Teachers are great people, they are the ones who shape the future of every child with their knowledge, skills and experience, they work relentlessly and religiously to make the students succeed in their careers. But do you know who taught teachers to teach? Of course, they earned their degree in education, however, just the degree doesn’t teach someone the skills required to become a teacher. The people who are behind in the making of a skilled teacher are the “teacher educators”. The role of teacher educators is one of the most crucial roles in the field of education and if you want to help new teachers and change the face of education, then teacher educator is the career field for you.
In this article, we are going to tell who teacher educators are? How can someone become a teacher educator? So keep reading the article.
Who are Teacher Educators?
Simply put, teacher educators are the teachers who teach new teachers or teachers in making. Their role is to train and teach the pupil-teachers who want to become teachers, they train them to become skilled and qualified teachers who can provide the best quality education to the students. However, today the role of teacher educator is not only confined to training new teachers, with changing times and demand for quality education; teacher educators also teach and train teachers in service or experienced teachers. For example; the professional courses available for teachers to teach them new skills like how to teach using online classroom app? Or introducing them to learn new teaching strategies created and led by teacher educators. Teacher educators are skilled and experienced professionals in the education field who work on improving the quality of teacher education so that the quality of students’ education in-country can be improved.
How To Become A Teacher Educator?
If you are looking to make a career as a teacher educator here are some necessary steps that you need to follow.
Get The Right Education Qualification: Teacher educators are similar to teachers, so yes they have to earn their degree in education after graduation. Once completed they need to earn a master’s degree, PhD or specialisation degree in the pedagogy field they want to train teachers. Having a master’s or specialisation degree is a must as it not only adds up to your qualification area but provides you with in-depth knowledge of the subjects and topics you need to know to make a career as a teacher educator.
Experience: As a teacher educator one must have relevant work experience as a teacher, you need to gain experience as a school teacher by teaching students for a certain period say 3-5 years of experience as becoming a school teacher is necessary before starting your journey as a teacher educator. It is crucial because teaching students first-hand tells you about the difficulties faced by them and evolving learning needs of students so that when you become a teacher educator you can train teachers more efficiently. Another reason is it will also exhibit what teaching strategies and tools are required by a teacher to deliver their best.
Keep Upgrading Your Knowledge: A teacher educator can only be successful if they are up-to-date with new developments being made in the field of education. whether they are related to changes in the curriculum of the country or state, new education policies introduced by the government, new research related to teacher’s education or new teaching strategies being adopted. Teacher educators have to know about all these, as they are going to teach and train the adults who are on the path to becoming professional or are professionals and they will need clear and precise information and knowledge from you.
Upgrade Your Skills: Upskilling yourself is necessary, especially today. Teacher educators also need to keep upskilling themselves by learning new skills so that they can teach and train teachers about these skills, one such skill is technical skill. As online teaching has become the new normal, teachers need to know it. Other than this teachers should also be taught communication skills, networking skills, presentation and leadership skills so that they can become better teachers and guides for students.