Teaching Aptitude and Job Satisfaction of Rural and Urban Plus Two Lecturers – A Comparative Study

Teachers are highly conceived as the real nation builders, hence they should play the roles that are expected of them and also ponder the responsibilities that the society places on their shoulders with right earnestness and utmost sincerity. A teacher has to play a variety of roles during the course of his career. He may act as instructor, motivator, examiner, guide and counselor. These functions are discharged by creating a conducive, creative, inspiring, purposeful and favourable classroom environment which may be broadly classified under two categories – physical and emotional. Physical environment is the frame work of learning. It depends on the teacher’s resource power and his personal capacity. This involves arranging, organizing, utilizing teaching aids, audio-visual equipment, display tables, library and laboratory, the nature of the environment may contribute towards the attainment of success in the teaching and learning process and in the development of human relationship. A prospective teacher is always prepared to learn more. The professional growth of a teacher does not cease when he leaves the training institute. In fact he begins to learn from different kinds of experiences. Rabindra Nath Tagore has rightly remarked, “A teacher can never truly teach, unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame”. The idea is amply clear that new experiences of teaching should be gained in every walk of life and from every new sphere, it must be realized that experience needs to be supplemented by experiment before reaching its fullness. Therefore, in order to keep alive and fresh the teacher should become a learner from time to time, constant outpouring needs constant in-taking. The practice must be re-enforced by theory and the old must be constantly tested by the new. The education of a teacher should not end with his obtaining a degree but the professional growth of a teacher requires that he should continue to learn through the period of his stay in the profession.It must be ascertained by the prospective teacher that he has a balanced personality adequately motivated towards teaching profession and possess a high standard of intellectual capacity. Therefore, it is quite essential that the countries developed or developing should have well articulated plans for teacher education, particularly attention should be paid to the relationship between the teacher educational institution, the school and the community as a whole. Teaching aptitude is a person’s capacity to acquire proficiency in the teaching under appropriate conditions. It is a condition symptomatic of an individual’s ability to acquire with training, proficiency in teaching and his readiness to develop an interest in exercising the ability in performing various acts and tasks related to teaching. A person may be said to possess teaching aptitudes, if he has a good proportion of characteristics required for effective teaching, the magnitude of such traits may differ from individual to individual. Teaching aptitude is not only related to the efficiency of teacher in teaching but is related to several factors as co–operative nature of teacher, teacher's moral character and discipline, dynamic personality, considerativeness, optimistic attitude, fair mindedness, impartial behavior of teachers etc. Job satisfaction, may be defined as how much an individual is adjusted in his work because adjustment is more covert and more easily manipulated, while job satisfaction is overt and being less visible aspect of teacher’s make–up. Every profession has got certain aspects conducive for job satisfaction. At the same time it has other aspects that lead to dissatisfaction. Teaching profession is no exception. If it is possible to isolate the factors of dissatisfaction, attempts can be made either to change the dissatisfying conditions or to reduce their intensity so as to increase the holding power of the profession. It is realized by all those concerned with education that the standard of education in schools, colleges and Universities cannot be improved unless the teacher, who has the key role to play, is competent and involved in his work. Unless the teacher is satisfied on job, improvements in the field of teaching and learning are bound to fail. In fact he is the top most academic and professional person in educational pyramid. He is a pivot round whom the whole gamut of educational process rotates. He can bring constructive, productive and quality education in society because under his hand the destiny of our children is being placed by parents (Panda and Tewari, (1997). The NPE (1986) and its revised version (1992) repeatedly envisaged that the status of the teachers reflects the socio – cultural ethos of the society and no people can rise above their level. Besides, mechanized projects and lofty buildings cannot succeed in nation building unless, right kind of people in the teaching profession are supplied. The teacher's cognitive, affective and others characteristics are very important postulates. He is to be kept in tune with his professional satisfaction. It is pertinent to mention here, that in every profession, job satisfaction is an important area which is to be considered on priority basis. A teacher, wherever, he is placed demands recognition and professional growth and satisfaction of job which in return gives the best we need in society and if our teachers are dissatisfied, no amount of subsequent development can overhaul it. Same applies to the teaching personnel working in various types of educational institutions. These personnel are equally responsible as in their custody the best cream is put to polish. This will definitely lead us to national progress and prosperity. In creative work like teaching and research, job satisfaction remains the sine – qua – non and plays a very significant role in attracting and retaining the right type of persons in the profession