teaching: the reflective profession.' (national education conference, 28 may 2009)
DESCRIPTION
'Teaching: the Reflective Profession.' General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland, Workshop 10, GTC Scotland National Education Conference, 28 May 2009. This workshop will present perspectives by leading practitioners from the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland in relation to the professional development of teachers. Key areas of discussion will include teaching in Northern Ireland as an evidence based profession within professional communities of practice.TRANSCRIPT
Competences
Opportunity or Constraint?
Sterling Presentation
28 May 2009
‘Teaching: the Reflective Profession’
Presentation
This presentation will cover:• Background• Introduction and the approach taken by the
Council• Teaching: the Reflective Profession• The Competences• Teaching as an evidence informed profession• Conclusion
The Approach Taken
Teaching is all about mastery but is never far from mystery
Teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability
Teaching transcends the acquisition of competences and is rooted in values and emotional connectedness
The Nature of Teaching
Teachers, in discharging their responsibilities, engage first and foremost as individuals with a sense of moral purpose and responsibility and it is in the interaction between mission, ethical understanding, and professional knowledge that the mystery that is never far from the heart of good teaching, is to be found.
Teaching can never be reduced to a set of discrete skills to be mastered
in some mechanical process of assimilation. To adopt such a
reductionist approach would be to deny the intellectual basis for our
work and the richness of the ongoing dialogue and learning that enhances our professional practice.
Quality
Reflection
Competences
Evaluation
School Improvement/Enhanced Pupil Performance
Teaching: the Reflective Profession
Teaching: the Reflective Profession
• Provide a basis for collaborative planning within a school-based community of practice
• Support the development of an evidence informed profession
• Support the development of a whole school teaching and learning strategy
The Reflective and Activist Teacher
Overview of the Teacher Competences and the
Competence Statements and Phase Exemplars
Overview of the Teacher Competences
Professional Competences: 27 in number
Professional Values and Practice Professional Knowledge and Understanding
Professional Skills and Application:Planning and Leading
Teaching and LearningAssessment
Reflective Practice
‘The Reflective Teacher’ (ETI)... the teacher’s role is to:
• reflect on the provisions made for pupils;• assess the quality of provision within their
own classroom; and• decide how the quality of teaching is
contributing to improvement throughout the school.
Augmenting ‘The Reflective Teacher’
‘In this context, reflective practice needs to be internalised as part of a teacher’s identity; it cannot be bolted on as an additional skill, rather it becomes part of the professional mind-set and is integrated within all the competences in a holistic way’. (Teaching: the Reflective Profession pg. 12)
Competence 6
Teachers will have developed a knowledge and understanding of the factors that promote and hinder effective learning, and beware of the need to provide for the holistic development of the child
Dimensions of Development Evidenced by
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• greater complexity in teaching e.g. in handling mixed-ability classes, reluctant learners, classes marked by significant diversity, or inter-disciplinary work;
• the deployment of a wider range of teaching strategies;
• the ability to adduce evidence of one’s effectiveness;
• basing teaching on a wider range of evidence, reading and research;
Dimensions of Development 2
• extending one’s impact beyond the classroom and fuller participation in the life of the school;
• the capacity to exercise autonomy, to innovate, to improvise; and
• a pronounced capacity for self-criticism and self-improvement; the ability to impact on colleagues through mentoring and coaching, modelling good practice, contributing to the literature on teaching and learning and the public discussion of professional issues, leading staff development, all based on the capacity to theorise about policy and practice.
‘Making Educational Research Accessible: A survey of stakeholder views on the potential for creating a Northern Ireland repository for education – related research’ by Bryn Holmes, John Gardner, Debbie Galanouli and Ruth Leitch 2005.
Recent Developments
Research Lesson Studies A peer-to-peer approach which has
recently attracted considerable interest in schools in the UK (see for example Dudley, P. 2005)
• Teaching: the Reflective Profession a seminal document
• The ‘Teacher Competences’ are situated and embedded within the concept of a ‘Reflective and Activist Professional’
• Career-long and only meaningful in context, never fully mastered
• Aligned and supportive of the ‘School Improvement’ agenda
• Is a ‘living document’ will develop ‘in use’
Competences
Opportunity or Constraint?
Building Dynamic Professional Communities