students’ perspective the same skills lie in students when they come to the age of schooling. Teachers polish all these skills to improve learning abilities of the students and provide environment for physical and mental growth (Henrico, 2012).
The old and traditional teaching methods convey the explicit information to the students by their teachers. These hardly clarify to students the implied and potential implications and meanings of that specific information. It is routine practice by the teachers that is observed in our education system. Students, in traditional teaching, memorize information from the examination point of view. Their sole objective becomes to pass the coming examination only. No doubt, traditional teaching is cheaper, convenient for the population of rural and remote areas. Similarly, traditional classrooms are more disciplined and conventional in routine. Teachers don’t need fresh and up to date knowledge to cater the information needs of their students (Schwerdt and Wuppermann, 2011). On the other side, activity-based teaching, that is our main concern, is doing some experiments and activities in teaching process. So, activity-based teaching has enhanced focus on learning rather than memorizing the teaching material (Yu-Lun, 2011). Students have wider scope of self-learning in accordance with their aptitude and skills in this novel teaching method to the students.
Activity-based learning or teaching is a new approach. This new approach focuses on the idea that students should be engaged through actions. In this approach, students are given very much important in teaching and learning environment. It is very different one as compared to the old notion and concept in which teachers were given more importance than the students. The old and traditional forms of teaching otherwise relays information to students who are expected to absorb what they were being told by their teachers. In activity-based learning / teaching, an educator or a teacher who serves the function of a facilitator in their class and for his/ her students. The teacher assists his/her students through the learning process. The teachers provide their students with guidance in every step. The teachers are using many kinds of methods and they are taking actions. They ask their students and perform many different kinds of tasks to them so that they can be used in this type of program. They allow their students to involve in this learning process directly and they may learn more and more in the teaching and learning process. In this way the students do not remain passive and they are forced to participate in these tasks.
When we talk about the purpose of ‘activity-based learning /teaching’ then the main point that comes first in our mind is that a teacher remains engage his/her students directly. The teacher draws their attention towards the lesson that is being taught to them. The students get confidents by activity-based method. They directly become the participants of their own learning and in their own learning process. But the traditional method of educating the children/ students is almost rely upon the educator. The teacher is only considered as a knowledgeable expert. The teacher simply provides information to their students. In this type of education atmosphere learning environment, the learners were expected to act as sponges that absorbed only that knowledge whatever they are being told. There is hardly any type of effort that is being done on the students’ side and behalf. The students were not learnt and trained rather they were just taught. They have to obey whatever they are being instructed by their teachers. There was not necessarily a focus upon them as they are to be taught and actively-learning during their classroom. (http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-activity-based-teaching.htm)
Activity-based learning teaching involves a variety of tasks, experiments, and activities with potential learning outcomes for students by the teachers. These activities attract attention of students. These activities can be rhymes, drawing, many learning games, and even songs to teach them different kinds of words, building their vocabulary, words, or sentences and even other subjects like Physics, Biology etc. and in the same way of using different activities
As activity-based learning / teaching is child or student-centered education. Teachers should be equipped with the variety of techniques to cater the educational needs of students in activity-based teaching system. Their professional education and training should promote their communication skills in general, with the skills of reading writing, listening, and speaking. Hake (1998), is of the opinion that the use of this new and interactive strategies to increase the course effectiveness in the learning and teaching environments. It is no doubt very helpful to the students and the students.
The present research focused on the capacity building of prospective teachers for activity-based teaching in their professional life. There is no scarcity of literature on capacity building of prospective teachers and activity-based teaching. This study focuses on the capacity building of prospective teachers for activity-based teaching in geo-politic circumstances of Pakistan and The State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.