Siena College, Inc.

Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City

THE TEACHING PROFESSION

1. ENTERING THE PROFESSION

What Is Teaching?
- all the activities of providing education to others.

Nature of Teaching and Teaching as a Profession

In its broadest sense, teaching is a process that facilitates learning.

Teaching is the specialized application of knowledge, skills and attributes designed to provide unique
service to meet the educational needs of the individual and of society. The choice of learning
activities whereby the goals of education are realized in the school is the responsibility of the teaching
profession.

In addition to providing students with learning opportunities to meet curriculum outcomes, teaching
emphasizes the development of values and guides students in their social relationships. Teachers
employ practices that develop positive self-concept in students. Although the work of teachers
typically takes place in a classroom setting, the direct interaction between teacher and student is the
single most important element in teaching.

Six generally accepted criteria are used to define a profession. The teaching profession those criteria
in the following ways:

1. Its members have an organized body of knowledge that separates the group from all others.
Teachers are equipped with such a body of knowledge, having an extensive background in the world
and its culture and a set of teaching methods experientially derived through continuous research in all
parts of the world.

2. It serves a great social purpose.

Teachers carry responsibilities weighted with social purpose. Through a rigid and self-imposed
adherence to the Code of Professional Conduct, which sets out their duties and responsibilities,
teachers pass on their accumulated culture and assist each student under their care in achieving self-
realization?

3. There is cooperation achieved through a professional organization.

Cooperation plays an important role in the development of the teaching profession because it
represents a banding together to achieve commonly desired purposes. Teachers have control or
influence over their own governance, socialization into teaching and research connected with their
profession.

4. There is a formal period of preparation and a requirement for continuous growth and
development.
Teachers are required to complete a defined teacher preparation program followed by a period of
induction or internship prior to being granted permanent certification. This period includes support for
the formative growth of teachers and judgments about their competence. Teachers are devoted to
continuous development of their ability to deliver their service.

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Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City

5. There is a degree of autonomy accorded the professional.

Teachers have opportunities to make decisions about important aspects of their work. Teachers apply
reasoned judgment and professional decision making daily in diagnosing educational needs,
prescribing and implementing instructional programs, and evaluating the progress of students.
Teacher judgment unleashes learning and creates the basis for experience.

6. The profession has control or influence over education standards, admissions, licensing,
professional development, ethical and performance standards, and professional discipline.
As professionals, teachers are governed in their professional relationships with other members,
school boards, students and the general public by rules of conduct set out in the Code of Professional
Conduct.

History of Teaching as a Profession

Teaching has transformed from a simple educational function into a complex profession. Teaching
develops the minds of children and young adults, and prepares them to become worthwhile citizens
of society.

The history of teaching can be traced to Confucious (561 B.C.), who was the first famous private
teacher. Many ancient Greeks hired private teachers to educate their children.

In the Middle Ages, learning institutions such as Cambridge University were founded and teacher
training became required.

In early American Colonial days, housewives and ministers taught. The Pilgrims established the first
public school in 1635, and this was followed by "dame" schools, primarily for women. Subsequently,
Latin grammar schools that offered a secondary education for boys were formed.

The 1800s brought dramatic changes in the teaching profession. teachers by this time needed to take
a test for certification that licensed them to teach.

In the 1900s, because conditions began to improve and teaching became a more desirable
profession, more men became teachers. The teaching profession emphasized improving teaching
methods to accommodate the new educational needs of a changing society.

Teaching today has advanced into the television and computer age, which has changed the
emphasis in teaching. Giving students assignments on TV or the Internet has opened new and
different educational possibilities.

The "No Child Left Behind" program began the 21st century by challenging and expecting teachers to
emphasize basic skills in the classroom. Standardized testing of students made teachers more
accountable for results.

An increased awareness of vocational and adult education made teachers focus on preparing
students for careers through technical education.

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Teaching is a fast-growing profession and is expected to continue to grow for many years. However,
there are problems that impede growth in the profession. Salaries grow higher, but schools are
overcrowded and funding is limited.

Why Become a Teacher?

Teaching is a challenging job with many unique frustrations, but the rewards of teaching are
numerable. Some of the many benefits include the following:

 Experience the Joy of Making a Difference

Teachers get incredible joy in seeing the difference they make as students gain new
insights, become more interested in a subject and learn about themselves. Every day,
teachers mold the future through impacting their students‘ views and understandings.
Teachers foster creativity, develop character, give students lenses with which to view the world
and provide students with the skills they need to reach their potential and lead productive lives.

 Have a Vocation, Not a Job

For many people, their work is a means to an end. They work for a paycheck in order to live
their lives. But those called to teach have a true vocation. To those with whom you interact
most during your day of teaching - the students - you are not an employee but a friend, a
mentor and a guide to the world. A teacher makes a difference in the world by enabling each of
his or her students to fully maximize their talents, imagination, skills and character.

 Enjoy Interpersonal Interaction

Teachers interact with their students, other teachers and community members regularly.
Many students decide to pursue teaching over other careers for this personal interaction.

