Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Siena College, Inc.: Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
Siena College, Inc.: Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
What Is Teaching?
- all the activities of providing education to others.
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.
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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Siena College, Inc.
Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
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.
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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Siena College, Inc.
Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
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.
Teaching is a challenging job with many unique frustrations, but the rewards of teaching are
numerable. Some of the many benefits include the following:
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.
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Siena College, Inc.
Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
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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Siena College, Inc.
Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
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.
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.
Skills
Leading the discussion
Motivation & attraction
Interactive way of teaching / use of participatory methods
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Siena College, Inc.
Del Monte Avenue, Quezon City
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)
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.
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.
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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Siena College, Inc.
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.
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.