Teacher as a Gardener

             The questions of w hat is teaching? Dand w hat should the teacher be like? Q whether asked as such or just implied, have been for a long time the first questions to be pondered upon in any teacher training seminar, any conference, any ELT journal. Trainers, specialists, teachers themselves usually find it useful to resort to metaphors in order to answer them. Thus, the teacher has been pictured [1] as an actor, as a conductor, as a gardener, or as in the famous legend, the one who teaches you how to use a fishing rod instead of simply giving you fish. The place and the role of the teacher have been constantly changing starting from the teacher in front of the classroom, lecturing and writing on the board, to the teacher in front of the computer and even to the virtual teacher. The first part of this paper is going to present the main roles that the teacher assumes in a traditional classroom. The second part will explore the changes the traditional teacher had to go through in order to be able to perform in e-courses and even in virtual classrooms. Finally, conclusions will be drawn with respect to the similarities and differences between QtldD and new teachers and especially to the necessary transformations any teacher should be prepared to accept and embrace.
If we think about the characteristic features of teachers in a traditional educational environment, it is very easy to come up with things such as the importance of subject content knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge (how to teach the same subject to different students, of different levels, with different expectations, in different contexts), general pedagogic knowledge (e.g. classroom management), curricular knowledge, and process knowledge (learning skills, observation skills, etc.) [2], A teacher should be very well prepared with respect to the knowledge in his/her field of expertise and, furthermore, he/she should be willing to and even have a natural inclination for continuing to strive for self-improvement as long as he/she lives. At the same time, a teacher should possess professional skills, in the sense of being able to use the most adequate means and methods of conveying knowledge to their students, including here a propensity for constantly searching and keeping himself/herself up to date with the newest developments in teaching. If we were to mention the characteristic features one may think of with respect to good teachers, there are quite a lot, such as: creativity, cooperation, flexibility, adaptability, communication skills and the ability to relate to learners.
             The learner, on the other hand, was viewed traditionally as a recipient that must be filled with knowledge and information by the teacher and as having a passive, rather reactive role, with no possibility to act upon or influence the lesson0 contents and the methodologies the teacher uses in the classroom. In a traditional context the teacher is the major source of knowledge, the leader and educator, the organizer and controller of all activities [3], In the traditional classroom, the teacher is in front of the students (the learners) and the learner is always under the firm control of the teacher. The teacher is the one who determines what skill is practiced, what grammar rule or language function is performed, in other words, who says what to whom and when. Actually, most students who come to learn English in a traditional classroom expect, at least at the beginning, the teacher to direct and lead them and only later do they realize that they would like to be involved in the process of direction- finding and decision-making. On the other hand, letting students take responsibility for their own learning by promoting learner autonomy takes more effort and organization than controlling the class and the classroom in a traditional way, not to mention that in many instances, both teachers and students may feel more comfortable with a more autocratic leadership style.