What is taught is what is learned

I cannot completely agree with the statement. There may exist a gap between what is
taught by the teacher and what is learned by the student. There can always be a gap between the
message that the speaker wants to communicate and the receiver perceives. This is generally
called communication gap. The process of teaching involves a speaker (teacher), a message to be
conveyed (content), a medium and the receiver (the students). All these components are involved
in communication. As teaching is communication at large, there is every possibility that barriers
are formed in teaching-learning process.

On several occasions the teachers pose the question “Do you understand?” to the
students. The question indicates that the teachers are not completely sure of their
message/content reaching the learners in the intended manner.

But the teacher should make a conscious effort to bridge the gap between these two. The
common argument we hear from the teachers that “I taught it, but they didn’t learn it” is simply
unacceptable. The correlation between what is taught and what is learned can be achieved by
better understanding of the students and their standards. The teachers must build on the existing
knowledge of the students. The different learning styles of the students should be taken into
consideration and the teaching style changed accordingly.

The responsibility of the teacher is not just to teach, but make sure it is learned by
the students. This can be achieved by developing proper technique. The proper balance between
the content and the technique makes the statement “What is taught is what is learned” possible.
The teacher should involve in continuous professional development to achieve this.