Being a secondary school teacher requires an individual to have numerous teaching qualities and aspects. Most importantly, the individual should have the capabilities of communicating with the students using effective communication skills. In case, “he had an impression, but some of his impressions are illusions” (Kahneman, 2011) the individual may not achieve effective communication with the students. It is essential to note that teachers should be capable of communicating and employing appropriate communication techniques when dealing with the students in a classroom set-up. The teacher should ensure that he does not use illusions when addressing the students.
When interacting with students in school, teachers should ensure that they have immense understanding of situations, which is crucial in their response to different situations. For instance, when a female teacher sees suspicious looking people entering the school compound, and she decides to call the police, this is “a pure system 1 response. She reacts to the threat before she recognized it” (Kahneman, 2011). This is an inappropriate characteristic for a teacher to posses because it will mean that every time the teacher will be at crossroads with students. For instance, a Teacher may have a student she thinks is bright, and every time the student raises her hand up to answer questions the teacher uses her pure system 1 response to assume that the student has the right answer. This is not usually the case because the students are also part of the learning process, and failure to jag their minds may incapacitate their way of doing things. This is because the student maybe having the wrong answers that time around and when a teacher assumes she knows this works to the disadvantage of the student. At such moments, there is a requirement that teachers “Slow down and let your system 2 take control” (Kahneman, 2011).
Therefore, when a teacher asks, “Do we still remember the question we are trying to answer? Or have we substituted an easier one” (Kahneman, 2011). Seemingly, nobody is answering the question the teacher has asked previously. “The question we face is whether this candidate can succeed. The question we seem to answer is whether she interviews well. Let’s not substitute” (Kahneman, 2011). The teacher asks this question, and there is a requirement that students give a detailed analysis of the situation. In this case, when a teacher substitutes what she is to teach and what he feels he should teach, chances are that he will teach the wrong things. The teacher should not use the present to predict the future because there is a distinct line between the future and the past because learning is a continuing process.
During decision-making, an individual should avoid illusions of validity. For instance, “he knows that the record indicates that the development of the illness is mostly unpredictable. How can he be so confident in this case? Sound like an illusion of validity” (Kahneman, 2011). This is because in as much as one may use his system 1 response to produce a quirky and dirty draft of reality, there is nothing to avoid him from using the same illusions even with system two responses. This is because even though, system two response seems to be the boss, it is lazy, which means that instead of doing its usual slowing down of things and analyzing it can still accept the easy but reliable story that system one feeds to it. Therefore, both systems are crucial in the teaching process but most importantly system two response because most of the time, people need more time to arrive at appropriate conclusions.
Reference
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Double Canada.
