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Rachael-Lyn Anderson EDED11454 Assignment 1
Rachael-Lyn Anderson EDED11454 Assignment 1
Rachael-Lyn Anderson
12143136
Education as a profession-EDED11454
Susan McKee
Introduction
Teaching is all about making a lasting difference and impacting on a child’s entire
schooling experience. A teacher’s role is strongly influenced by their values and beliefs, thus
derived from personal experiences, social, cultural and economic changes, impacting on a
settings and explain how my beliefs have been shaped about teaching and learning. My past and
my newly found knowledge has helped me to create a metaphor depicting and explaining the
roles of teachers as Tour Guides. I will then analyse recent social, cultural and economic impacts
Personal experiences
My beliefs about teaching and learning have been shaped by negative and positive experiences
from both primary and secondary school. My most influential experience was in secondary
school was my favourite Japanese teacher, who could be described as warm, gentle, calm,
approachable, inspirational, yet firm and strict. During secondary school, I would spend every
Tuesday afternoon in the Japanese room, where the teacher taught a diversity of students about
the Japanese Culture and Language using a non-didactic method of teaching by encouraging
students to participate through games, activities, cooking and eating Japanese cuisines. During
my last two years of secondary school, my Japanese teacher encouraged me to attend work
placement at a variety of primary schools. It was during my time on placement where my interest
in teaching grew through teaching primary students. During my final year of secondary school,
the Japanese teacher had to teach a large cohort of Year eleven and a small cohort of Year twelve
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EDED11454 Education as a profession 3
students together at the same time. For the most part, classroom management was focused on the
Year elevens with the new curriculum. Being in year twelve it was expected of me to learn
independently using my prior knowledge. I knew that she was there for support if I needed it. I
believe this teacher demonstrated rememberable teaching qualities, thus being the four themes of
and learning and classroom management (Furlong, 2013). With this teacher’s caring, nurturing,
and enthusiastic demeanour, I now feel more confident and capable of achieving dreams of
With these experiences in mind, I now consider the two beliefs I obtained about teaching and
learning. The first belief is meaningful learning. When students learn from their own experiences
with the guidance of a skilled teacher’s support, students now hold the potential to confront real-
life problems, make choices and find solutions. From these, students can build their
motivation, preparing students for personal and professional success later in life. The second
belief is prior knowledge. Without prior knowledge, it is not possible to gain new knowledge
without having some structure developed from prior knowledge to build upon.
One experience from schooling that I believe challenged my beliefs about learning and
teaching was my year seven teacher. The teacher in question negatively placed values on the
classmates “Individuals with disabilities can never become teachers”. I felt marginalised and
very doubtful in my abilities to reach my potentials. The humiliation and doubt has stayed with
me and now informs my desire to respect and value individual differences. By reflecting on the
teacher, I would like to be, I acknowledge that my year seven teacher holds little importance in
shaping my professional identity. My belief from this experience is that individual differences
should be valued. I want to create an environment where students are aware of and accepting of
themselves as they are. Everyone should be treated equally as individuals with no homogeneous
manner.
The metaphor I believe depicts teachers’ complex roles is that of Tour Guide” (Appendix
A). Learning is like a journey; students are the travellers and teachers are the tour guides that
provides map to the destination. Tour guides are used in travelling to explain the fascinating,
foreign sights being experienced. The information they possess and stories they share are used to
encourage tourists to see what mesmerizing in the world is. Tour guides encourage others to
explore on their own, ask questions, and interact actively with their environment. As teachers, it
is our job to guide students on the right path, allowing them to work towards developing
ownership of their learning (Northcote, and Fetherston, 2006). Like tour guides, teachers need to
Knowledge of a subject is essential to providing a solid foundation. Tour guides not only
have extensive knowledge of their subject, they share the knowledge of the matter in
length and in detail. Similarly, teachers have knowledge of curriculum and subject
matter, instructional planning and strategies and diverse students (Mohamed, Valckle and
De Wever, 2017).
Responsibility: Tour guides have a responsibility to the group they are leading,
responsibility to the safety and learning of the tourists. Teachers have a responsibility to
teach and engage students into learning, assess and help students with large and small
issues, the safety of students, and the parents and schools’ expectations.
