Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 18, 2018 (SKNIS): Although it has been proven that education is fundamental to growth and development, appointed Professor within the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, Dr. Joel Warrican, strongly supports the view that the relationship between teachers and students must be one where critical thinking and sound decision-making are the desired outcomes.
Professor Warrican said that although students are technologically inclined they ought to be taught how to use any information obtained or knowledge gained, to decipher what is right from wrong as this is important.
“They need to be analytical. That is what we have to teach our students. How to decipher wrong from right, how to take information and make the best use of it and how to make the best decisions, and decision making is key to what happens in our society. Everything is based on decision making, making the right decisions,” he said. “A learned person is a person who can take the information that they have and make the best decisions with it, be analytical about it.”
Dr. Warrican underscored the importance of teachers in the learning process but said that students are just as vital in this process.
“…teachers are most important to our society. In terms of the learning process in this modern dispensation and in a global and technological space, I think that students are as important as teachers because we learn from each other,” said the professor, during “Working for You” on Wednesday, July 18. “You do not go into a classroom as a teacher these days and think you are the fount of knowledge that you know everything because quite often the students know more than you and they are technologically advanced…”
Dr. Warrican further added that with students’ advancement in technology, teachers now have additional ways of ensuring that students continue to learn and grow.
“The role must be changed with all that knowledge out there so that the teacher becomes a facilitator, becomes a person who knows how to bring the best out of a student. How to take these students and the knowledge they are getting from technology now to become analytical, not to accept anything that is out there, how do you access it? How do you then make sure that the source is credible? How do you make the best use of that information?” asked Professor Warrican.
