The Role of Science Educators in Our Society: Interview with Tauqir Waqas from Pakistan
What is the contribution of science educators to the future of our society?
We cannot deny that teaching chemistry to the growing minds is essential for future innovations, but not many people understand the responsibilities and challenges of such a role. Being a teacher is not merely a way to earn money, but a mission to support, engage and excite all students every single day.
Recently, we've had a chance to talk with Tauqir Waqas (MS, Chemistry & 2 other MS's), a chemistry teacher from Pakistan who has not only been explaining chemistry to high school students during the last 16 years, but actively popularizes science through eye-gripping posts, earning him 15k+ followers on his online account.
Having both a deep expertise and genuine passion for his role, Tauqir Waqas shared his opinions on teaching, widespread hurdles and a vision for the future of chemistry education.
Here is what we are covering in this interview:
Ready to join in on our dialogue?
Introduction
Tauqir Waqas got his 1st master’s degree in fuel engineering (Coal Technology) in 2011. His 2nd master’s (2015) was in Information Technology, which was “a bit off course” from his underlying passion for chemistry. Finally, he obtained a master’s degree in his desired subject, Chemistry, in 2023:
A project in my master’s degree was preparation of copper ferrites doped with erbium. It was very wonderful experience, and I continued by finding their antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant activities. In one of two months, I will be doing another research, probably also on ferrites and their bioactive activities.
Interestingly, one of the biggest things that inspired Tauqir Waqas to pursue Chemistry were his teachers: “My chemistry teachers were always great in every class from high school to college, then in my university; I always found that the chemistry teachers were the best".
How Tauqir Waqas Became a Teacher by Choice
I would like to say I'm a teacher by choice, not by chance.
Why is that? In college life, I’ve always explained some things to my colleagues, my class fellows - whatever they did not understand in the classroom, I explained to them, and I think I was good at it. After my graduation (this is 14 years of education in Pakistan), I had 6-8 months free before getting into university. During that free period, I started teaching at a school, and I found that I am pretty good at it. After my master’s, it was good luck for me. In 2011, I taught at a private school for one year, and then I got a government job from 2012 onwards. It was my passion. I didn't get bored with it. I didn't think of choosing any other career at that time.
Yet, when I was young, teaching was definitely the last thing I was going to pursue. I don’t know many children who say they are going to become a teacher one day, and I wasn’t one of them. However, once I started this, I felt like this was my profession.
You know, often times you teach and look at those students, and you see who is understanding you and who is not. Sometimes I get goosebumps when we are covering a difficult concept, and even one or two students are grasping it. It means I'm enjoying teaching very much.
That's awesome - to do something you enjoy and something you're also good at.
What are the best ways to engage students during science lessons?
Tauqir Waqas believes that chemistry is taught best when it’s explained through experiments. “Just blindly telling students of 9-10th grade what an acid is, when they’ve never seen an acid in their entire life, makes it very difficult to understand”. Rather, Tauqir tries to show students those substances during a lab. Sometimes, whe’s short on acids, he may bluff and show any liquid with the words: “It’s an acid. It’s dangerous. Don’t touch it”. However, lack of equipment is a large hurdle to performing frequent experiments.
Tauqir Waqas’s second-best way of explaining is through visual demonstrations. For example,
I have this little ball-and-sticks kit of molecules. It is quite challenging to teach 6th graders what matter is, but with this kit, I can tell them: 'This white or black thing is an atom, and when these atoms are combining like this (demonstration), they form a bond'. I have some other tools in my bag/my school and can use my hands, as long as I exlain something visually.
Nuances of Chemistry Education in Pakistan.
The Hardest Part of the Job
We are a third world country in Pakistan. Students here aren’t very much into STEM, and their parents, especially in the government sector, are very poor. I think that the most frustrating part of my job is that the parents are just sending their children to school, so that their kids don’t spend 6 hours at home or wander the streets here and there. This carelessness translates to students: I can say 30-40% of students are just here to pass time and have no interest in learning. Not all of them. I have some very, very good students. However, the most difficult part is to get the unmotivated students on the track, so that they don’t show a bad example to others.
