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Role, responsibilities & boundaries of a teacher A teacher’s role is multi-faceted and diverse, and includes activities ranging from administration and record keeping to delivering and evaluation of material. Tasks could include: One of the main roles of a teacher is to facilitate learning. To ensure efficient teaching we must first understand how people learn. There are many different schools of thought and theories regarding this but they all agree on one thing – all people learn differently. Learning theory in essence is not about the conditions required for effective learning: it is for the practitioner to extract and interpret elements from theories and apply what is perceived as relevant to his or her own teaching. (Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education, Second Edition, Pg. 69) Some of the main Learning theories are: Cognitivist (Bloom), behaviourism, Gestalt, andragogy Learning styles of students also determine the teaching methodology and course content. Ensuring students learn effectively through understanding of their learning styles and needs. There are other factors like motivation and barriers that affect learning. ‘Motivation is regarded by experienced and inexperienced teachers alike as a prerequisite for effective learning, and the greatest challenge that many teachers face is to make their students want to learn.’ (Geoff Petty (2004) Teaching Today, A Practical Guide, 3rd Edition, Nelson Thornes) Communication and learning requires that the following chain works perfectly: What I mean – what I say – what they hear – what they understand (Geoff Petty (2004) Teaching Today, A Practical Guide, 3rd Edition, Nelson Thornes) The role of a teacher, according to Robert Gagné, is ‘to identify the motives of students and channel them into activities that accomplish educational goals’. (Teaching and Training in Post-Compulsory Education, Second Edition, Pg. 69) I feel this definition nicely summarises the ‘training cycle’ which the role usually follows. The training cycle involves 5 stages: • Identifying needs and planning • Designing • Facilitating/Delivery • Assessing • Evaluating As a trainer facilitating pre-employment training courses, I follow the said stages when running a course. Before learners are enrolled onto the course they are required to successfully pass a level 1 literacy and numeracy test to ensure that these factors will not adversely affect learning. A one-two-one interview allows me to identify any special needs or requirements (dyslexia, sensory impairment, etc.) learners may have. The planning stage involves organising a suitable and well equipped venue and creating session plans. The organisation I work for generally provides hand-outs but occasionally I have to create my own. During the course I use various activities and resources to facilitate learning. These could include group activities, question-answer sessions, discussions, PowerPoint presentations or role-plays. While teaching, I regularly ask learners questions to check for understanding. I also assess them through quizzes and test. At the end of the course I make sure I get feedback back from the learners in order to improve myself.