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Measures of professionalism in teaching.

Taken from "Standards of professional practice for accomplished teaching in Australian classrooms". A National discussion paper. Sponsored by: Australian College of Education (ACE), Australian Curriculum Studies Association (ACSA), and the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE).

This is written with respect to School based teaching, but may just as easily be applied to teaching in Higher Education, though the target group of teachers for this document are all trained professionals with at least four years of tertiary study related to their teaching.

It has been suggested that accomplished classroom teachers in Australia demonstrate their professionalism by:

 

• Having a broad, deep and critically aware knowledge understanding of and enthusiasm for the intellectual content, discourses and values associated with disciplines from which the subjects (or curriculum areas) they teach are derived and as appropriate to the specific contexts within which they teach: by being both transmitters and cricital interpreters of the knowledge, understanding, skills and values associated with their subject areas; by recognising that knowledge is often conteestable; and by developing programs that fully implement the aims and objectives of the relevant school curriculum.
  
  
• enjoying teaching students and by holding the highest expectations of what each student is capable of achieving: being aware of the individual needs, interests, capacities of the their students; and challenging their students accordingly by inspriring, motivating, correcting, and supporting their students, even in the face of temporary or apparent failure.
  
  
• treating all students honestly, justly and equitably: recognising and appreciating the range of values held by individuals as well as within families, groups , cultures, and the wider school community; and abiding by all statutory, legal, and ethical obligations incumbent upon them as teachers.
  
  
• being able to empathise with students.
  
  
• having an appropriate sense of humour
  
  
• exemplifying the qualities and values that they seek to inspire in their students: including authenticity, intellectual curiosity and rigour, tolerance, fairness, ethical behaviour, common sense, self-confidence, respect for self and others, empathy, compassion, appreciation of deversity, and acknowledgment of cultural differences.
  
  
• being reflective practitioners who critique the impact of their teaching and professional values upon students, colleagues, and others in the wider learning community: by having a critical awareness of the role played by their own educational, social, cultural, religious, financial and other background experiences; and how these experiences may have helped to shape their own values, their approach to teaching, and their assumptions about education.
  
  
• diplaying adeptness and discernment in the creative use and critical evaluation of inforation technologies for assisting their own teaching and in advancing the learning of their students.
  
  
• providing regular, accurate feeedback to students and monitoring the growth in students' learning: not only to assist in the assessment of student' growth as a basis for reporting each student's achievements against the required learning outcomes regarding what students know, understand, can do, and value as specified by the formal curriculum; but also as a means of judging the effectiveness of their own teaching.
  
  
• demomonstrating excellence in the practical, pragmatic craft of teaching and in managing a learning environment that is interesting, challenging, purposeful, safe, supportive, positive, and enjoyable: which fosters co-operation and collaboration, independence, responsibility and creativity.
  
  
• exercising high communication and interpersonal skills: being exemplary in their own literacy and numeracy practices; and having the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and professional values to exercise the crucial reponsibility that all teachers have as teachers of literacy and numeracy.
  
  
• being committed to their own professional development: seeking to deepen their knowledge, sharpen their judgement, expand their teaching repertoire, and to adapt their teaching to educationally sound developments arising from authentic research and scholarship.
  
  
• exercising educational leadership: working collaboratively with their colleagues to develop instructional and welfare policies, curriculum and staff development; and helping to ensure that the essential goals of the school as a learning community are met.
  
  
• taking due account of the educational implication of the community's cultural diversity: in particular, by including within the curriculum those indigenous issues and perspectives necessary to help achieve reconciliation betweeen indigenous and non-indigenous Australians; and by being sensitive and responsive to the educational issues generated by and within Australia's multicultural society within the context of continuing to develop a socially cohesive Australian society.

 

 

 

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