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A Message from the Dean

When asked about their future occupation, many senior high school students say that they want to become a schoolteacher. Maybe you are one of them.

Anyone who aims to be a teacher surely has various motives and incentives. How about you?

Many may have started to think that they wanted to become a teacher after meeting an excellent teacher during their school life. If they are a senior high school student, maybe they have discovered that they like small children and want to work with them. Some might have a favorite subject, and they are likely to get involved in the subject continuously. Others may aim to be a teacher because they find teaching interesting from their experience of teaching a friend who was not able to solve a problem.

Even though the motivation and incentive depend on the person, there are likely to be things in common. Probably, most of them started to think that they wanted to become a teacher based on their happy experiences related to their school life. However, some have nothing but unhappy experiences when it comes to their school life. We must keep this in mind.

In any case, you know the profession as a teacher very well as you have seen your teachers working every day since your childhood. However, you know that very well only when compared to other professions. Surely, you have seen a teacher give a lesson and a teacher counsel a student. Yet, there are more things you do not know and you must think about. There are things you should learn at university, especially at the Faculty of Education.

For example, what efforts do teachers make in order to give a lesson or to counsel a student? Why do you need to study at university to become a teacher? What kind of lesson is an interesting lesson? What kind of teacher is ideal for children? What made the excellent teacher you met excellent? What have we gained from our schools and teachers in the process of growth? What can you do to reduce unhappy experiences and add happy experiences for children at school?

These questions have no single correct answer. That makes these questions worth considering. They are questions you must consider not only as a student of the Faculty of Education, but also continuously after you graduate and become a teacher. They are also significant questions for those who do not become a teacher to consider together. We teachers of the Faculty of Education also consider them.

What kind of teacher would you like to be if you are committed to becoming a teacher? What would do you for that? How about those of you who think about becoming a teacher as a possible option?

Let us think together at the Faculty of Education, Gunma University.

Madoka Saito
Dean, Faculty of Education