Mufutau Nasiru

In the first place, my studies at University of New England (UNE) started in 2007 with a place of offer to study a Graduate Diploma in Education by distance. It was an important milestone in my career as the qualification transformed my deficiencies in teaching skills into proficiency with teaching prowess that was transcendental to the imagination of my colleagues and employers. This was because some of my colleagues were on tenterhooks when I first started the studies at UNE. When they noticed the transformative nature of the qualification, they started saying “because Nasiru studied in Australia.”

Thereafter, two of my colleagues approached me for information on how to apply to UNE which I obliged. They tried to apply, but due to the tuition fees and IELTS requirements they could not proceed further in their attempts. After I finished my first qualification at UNE in 2009, I decided to apply for Masters of Education with Honours in 2010 because of the removal of my teaching Achilles heel by the first degree. I was really prodded and motivated by that success to yearn for additional degree from UNE. In the same vein as my colleagues, I also had to take a short rest of about a year to have enough savings before kick-starting my second qualification at UNE. In the end, I successfully completed my Master’s degree in 2015 via online studies with a residential school.

In the course of my studies at UNE, (my lecturers) made me understand what the student-centered learning was all about as against my previous approach to teaching.

My experiences with my lecturers at UNE were unique in diversity and I aptly tap the richness of what I gained from them for use in my day-to-day professional dispensation. They showed passionate interest in how my studies were progressing. They were very quick to respond to any issues that I raise and get them addressed in time with further feedbacks. The reading resources that were provided by my lecturers embodied rich curriculum content that was tailored to promote students’ gainful learning while being inundated with knowledge that widened my exposure about teaching method. In the course of my studies at UNE, they made me to understand what the student-centered learning was all about as against my previous approach to teaching.

In reflection of my encounters with my lecturers at UNE, I found them to be an epitome of rigorous teaching with hallmark of duty of care. This quality was apparently a norm at UNE! I benefited immensely from my lecturers being supportive. They offered constructive criticism and positive feedbacks on my assessment tasks from time to time. They are great lecturers and I hope to meet them in the future for further studies at UNE.

My decision to choose UNE as my destination for further tertiary studies was informed by having reliably gathered that UNE has been a leading Australian university with a niche and cutting edge as an online education provider. I briskly latched onto that UNE’s competitive edge and used it as the linchpin to further my education by distance while working. In a nutshell, UNE truly turned out to be a big draw for me in support of my career development and job security.

I still keep my job with Sarasas Witaed Suksa School, till date since 2005. I teach biology, chemistry, general science and physics to grades 10 – 12 students.

In retrospect to over a decade of teaching, I learned that I should have an in-depth knowledge of the curriculum content with a good grasp of the pedagogic principles of the subjects that I teach. In addition, I should be able to control my classrooms while making it engaging for learners to immerse themselves in active participation during the learning process. Likewise as a teacher I should be able to demonstrate team work, ability to take leadership control, professionalism, empathy, being supportive, open-mindedness, diligent practices, honesty and professional integrity.

If I was not a teacher, I would definitely be a farmer. This is because farming is an activity that has direct impact on people and the environment. I like to make contributions to the benefit of mankind and environmental sustenance. As much as I like to work with students, likewise I like nature!

My advice for anyone who is interested in this career was not to think of money making but to render selfless service. I don’t see education especially teaching in a high school as a veritable source of income to become wealthy. Anyone that intended to take up teaching as a career should not be a temperamental suspect. This is because teachers as custodian of students should not do anything to harm them either emotionally or physically. Temperament has no place in education. A good teacher should embody calmness and empathy towards the learners under his or her care. Also as a teacher one should try as much as possible to avoid confrontation with students or colleagues. It is not professional! As a teacher, one should be a good listener, be professional, ethical, honest, reliable, and always respect students’ rights while observing one’s professional limits.

Considering the issues of challenges at work, my biggest challenge was communication problem with most of my students when I first arrived in Thailand to take up a teaching position in 2005. A vast majority of my students’ use of English was abysmally low. This problem slowed down the pace of my work and I had to put in extra effort to simplify the curriculum content, broke the contents into bits with scaffold, use graphic organizers,  contrived a number of group work and peer learning series, hands-on in the laboratory where applicable and use of videos.

