Handling difficult questions while teaching

Obviously, sometimes, its innate human nature to be in difficulty in the course of teaching. Some childish students' stupid questions leads such problem in a classroom. Since I have been teaching in Nepal, I have faced a lot of such silly questions raised by students and many of my friends quit their job due to stress. Thus, I am giving some strategies for proper handling of difficult questions while teaching.

First strategy to handle the difficulty is finding the relevancy of the question. If the question is not pertinent to the particular area where you are teaching, you can tell them to answer after completing the formal class somewhere outside of your class. And, if the topic is pertinent to your topic and  you do not know the answer, you tell them to answer tomorrow and give them other practice questions like this. Then, student may think you are smarter.

Second strategy is to identify the type of students who are raising you the questions. If the student is asking  you just to be smart, detect and ask him other questions to defend. Otherwise, if the question is from genuine side, give them extra practice work, thereby pondering about its solution. Then, they will ramble on their practice work.

And the last strategy is creating the environment of competition among students for difficult questions. You can create the ambient of competition if the question is very hard. You can generate a lot of solutions from students side from their heterogeneous ideas. They forget all for competition and bury themselves in the topic.

In conclusion, the main strategy to handle problematic situation is to make them even more busy on that situation.

Young lecturers are in demand

I had been mulling for several years about why young are being accepted by Nepali students. I had also been in search of finding the reason behind the rejection of an old experienced lecturer. I do not know how much I am correct into my digging but it is a reality in Nepal. And, it’s true that most of the colleges have more young lecturers than many years experienced ones. The main reasons for rejecting old experienced lecturers are as follows:

Initially, it matters a lot about in which level we teach because if we teach young people, obviously they need teacher of their time rather than old one. They do not want to give their time for study merely but also other recreational activities which were not provided by our traditional teachers. What our old teacher wanted was that to exploit parrot learning and showed atrocious behavior in the name of punishment. They did not like to be according as students wants.

Furthermore, simply experience doesn’t matter at all if they cannot enjoy with their students. What I found in Nepal is that owing to lack of peripheral knowledge, even experienced teachers are being rejected. They were not updated with the latest technology and system. They used to teach in traditional system which was not preferred by student today because we must update with technology.

In the contrary, young lectures are being successful here in these cases. They are doing what young students wants. They are trying to give their time for not only study but also other recreational stuffs. They are making nice team work with students for academic and professional activities. Similarly, young lecturers are updating themselves with the latest technologies and modern teaching paradigms. Thus, they are succeeding in their way.

In conclusion, it is not always good symptom that callow lecturers are in great demand here if they do have sufficient knowledge. In the name of preferring young ones, it is not good practice to discourage an experienced one. Instead, old experienced should learn from youngs’ exemplary works and update themselves.

Why teachers can not satisfy themselves?

I have seen a lot of teachers/lecturers in Kathmandu, Nepal not satisfying in their profession. They are doing their job for just running their family and solving hand to mouth problem. It may be due to many reasons to express such dissatisfaction here. I am trying to elucidate some of the important reasons behind it.

Firstly, our country, Nepal, has not sound political situation till this date, although politicians are trying to make it stable and to promulgate new covetous constitution. People, who are involved in private school or colleges, are seem to be very serious due to such fleeting situation. What they want is stability in their job but the condition is not being in their favor. If they fall certain party's wings, they have high chance to their job stability even in private education institutions. Rather than focusing on competition, owners are giving their priority to relativism and nepotism.

Secondly, its an obvious instinctive nature of human that to earn money at the top of their knowledge. They want to earn a lot in their life. I have seen a lot of person like me, having same educational qualification, are earning a lot in abroad, but, I am not earning much although I am satisfied with it. They are showing their proclivity towards money for quenching their satisfaction; not towards the country's real scenario. They had to consider the situation of our country.

Finally, another reason may be lack of certain facilities required by lecturers and teachers. These facilities includes insurance, allowance and respectful environments. Teachers should be provided with the environment of insurance, securing their future. They should be provided the allowances as their rewards and the last and important thing is teachers should be respected by both student and management because they are the real hero for every walks of life.