Nature of Teaching: What Teachers Need to Know and Do

Improving the quality of what happens in schools and preparing pupils/students for life in the 21st Century requires the highest quality of teaching. This article therefore focuses on professional classroom competences that every professional teacher should possess. It explores various scholarly definitions of teaching and time-tested principles of teaching and the classroom strategies available to teachers which when used judiciously will best assist pupil/student learning. The article will be useful for practicing teachers, student teachers, college and university lecturers, school-based in-service coordinators, advisory teachers and school mentors and head teachers. Though the prime aim of this article is to provoke discussion on the nature of teaching, its additional aim is to help the afore-mentioned stakeholders in the teaching enterprise reflect on their current practice and encourage them to ask questions about everyday classroom events.