Suffice to this challenge was the unending scenarios of assessment tasks issues. I had to give some accommodations to some students considering the nature of my classrooms which are always composed of students of mixed abilities and backgrounds. Doing this was time consuming and sometimes enervating. On the other hand, the biggest achievement that I ever recorded as a teacher was the school-wide students’ preference to learn with me. The students here enjoyed the rights to call for a change of teacher in the event of unsatisfactory teaching or professional ineptitude. For over a decade now, students have not requested the school’s administration to substitute me for another teacher for any reason.

My UNE qualification has imbued me with the requisite working knowledge to meet the day-to-day demands of my teaching delivery. It instils me with intellectual capacity to be teaching savvy with the nitty-gritty of the classroom control practices cum its embedded students’ behavior management. The breadth of the training that I received at UNE made me to be marooned in teaching know-how. This significantly raised my employer’s trust in my professional capability and consequently entrusted me with additional teaching tasks over the years.

For instance, I am currently teaching biology, chemistry, general science and physics to grades 10 – 12. In fact, there is a wide difference in the perception of the quality of my work now by my employers, colleagues and even my students as compared to when I had not attended UNE. This professional improvements in my work raised the interest of two of my colleagues to also apply to UNE, but due to paucity of funds and admissions requirements made their determination to be thwarted in that direction. For now, I lead all other science teachers in a school-wide teacher’s position.

The passion for teaching forms the central plank of the foundations of my inspiration as an educator. As a teacher, I use education as an instrument to refine young people’s mind and shape their futures. In addition, I also use education as pedestals to revamp and revitalize adult learners to gain momentum for further educational achievements. The fact that I recognized education as a formidable tool to make contributions to learners’ knowledge base was inspiring to me in taking up teaching as a profession. On the other hand, outside my work as a teacher, I would like to touch people’s lives in a diverse ways at retirement apart from using teaching. In light of this, I intend to create an establishment that would offer job opportunities for people. The need to get this laudable task done inspires outside my work as a teacher. This would enable me to fulfill my aspirations outside teaching.  For instance, seeing a good number of my past students as professionals in a diverse field of discipline and taking up strategic positions in the industry, military, ministries and private organized sectors are really inspirational to me.

It is my pleasure to engage in activities that would add value to my community. Therefore I like to offer myself to make contributions to community development for the benefit of mankind. It is rewarding and satisfying to join hands for community improvements. It was against this backdrop that made me to participate in the UNE alumni awards in 2013, which I found to be a great opportunity. Therefore the last time I engaged in community project was in 2013 while I was working towards UNE alumni awards. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the UNE alumni awards, I had to work on weekends for a specified number of hours at KUMON Learning Center.

The Director of Studies at KUMON Prachautit branch wanted the program to continue perhaps without an end. She was really grateful to UNE for the impact that I made during my stint at her learning center. She asked me if UNE could continue to send more students to her center for continuity. Outside this, I have not had another opportunity to volunteer my time for a community project. I found the UNE alumni award program as an impactful scheme that offers stakeholders opportunity to develop themselves as well as their community.

There is no gain saying in the fact that the outbreak of the COVID-19 had disruptive impact on my work. It made us to go online to deliver teaching and assessment tasks to students using the google classroom platform. In addition, the number of days for teaching was extended from Monday to Saturday, while the student population was divided into two streams (Monday, Wednesday and Friday group while the other group was Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). The teaching during the Covid-19 was really strenuous and demanding.

In life, I learned great lessons from remaining steadfast with one’s ambition regardless of the enormity of the odds or headwinds against one’s goal. It is important to keep plucking up the courage in the face of multitude of difficulties. At certain point in the course of the vicissitude, there will be a glimmer of hope for success and one would be able to navigate the difficult terrain successfully. Giving up hope on the account of difficulties is not a recipe to become successful in life. But by applying the tenets of devotion, strong sense of purpose, and perseverance in a dogged manner could be helpful for one to push boundaries to achieve professional proficiency in teaching. Therefore, the best way for any teachers to acquire arguably best teaching practice was to summon the courage to further his or her education inasmuch one can learn at any age.

Giving up hope on the account of difficulties is not a recipe to become successful in life.