Name of Student: Reading [TITLE]:

Leslie Middleton G00273688 Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers

1. CONCISE SUMMARY OF READING

The Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers applies to all registered teachers in Ireland to promote the values and standards that pupils should experience through the education system. The Code has three main purposes which involve serving as a guiding compass to direct teachers towards a respectful and honourable profession, to inform the wider community by satisfying their expectations and acting as a reference point for any disciplinary functions. The ethical foundation for the teaching profession is based on respect, care, integrity and trust. The code relates with the councils Policy on the Continuum of Teacher Education which views the teacher as a reflective practitioner whose key role is to educate.

In accordance with the code, the role of the teacher is to demonstrate respect by upholding human dignity, promoting equality with emotional and cognitive development. Teachers should demonstrate care through positive influences and professional judgement. Integrity is necessary through professional commitments, responsibilities and actions. The code also outlines trust demonstrated by teachers which embodies fairness, openness and honesty.

The Teaching Council sets out six categories of standards which apply to all registered teachers. Category one is entitled Professional Values and Relationships which states that teachers should motivate, inspire and celebrate effort and success. It places particular emphasis on uniqueness, individuality and the holistic development of the student. Category two Professional Integrity highlights privacy of others and confidentiality of information gained. Teachers should avoid conflict between their professional work and private interests. Category three Professional Conduct emphasises the safety and welfare of the students. Teachers should report any incidents or matters which impact on students welfare such as
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the possession of illicit material/images in electronic or other formats. Category four Professional Practice states that teachers should maintain high standards of practice in relation to student learning. Communication should be clear, challenging and achievable. Category five Professional Development relates more towards the teacher where reflecting and critical evaluation is necessary for professional development. Category six Professional Collegiality and collaboration encourages teachers to collaborate with student teachers and colleagues in the interest of sharing, developing and supporting good practice and maintaining high quality.

2. CRITICAL REFLECTION

From an overall point of view, I feel the layout of the Code of Professional Conduct compliments the text in its clarity and logical layout. Each section is titled clearly with a different colour text which leaves it easy to distinguish. I find it interesting that the colour blue was used in conjunction with the black text. The journal Pigment and Resin Technology published an article relating to colours and their meaning in text. Blue text was described as having largely positive associations with evolutionary significance (Crozier, 1999). The website Colour Matters goes a step further by saying that dark blue signifies intelligence and authority (Morton, 2012). These notions compliment the diagram on page five of the code where the centre circle stating that The role of the teacher is to educate is shaded in dark blue while the four branches from the centre, Respect, Care, Integrity and Trust are shaded in a lighter blue. Different shades of the same colour are cleverly used to signify the importance of particular parts of the text. Professional Conduct statement 3.6 encourages the teacher to communicate effectively with pupils/students. I believe the code is setting a good example of this through its clever use of colour and logical layout. In the area of the Code entitled Context, the teacher is encouraged to be a reflective practitioner in relation to continuing professional development. Later, on that same page, the Code promotes the rights of pupils by including their right to have a voice in matters affecting them. These are both very vague statements giving the teacher that is reading the Code, no clear direction as to their implementation. I believe that these two ideas should be combined. From my teaching practice experience, I discovered that one of the most effective ways to reflect on your own professional development is to question the pupils and allow
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them to suggest improvements. Chris Kyriacou describes self-evaluation as data that will enable you, or others, to judge the area that could usefully be developed (Kyriacou, 2007, p. 122). Because the pupils are observing you each and every day during your career, who better is there to give advice on professional development. One critique I have with the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers is its lack of methodology for implementing its points. One of the strongest elements of the Code is its emphasis on the holistic development of the pupils, encouraging teachers to motivate, inspire and celebrate effort and success. This is becoming a more topical issue at the moment where bullying and cyber-bullying are occurring in schools. An article was published in the Irish Examiner on October 29th, 2012 entitled Third suicide in weeks linked to cyber-bullying. It discusses the story of a 13-yearold girl who committed suicide following bulling she received online. She was the third victim over the space of a small number of weeks ( Cionnaith, 2012). Both the Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate exams focus heavily on content learning putting pressure on teachers to cover all aspects of their courses. I believe too much time is spent on the content as opposed to the holistic development of a child such as social dynamics and human relations. The fact that Professional Values and Relationships is the first standard on the code, suggests that it is the most important for teachers to understand and follow. Standard 3.1 under the heading Professional Conduct states that teachers should uphold the reputation and standing of the profession. By using the word reputation, I feel that we, as student teachers, are being encouraged to follow in the footsteps of teachers teaching the technical subjects all around the country at the present time. I believe that by upholding current teachers reputations, we are limiting creativity in the classroom and uniqueness. Researchers who have looked in classrooms have described what has become an iconic disturbingly familiar image: an individual teacher, standing in front of rows of students, transmitting factual bits of information to be copied and recited (Beghetto, 2010, p. 450). Teachers should be encouraged to push the boundaries of the current profession to produce unique and creative adults for the future. A rewording of this statement is necessary to transmit the correct meaning.

I feel the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers serves its purpose in guiding teachers to a successful profession, however, I do feel a few corners were cut where statements need to
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be elaborated in more detail for clarity reasons.

3. LIST OF REFERENCES

Beghetto, R. A. (2010). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity. Creativity in the Classroom , 447-463. Crozier, R. W. (1999). The Meanings of Colour: Preferences Among Hues. Pigment & Resin Technology , 6-14. Kyriacou, C. (2007). Essential Teaching Skills. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. Morton, J. L. (2012). Blue: The Meanings of Blue. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from Color Matters: http://www.colormatters.com/blue Cionnaith, F. (2012, October 29). Third suicide in weeks linked to cyberbullying. The Irish Examiner .

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