Do you see yourself as a teacher, trainer or educator when you have been assigned a course and the students arrive? Is your role a role that fulfills tasks and responsibilities, or do you want to achieve more with your students? Do you feel that the teaching strategies you are using now are somewhat transformative, or do you want to somehow transform the students you teach?
A person enters the education sector as a profession, full-time at a traditional academic institution, or as an additional (or part-time) instructor. A full-time traditional teacher is probably responsible for researching, teaching, and publishing academic articles. An additional instructor can teach at a community college, traditional college, or online school. When someone teaches higher education students, he can be described as a moderator, coach, or teacher. This is important because it is not possible to find a job title with the word “educator”.
Does this mean that all teachers, professors, trainers, teachers or collaborators are also educators? What I learned from my job in higher education is that anyone in any of these roles goes out of their way to teach and carry out a learning process, regardless of whether they are involved in undergraduate or master’s programs. However, someone who considers himself an educator is a person who goes beyond the role of teaching and tries to carry out a transformative learning process. I learned that becoming an educator is not an automatic process. It takes time, practice, and commitment to become a committed and transformative educator.
A basic definition of a teacher.
The lessons are generally related to traditional primary education. Lessons at this level are taught by teachers and children, while students are taught what and how to learn. The teacher is the expert and guides the learning process. A teacher is someone who is well trained and works to incorporate the thoughts of their students. This type of teacher-led teaching continues in higher education, especially in traditional university classrooms. The teacher is still in the front row and the middle of the class, providing information. Students are used to this format due to their experience in primary education. The instructor spreads the knowledge through a lesson and students learn to pass the required exams or complete other required learning activities.
In higher education, teachers can be called coaches and are recruited as subject matter experts with advanced content or skills. Professional requirements generally include completing a certain number of degree hours in the subject to be taught. Teachers can also be listed as professors at traditional universities and these positions require a degree with additional research requirements. For all of these roles, teaching means appointing someone to guide the learning process by guiding, counting, and teaching students. The instructor or teacher is responsible and students must follow and follow the instructions.
Here is something to keep in mind: if this is the essence of teaching, is there a difference between teaching and educating students? Is the role of the teacher the same as that of the educator?
Basic definitions of an educator
- I want you to consider some basic definitions first to understand the role of the educator. The word “education” refers to teaching; “Educator” refers to the person who teaches and is a teacher; and “teaching” is intended to provide explanations. I have extended these definitions so that the word “educator” includes someone familiar with teaching, has advanced academic skills, and has experience and principles of adult education.
- Education: An educator is someone who must be familiar with the art of teaching and who knows which teaching strategies are effective and which areas of moderation should be further developed.
- An experienced educator develops methods that bring the course materials to life by adding relevant context and encouraging students to learn through classroom discussions and other learning activities. The lessons also include all interactions with students, including all forms of communication, as each interaction offers the opportunity to teach.
- Advanced academic skills: An educator must also possess strong academic skills, and writing skills are at the top of this list. This requires great attention to detail on the part of the educator and must include all forms of transmitted messages. The ability to demonstrate strong academic skills is especially important to anyone teaching online courses because the words represent the instructor.
- The use of appropriate formatting guidelines in the style prescribed by the school is also included in the list of critical academic skills. For example, many schools have implemented APA format guidelines as the standard for formatting paper and working with fonts. An educator cannot adequately guide students and cannot provide meaningful feedback if writing style has not been mastered.
- Strong knowledge base: an educator must develop a knowledge base that consists of their experience with the course or courses they teach and knowledge of the principles of adult education. I know many educators who have the required credit hours for their certificates but may not have extensive experience in the area where they teach. In this way, they can continue to teach the course as long as they take the time to read the necessary textbook or materials and find the time table results methods apply to current practices in the field.