Guidance: The role of a tour guide is to guide groups through a journey to reach a
destination. Teaching is to guide students on the right path with support to reach their
destination on their own. The role of teaching focuses on enabling students to learn more
on their own to improve the possibilities that each student can realise their potential
Designing a stimulating work environment: Tour guides wants tourists to enjoy, see
and understand what the world has to offer. They use their information and stories to
design an itinerary suited for learners of all ages and cultures. Tourists who remain
passive on their ‘trip’, have sharply limited learning as well as enjoyments of the
experiences. Teachers want students to enjoy this journey of learning and to achieve this
they need to design lessons that will suit all students as well as encouraging them to learn
experiences, and some will only be interested in certain aspects. Likewise, teachers adapt
their practices to cater and meet the individual learning needs, interests, and styles for
the students in the class, providing differentiation, scaffolding learning, responding to the
strengths and needs in order to reach their full potential (Mohamed et al, 2017).
No tour guides are the same, each tour guide has their own style, just like teachers have their
own teaching styles, bring into the classroom their own different beliefs and values and
knowledge. Each individual teacher will add their own personal touch in the way they guide and
build on professional knowledge for the education system within and beyond schools (Frost,
2012) for the social, cultural and economic changes in the 21st century.
Impacts on Education
responsibilities, inclusive education and providing basic needs for students, thus improvements
Socially, the increase in homelessness, drug abuse and domestic violence within the
communities’ impact education (Skilbeck, & Connell, 2004). The exposure of children to
domestic and family violence has a range of negative effects, including poor mental wellbeing,
educational outcomes, a range of behavioural issues and trauma. In Mission Australia’s Youth
Survey (2018), 10% of young people were personally concerned about domestic and family
violence. Teachers have a responsibility to provide a safe and supportive environment, they also
have an ethical and legal responsibility to report any child protection concerns to the authorities.
In this decision making teachers are guided by department student protection procedures
clarifying the responsibilities necessary for mandatory reporting under the Education (General
Provisions) Act 2006 (Qld) and the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) (Department of Education
and Training, 2020). A risk factor associated with domestic and family violence is poverty and
trauma.
An economic change is a rise in low-income families and poverty and trauma. More than
one in six Australian children and young people are living in poverty (Davidson, Saunders,
Bradbury, & Wong, 2018). With families experiencing financial disadvantages, children can fall
behind in learning due to limited access to books and learning materials, clothing, as well as
students attention skills and their ability to self-regulate, thus students can be years behind in
reading and math than their high Socio-economic status counterparts. (Smith Family,2020). This
has differing impacts for teachers, including student’s disengagement in learning, classroom
management and students behaviours, inadequate stationery, and resources, lunch, uniforms, and
participation in activities. In response, if teachers and schools often provide students the basic
needs such as lunches and stationery, the behaviour of students is unlikely to be problematic
Australia is one of the most diverse nations in the world, culturally and linguistically
(Churchill, et. al., 2019). Migrants, Indigenous, and Torres Strait Islander students are all English
as an Additional Language or Dialect Learners (EAL/D). EAL/D learners speak languages other
than Standard Australian English as their first language/s. Around 893 young people reported
speaking a Language Other Than English at home in Queensland (Mission Youth Australia
Survey-2019). EAL/D learners can face several challenges in English speaking schools. These
consist of; frustration learning another language, unfamiliarity with accepting routines and
can feel marginalized. The implication for teachers as the Government's Multicultural Access
and Equity Policy ensures programs and services meet the needs of all Australians, whatever
their cultural and linguistic background (Australian Government Department of Home Affairs,
2017, p.11).
learning, I have compiled a list of personalized, yet professional learning goals intended to
respond to the recent social, cultural and economic changes that have an impact on teachers.
These includes:
• Plan and teach lessons designed to meet the needs of EAL/D learners from the
• Learning and understanding more about poverty and trauma to build stronger
relationships and provide support to help create better futures for students. This can be by
providing resources and materials to students who do not have any or have limited supply,
provide breakfast and lunch options through the school’s tuck-shop. Put money aside so students
can pay for excursions, trips, and activities. Act as a counsellor, friend and ‘parent’ for students
where both students and teachers feel included, supported and positive about themselves
teach it to students. Create calendars celebrating different holidays of cultures. Host cultural fairs
Conclusion
Teaching is all about making a lasting difference and impact on a child’s entire schooling
experience. Just as personal experiences help shape teacher’s values and beliefs, my personal
experiences have helped shaped my beliefs about teaching and learning. Through creating my
metaphor of “teachers as Tour Guides”, I have collected aspects of teaching that I believe depict
and explain the complex roles of teachers. From this assignment I have learned about the
importance of recent social, cultural and economic changes can have on education and the
References
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Appendix A
https://www.middleweb.com/35097/are-you-a-tour-guide-teacher-or-co-explorer/