Most of the time, a teacher doesn’t do anything about it. This is very heartbreaking. Yet, Tauqir Waqas chose action over silence.
I used to call their parents every now and then. I used to call them to school. I pressurized them to at least check their students, check their children. Are they doing their homework or not? Are they at least spending half an hour for my subject and for every other subject?
What is the curriculum like in Pakistan schools?
Currently, Pakistan has a general national curriculum, though the local authorities print their own books and can modify the chapters. However, a while back, every district of every province (4 in Pakistan) had different curriculums. In 2020 the government took the initiative. They devised a nationwide curriculum, the Single National Curriculum, for school and college students.
Does Tauqir Waqas make his own adjustments to the lessons?
Tauqir Waqas has an extensive 15-16 year teaching experience, so he knows “for specifically my school, my area, which chapters, which topics are harder for them, which are easy to understand. I do not violate that curriculum; I just remix it”. As an example, rather than teaching stoichiometry as the first chapter outlined by the curriculum, he skips over to chapters 2 and 3, to give the students some basics and then moves back to chapter 1, with a better understanding of what is going on.
Would there be anything you would change about Pakistan Chemistry SLOs (Student Learning Outcomes)?
There are some theories which are being taught but are not in use anymore. For example, we look at the Dalton Model of the atom, then the Plum-Podding Model, etc. As a chemistry professional, I know this is important because we are laying some fundamental concepts for students, but I think they are useful only for explaining later concepts, not to be tested on an exam.
Impact of AI on Science Education
As a teacher, as a student, I always hear that chemistry has no scope. That it has no future because AI is coming and it is going to ‘eat your job and demolish all the basic subjects’. That it’s useless to teach chemistry or other subjects to students.
Do you agree with this statement?
My point of view is that no matter how advanced the world goes, there will be new diseases, and so you will need new pharmaceuticals and new chemists to formulate them. We need chemists to remove pollutants from air, water and soil. I think neither chemistry or any other subjects are going to be ‘useless’. Another example is batteries. We need some physicists to engineer the novel batteries, and we need some chemists who can tell that this compound or element is going to produce energy for you.
How Will AI Affect Our Approach to Work? – True Story💪🧠
Tauqir Waqas shared with us an intriguing conversation he’s recently had with one of his colleagues on the topic of AI, by the end of which Mr. Waqas had to change some of his views. Here is how it ran:
My [Taquir Waqas's] point was that AI is not new – it is just like any other technology. Once upon a time, a calculator was invented, and they were saying: "We don’t need to do math by hand, and math is going to be obsolete". Similarly after its invention, television was adopted at some universities for distance learning. However, teachers were still needed. Some people thought that schools would be demolished after computers & internet was invented as any teacher could teach hundreds of students online. Well, schools are still here today.
Any technology brings about changes in skill demands, but it doesn't always reconstruct our society's education system. Credit: iStock.
His fellow professor said : “All the other inventions, they replaced the muscle, but the AI is replacing minds”.
They concluded that the AI will not take our jobs if we use it as a tool and not a mind (at least in the way that society is currently run). For example, if I am writing about my research proposal to somebody and using Chat GPT by prompting it to write me a research proposal on this, I am not using my mind. If that research proposal is ultimately accepted, I will have to talk with the professor, but I will not know the ABC of my proposal because the AI did it for me.
Conclusion
As you may have noticed, our conversation with Tauqir Waqas was not about frills or popularity. It was a heartfelt and honest discussion about the importance of education, the barriers that hinder science education in different countries, and the future of science teaching moving forward. One great takeaway from this interview is that the actions of each individual person matter. Not all of us are science educators, but we can all take small steps that make learning in our society a little bit better. It may be donations/initiative for improving school lab equipment, motivating your children to attend school or simply showing someone a post that presents science in a positive light.
Personally, I will remember our talk with Taquir Waqas as a symbol of care and perseverance. I've uncovered that the true definition of a good teacher is someone who pushes beyond limits and takes advantage of their passion to educate young learners the best that they possibly can.
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