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Concerns Theory (Fuller, 1969) 2
Concerns Theory (Fuller, 1969) 2
Self
Fuller's Theory
of Concerns
Task Impact
Figure 2: Three Stages in Fuller’s Theory of Concern
Last but not least, the third stage in teacher professional development
according to Frances Fuller’s Theory of Concerns is concern towards impact. If the
two stages before focusing on the skills of a teacher, this stage is different because it is
focusing more on the after-effect of the teaching skills used towards students. On this
stage, the novice teachers will be focusing on the effect of his teaching towards the
students’ learning achievement. He will see his students as someone that has potential
in improving. He is no longer worry about his ability to control neither the class nor
doubting whether he delivered the content knowledge effectively or not. It is more about
teachers’ concern towards students’ learning and achievement. The teacher will be
more interested in the progress and development of his students rather focusing on his
self-skills. For instance, the teacher monitor students’ achievement and will be
questioning whether his teaching styles suit his students learning preferences.
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In conclusion, a novice teacher has to experience these three stages during
their early years of teaching in order to develop their professionalism.
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2 (ii) HOW I WOULD HANDLE THE THREE STAGES IN MY PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
On the first stage which is concerns towards self, I would handle it by asking
for guidance and help from the senior teachers that are also teach the subject that I
teach. The purpose of doing this is to ensure that I am doing things in a correct way. In
the same time, I can learn many skills in teaching the assigned subject which gives me
the chance to improve my content knowledge. It will useful for me to avoid false
teaching and will ensure me that I am teaching the content effectively. Furthermore,
their experience will help me to nurture and grow my confidence in teaching. In this way,
I will slowly develop my confidence in teaching and when the time has come, I will be
able to teach confidently with the help from my senior teachers. This is just one way
from many ways to handle this stage of concern.
Another way to handle this stage is by taking the initiative to improve self-
skills in teaching. As a novice teacher, teaching is a whole new experience and
different compared to professional practice. Joining courses held by district education
office or education ministry is one of the ways to overcome concerns regarding self
among the novice teachers. I would join courses or self-enrichment programme to
develop my skills in teaching which can contribute to the development of my confidence.
During the courses, there will be a lot of experienced teachers participating and I can
use that opportunity to exchange knowledge with them especially on content
knowledge, pedagogical skills and classroom management skills. Furthermore, I can
learn a few things that I cannot get inside the books I read by listening to their
experience. From that, I will try my best to practice what they preached and in the same
time, develop my confidence in teaching.
Apart from that, I would handle the concern towards impact by devising
strategies, methods or intervention to help my students in mastering the content that
they have difficulty in understanding. One of them is by doing action research. I will
develop a suitable intervention and then use it to help my students to master the
content. I will evaluate its effectiveness in my action research report. This promotes the
innovative practices among novice teachers and in the same time, is very useful to help
weaker students. All these come after I monitor the impact of my teaching. Action done
during this stage is purposely to help students because I believe, everyone has their
own potential and as a teacher, it is my responsibility to help them to grow it.
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In conclusion, all of these are the ways that I will use to handle the three
stages of teacher professional development suggested by Frances Fuller’s Theory of
Concern (1969).