By Mungai Njoroge, PhD.

The education sector has a broad spectrum of criteria for "desired classroom teacher" This criterion is context specific and embodied through various titles and awards. In line with Sustainable Development Goal Number Four (SDG4), a desired classroom teacher ensures "inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all". In Kenya, some of the titles conferred to such a teacher include the teacher of the year award (TOYA), innovative/ICT teacher of the year (iTOYA) and principal of the year (POYA).

The desired teacher facilitates meaningful learning, which occurs when learners seek to relate new concepts and propositions to relevant existing concepts, and propositions in their cognitive structures and contextual experiences. The teacher encourages learners to actively engage in learning and take responsibility for their learning.

Such a teacher helps learners improve their learning skills, including those in the affective domain, such that students achieve a positive attitude toward learning concepts – irrespective of the subject, a sense of self-efficacy, the ability to manage frustration, and a willingness to take risks in learning. These desired teachers are also masters of scaffolding learning. These teachers strive to continuously improve student learning outcomes, such that learners move from the level of mere information and memorisation through conceptual understanding to application, working expertise (problem-solving), and then possibly to the highest level of creativity – as detailed by Bloom's taxonomy; that of the researcher who has "innovative expertise which can be used to develop new understanding and problem solutions" (see table)

Acknowledgement: The Ualimu Bora column has drawn some of the content (excerpts and the table) on "desired classroom teacher" from the following source:

Gathumbi, A. W., Njoroge, J. M., & Hintze, D. L. (2013). Towards Comprehensive Professional Development of Teachers: The Case of Kenya. International Journal of Process Education, 5(1), 3 – 14. Available: http://www.ijpe.online/2013/kenya.pdf