CA2

Current Trends in Education: Tutorial Papers: Template

Leader: Kevin Maye

Student Name

Niall Shiels

Tutorial Paper Number (1 or 2)

Reading Article Reference

Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers 2nd edition 2016

Article Summary (1 A4 page)

This code of conduct applies to all registered teachers in Ireland, It serves as a guidance compass
for teachers to act in a respectful and ethical manner throughout their time teaching. It can be
used by the teaching community and the public to get an understand of, and see the expectation
of teachers in our country. It has an important legal standing and is used by the Council as a
reference point in exercising its investigative and disciplinary functions. Nationally agreed
procedures are in place for dealing with complaints at school level will continue to operate. These
procedures are believed to offer the best means for resolving problems relating to most cases.

The core values of Respect, Care, Integrity, and Trust are reflected throughout the Code. These
values will support the teacher throughout their full career in teaching. The code then sets the
main standards to the practice of teaching and that are expected of registered teachers. The
standards identify teachers’ professional responsibilities and are framed as statements under six
separate headings: values and relationships, integrity, conduct, practice, professional
development, collegiality, and collaboration.

Teachers should be caring, fair and committed to the best interests of the pupils while also
respecting their uniqueness, individuality, and specific needs of pupils. Teachers are also
recommended to seek to develop positive relationships with pupils/students, colleagues, parents,
school management and others in the school community.

Teachers are expected to act with honesty and integrity in all aspects of their work, respect the
privacy of others and the confidentiality of information gained during their professional practice,
represent themselves honestly while avoiding conflict between their professional work and private
interests.

Teachers should uphold the reputation and standing of the profession, take all reasonable steps in
relation to the care of pupils while they are under their supervision, comply with agreed national
and school policies, procedures that relate to student education, welfare, and child protection,
ensure that any communication with members of the school community is appropriate and very
importantly ensure that they do not practise while under the influence of any substance which
impairs their fitness to teach.

This article outlines that a teacher should maintain high standards of practice in relation to
pupil/student learning, planning, monitoring, assessing, reporting, and providing feedback, plan
and communicate clear, challenging, and achievable expectations for pupils, develop teaching,
learning and assessment strategies that support differentiated learning while thinking about
students' dignity. In a context of mutual respect, be open and responsive to constructive feedback
regarding their practice and always act in the best interest of pupils/students

Teachers should take personal responsibility for sustaining and improving the quality of their
professional practice by maintaining their professional knowledge, reflecting on, and critically
evaluating their professional practice and availing of opportunities for career-long professional
development

A teacher should work with teaching colleagues and student teachers in the interests of sharing,
developing, and supporting good practice, work in a collaborative manner with all the school
community and engage with the planning, implementation, and evaluation of curriculum at
classroom and school level.

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Critical Reflection on the Article (1 A4 Page)

In my opinion the professional code of conduct is a vital document for every single person that is
involved with the teaching council as it clarifies the values and standards that need to be given to
students throughout their time in education. From reading and reflecting on this document I have
come to the realisation that there is both positives and negatives to be taken from this article in
terms of how it has been put together. The importance of the Code was huge to me personally,
but it is in some ways vague and quite difficult to understand in places.
One area of the Code that I really liked and found extremely helpful for my understanding was the
focus on respect, care, trust, and integrity. One reason that I really liked this was it encouraged you
to reflect upon your own morals. An area of this code that I found myself just sitting back and
thinking off my own morals as a person and of my own experience from my previous time working
within a school community was while it spoke of professional values and relationships. One
significant point that had left me thinking was “be committed to equality and inclusion and to
respecting and accommodating diversity including those differences arising from gender, civil
status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race, ethnicity, membership of the
Traveller community and socio-economic status, and any further grounds as may be referenced in
equality legislation in the future” (council, 2016 ). This led me to consider how my personal ideas
and my prior experience teaching compared to the standards that the Teaching Council Code lays
out as suitable actions.

The text's focus on four primary headings at the beginning and the repetition of those themes
throughout the entire code made for a really easy-to-read document for the reader, which is why I
found the code's organization to be so useful for my own reading and understanding of it. The
 paper's primary four headings were given to the reader in greater detail by the teaching council to
really aid in understanding, which I really appreciated because it allowed readers of various levels
to understand the material, for example they give their meaning to the word “integrity” as
“Honesty, reliability and moral action are embodied in integrity. Teachers exercise integrity
through their professional commitments, responsibilities and actions.” (council, 2016 ). With some
words used that would not be in everyone’s vocabulary such as integrity this makes, they
document suitable for all interested in reading it.

While looking back on this document I found a lot of positives to this, but I also did fell that there
could have been improvements made to this in a few areas. The main area that I feel the author
could have improved this document is by properly explaining some of the point that he tried to
make throughout the document. The majority of the author's writing was well-explained, concise,
and understandable, there were a couple occasions when I was reading this and the points made
felt a little vague. Under the subject of "Professional practice," which I thought to be somewhat
vague, it states that teachers should “ in a context of mutual respect, be open and responsive to
constructive feedback regarding their practice and, if necessary, seek appropriate support, advice
and guidance” (council, 2016 ) I feel that this statement will often leave the reader left wondering
as it did with me of were the teacher should even go to find this constructive feedback on their
teaching and gives the reader absolutely no guidance on who to seek advice from as it could be
quite difficult for a teacher in practical subject areas to seek guidance with very limited number of
teachers in their subject in their school.

Overall, I found this code of conduct to be very helpful, and it is important for all teachers in the
nation to understand it well to ensure that they are aware of the minimum standards expected of
them in the classroom and the degree of decency that each member of the school community
deserves to be treated with and it has given me a great understanding of the standards that I plan
to set out within the classroom in relation to the students learning environment that I would like
to set.
List of References
(Type here)

An edit on the summary will improve it. The critical reflection needs a re-write – as there is
1) no other references cited (aim for at least 2 or 3 other sources), 2) no linking to your own
practice, and 3) its too short.
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