 Benefit From Variety

Many people cringe at the idea of doing a job that involves repetition of a specific task over
and over. Teaching is a job that offers a great deal of variety. Each year, teachers get to work
with a new group of students with unique personalities, experiences and ideas. Teachers can
introduce new topics into the courses, change the way they teach a particular topic or design
new classes to teach to keep things new and exciting each year.

 Be a Lifelong Learner
You will never learn a topic better than when you start to teach it. Students always ask the
most interesting questions, prompting you to dig deeper and learn more about the aspects of
science they are most curious about. Teaching allows you to be a student throughout your
career as you incorporate new findings, technologies and events into your classroom.

 Laugh Every Day

Adolescents are both easily amused and very amusing so working with them provides many
opportunities for laughter. Sometimes it will be silly jokes you will make up as you teach that
will make your students laugh. Sometimes it will be funny statements that your students share
with you that make you laugh. A day of teaching when you do not laugh at least a couple times
will be quite rare.

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 Have a High Level of Autonomy

While required classes have mandated curricula that teachers are expected to follow, it is
the teacher who decide what will happen in the classroom each day. Teachers teach their
curriculum in very different ways depending on their knowledge, personality and beliefs. Not
many jobs provide an individual with so much room to be creative and autonomous each day.

 Spend More Time With Your Family

One of the great perks of a teacher‘s schedule is that it matches up with a child‘s school
schedule. While you will likely bring some work home with you, you will be able to be home
with your family in the afternoons.

 Enjoy Lots of Vacation

A teachers‘ vacation is divided up throughout the year, most teaching jobs allow you to have
a couple of months off in the summer where you can choose to get another job, teach summer
school, or just relax and revamp for the next year.

Knowledge, attitudes and skills of a good teacher

The pace of social change and the heightened expectations of schools have broadened and
deepened teachers‘ roles. The demands on schools and teachers are becoming more complex.
Schools are now expected to deal effectively with a more diverse society, to be sensitive to gender
and culture, to promote social cohesion, to address the individual needs of learners, and to prepare
all students for participation in a society and an economy in which they will be required to continue
learning over time, be flexible, and adapt to new demands.

Teachers now need to be prepared for a much broader range of tasks at all levels. They are expected
to:
 initiate and manage the learning process – the move towards outcome-oriented curricula
expects teachers to organize the learning process;
 effectively address each student‘s individual learning needs;
 be assessment literate and integrate results in a diagnostic manner to promote student
learning;
 work effectively in more diverse and multicultural environments;
 integrate students with special needs;
 address cross-curricular themes like social responsibility and citizenship;
 work and plan in teams;
 integrate Information and Communication Technologies into their teaching;
 develop and participate in school projects, linking schools within the country or across
countries;
 assume new managerial and shared leadership roles;
 Build learning communities with external agencies, museums, libraries, etc.

Knowledge:
 Bloom´s taxonomy
 Learning objectives
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Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City

 Effective structuring of the course

 Good structured lessons
 Participatory methods

Key Principles of Participatory Learning

The right to participate

All people have a right to play a part in shaping the decisions that affect their lives sounds
obvious.

Hearing unheard voices

Allow students to be heard. It is often people who have the least say in decisions about their
lives that are most affected by using the methods.

Seeking local knowledge and diversity

There are always different perspectives and realities within communities, with every individual
bringing their own unique experiences and interpretations.

Reversing learning
Letting go of preconceptions in order to learn from the wisdom of community members. This
means being prepared to unlearn what has already been learned.

Using diverse methods

Using a range of PMs helps draw in as many people as possible to undertake learning and
analysis on an equal basis.

Handing over the stick (or pen, or chalk)

It involves those considered ‗expert‘ – or powerful, or of higher status – sitting back, keeping
quiet and allowing space for others to participate. Thinking about the relationships between
more and less powerful people, and what those relationships imply for who can speak and who
cannot, is an important aspect of using PMs.

Attitude and behavior change

To establish rapport, to sit down, listen and learn, to be patient, to respect, to facilitate, to be
nice to people, to know when not to speak and when not to be present.
 Virtual learning / e-learning

Virtual learning environment (VLE) - a set of teaching and learning tools designed to
enhance a student's learning experience by including computers and the Internet in the
learning process.

e-learning - learning conducted via electronic media, typically on the Internet.

Skills
 Leading the discussion
 Motivation & attraction
 Interactive way of teaching / use of participatory methods
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 Leading exercise / role play / negotiations

 How to prepare a good case study Team teaching
 Conflict management / to relief tension in the group
 Keep healthy environment
 How to deal with different opinions
 Structuring teaching session

Attitudes
 Not have such an authoritative air
 Not to be so strict concerning preparation of individual assignments
 Flexibility with restrictions (not to be so suggestible to the participants)

Rewards and Challenges of the Teaching Profession

Teaching is truly a rewarding career. Teachers are special people who choose their life's work not for
monetary gain or because it's easy, but because they are called to teach. Truly effective teachers
treat each student as if they have paid handsomely for their education and should get something
worthwhile out of it.

It can often be hard, however, to find joy in the job of teaching. Sometimes days are filled with red
tape and disruptions. Some students and parents will not respect you no matter what you do. People
will make comments to you about how horrible it must be to be a teacher. Yet through it all, remember
why you became a teacher: to positively affect the lives of children.

