Teaching students of today: towards a more engaging pedagogy

Abstract

For today's teachers entrusted with the responsibility of teaching students living in a world characterised by modernisation and modernity, teaching has indeed become a daunting task. How should teachers teach students of today, and how to impart education to these students so that they will become human beings of character, dignity and wisdom? The fact that today's educational system has been 'hijacked' by the demands of the state and market aggravates the task of teachers in carrying out their responsibilities efficiently and effectively. Freire (1972) has recognised this education problem in the late 1960s and even went to prison for his perceived 'anti-state' and 'anti-market' ideas. There is a need for teachers to ask themselves: "what kind of education do I want to impart to my students? What teaching methods should I adopt? What would my legacy be to my students?" Towards this end, this paper would like to propose a model of pedagogy, premisedon the thesis the aim of education is to 'bring forth' the students' latent capacity and potential to tread the path of knowledge acquisition grounded on character building, moral development and spiritual advancement.This discussion in this paper will therefore focus on the six constituent features of the proposed model of pedagogy, that is, gradual, adaptive, illustrative, analytical, practical and syntactical.