Celebrate Small Victories

Teachers need frequent celebrations. Every time you accomplish a written or unwritten goal is
a cause for celebration. Take the time to truly enjoy your small victories. Treasure any words
or notes of praise and pull them out when you need a pick-me-up. Spend time with fellow
teachers discussing positive comments that you have heard students make. In the end, life on
earth is so short that we must grab a hold of every moment and live life to the fullest. If you are
spending all week just counting the days to the weekend, then you are not in the right job.

Look on the Bright Side

Much of being happy in life is looking at the positives and working to eliminate the negatives. If
you want students and people to like you, be positive in attitude and action. Do not look for
trouble, because you will surely find it. Instead, look for inspiration, beauty, humor, and growth
in yourself, your students, and your coworkers. Do not spend time focusing on the negatives of
teaching. Instead, stay true to your beliefs about the value of people and of education.

The Noble Profession

Teaching is truly a noble profession — ever-changing and always challenging. Know that you
can meet the challenges of teaching and succeed. It is an amazing thing when students come
back to you after they have left your course and tell you how much you have meant to them.
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who
touched our human feelings -- the curriculum is so much a necessary raw material, but warmth
is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.
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Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City

Top 3 Challenges Facing Teachers & Educators

Decreased Budgets
Less money means fewer resources. Teachers identified the lack of available professional
development opportunities as a significant concern and there seems to be a relationship
between career satisfaction and professional development opportunities. Budget decreases
were also associated with lower morale and greater stress.

Meeting the Individual Needs of Diverse Learners

Teachers identified the responsibility to address the individual needs of diverse learners as
challenging or very challenging. Maintaining an adequate number of teachers is related to
budgetary considerations as well.

Teacher Job Satisfaction

Less satisfied teachers are more likely to work in schools that had declines in professional
development opportunities.

Problems for Teachers that Limit Effectiveness

Every Student is Educated

Part of what makes teaching a challenging career is the diversity within the students that you
teach. Every student is unique having their own background, needs, and learning styles.
Teachers cannot use a ―cookie cutter‖ approach to teach. They have to adapt their instruction
to each individual student‘s strengths and weaknesses. Being adept at making these changes
and adjustments is challenging to every teacher.

Increased Curriculum Responsibility

In the early days of education teachers were only responsible for teaching the basics including
reading, writing, and arithmetic. Over the last century, those responsibilities have increased
significantly. It seems that every year teachers are asked to do more and more. Things that
were once deemed a parent‘s responsibility to teach their children at home are now the
school‘s responsibility. All of these increased responsibilities have come without a significant
increase in the length of the school day or the school year meaning that teachers are expected
to do more with less.

Lack of Parental Support

Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher than parents who don‘t support their efforts to educate
their children. Having parental support is invaluable and the lack of parental support can be
paralyzing. When parents aren‘t following through with their responsibilities at home, it almost
always has a negative impact in the class. Children whose parents make education a high
priority and stay consistently involved will be more successful academically.

Even the best teachers can‘t do it all by themselves. It takes a total team effort from the
teachers, parents, and students. Parents are the most powerful link because they are there
throughout the child‘s life while the teachers will change. There are three essential keys to
providing effective parental support. These include: (1) making sure your child knows that

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Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City

education is essential; (2) communicating effectively with the teacher; and (3) ensuring that
children are successfully completing their assignments. If any of these components are
lacking, there will be a negative academic impact on the student.

Over Emphasis on Standardized Testing

One of the main issues with standardized testing is that many authorities outside of education
only look at the bottom line of the results. The truth is that the bottom line hardly ever tells the
whole story. There is a lot more that should be looked at than just the overall score.

So who is the better teacher? The truth is that you can‘t tell simply from standardized test
scores, yet there is a large majority that want to use standardized test scores alone to judge
both student and teacher performances. This simply creates many problems for teachers.
They would be better served as a tool to help guide instruction and instructional practices
rather than as a tool that is the end all for teacher and student success.

Poor Public Perception

Teachers used to be highly regarded and revered for the service that they provided. Today,
teachers continue to be in the public spotlight because of their direct impact on the nation‘s
youth. Unfortunately, the media typically focuses on the negative stories dealing with teachers.
This has led to an overall poor public perception and stigma towards all teachers. The truth is
that most teachers are superb teachers who are in it for the right reasons and are doing a solid
job. This perception can have a limiting effect on a teacher‘s overall effectiveness, but it is a
factor that most teachers can overcome.

The Revolving Door

Education is tremendously trendy. What is deemed to be the ―most effective‖ thing today will
be deemed ―worthless‖ tomorrow. Many people believe that public education in the United
States is broken. This often drives school reform efforts, and it also drives the revolving door of
the ―newest, greatest‖ trends. These constant changes lead to inconsistency and frustration. It
seems that as soon as a teacher grasps something new, it changes again. The revolving door
effect is not likely to change. Educational research and advancements in technology will
continue to lead to new trends. It is a fact that teachers have to adapt too, but it doesn‘t make it
less frustrating.