Review_Your_Role,_Responsibilities,_and_Boundaries_as_a_Teacher

Task 1 – Review your role, responsibilities, and boundaries as a teacher A teacher is someone whose role it is to further another person’s knowledge, skills or experience through practical or theoretical sessions either in a one-to-one or group situation. This is usually through planned, formal sessions that have been developed with the training cycle in mind. The training cycle consists of five stages: This is as the name suggests, a cycle, so it is a continuous process and should be continually evolving. Many people have proposed different theories of learning, such as Kolb’s (1984) Experiental theory whereby people continually learn by reflecting on their experience and adapting their behaviour accordingly. Skinner’s (1974) Behaviourist theory is based on the fact that people will repeat behaviour where there is positive reinforcement and are less likely to repeat something where there is negative reinforcement. The overall need of the students may already have been done by an awarding body/institution that may have written a syllabus or specification. There will still need to be an identification of need on a lower level by the teacher of what is required to achieve the syllabus/specification and then this leads to the responsibility of preparing lesson plans. As a result of recapping the previous lesson, you may identify a gap in students’ learning/understanding that needs addressing before continuing with the planned lesson. As a teacher you also need to be aware of your boundaries and in this instance, this would be the time and resources available. There is a responsibility as a teacher is to ensure that all needs are identified and this extends beyond the learning content of the course. It is important to consider students’ differing learning styles, as described by Fleming (1987), and to ensure that the teaching includes all three examples of this. Visual learners like to read and like pictures, Aural learners enjoy talking about things and listening, and, Kinaesthetic learners like physically trying the activities and using their hands. It is important to keep the learning so that it stimulates as many senses as possible – sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste; Laird (1985) suggested that learning is much more effective if multiple senses are stimulated. Another responsibility is to assess whether a student has any particular learning needs that you may need to consider to enable them to fully participate with the teaching session. Having identified the needs of the students, you will then need to prepare the lesson plan, and the responsibility here is to ensure that all identified needs, aims and objectives are met by the session, whilst being aware of the boundaries which again, are time and resources and also the learning abilities that you are going to teach. Whilst delivering the course, you have a responsibility to engage all students, regardless of their learning styles and to ‘think on your feet’ regarding any need to adapt the session to facilitate learning for all students. If you fail to take into account the different learning styles, you risk some of the students not learning as they may not engage or else ‘switch-off’. The boundaries are being aware of your own limitations and needing to comply wthl all relevant legislation. Assessment is the next stage in the training cycle, and this can be done informally during the teaching session by asking questions to prompt feedback from the students, but also by watching the students’ facial expressions and body language to identify those that are engaging with you and those that may have failed to follow or even worse ‘switched off’. You can also assess what learners have learnt by getting them to answer some questions at the end which can then be marked. This isn’t always going to be possible due to time constraints, and verbal questions will not assess everyone’s learning every time. Evaluation of both the course and yourself is very important as this completes the cycle when done properly as it is the opportunity to re-evaluate the content of the course and influence preparation for the future. Reflective practice is an important responsibility of any professional and is usually a part of the Code of Practice for those professionals. It is always important to also acknowledge those things that you can’t change, but to act on those that you can. Failure to carry out Continuing Professional Development (CPD) will usually lead to disciplinary proceedings from the professional body. As a teacher there are both personal and professional boundaries that you must practice within. On a professional level, you must work within the syllabus or specification laid down for the course to ensure that the learners cover all the necessary elements to fulfil their learning. You are also restricted by time and resources, both physical and financial. For example it may be ideal to take the students on a field-trip which would demonstrate a particular aspect of their learning to them in a way which would make it both highly enjoyable and easy to understand, however, it may not be financially feasible to do this and also the time constraints of the course may not allow it either. On a personal level, it is also extremely important to only practice within your own areas of competence because if you were to attempt to teach outside of these, you may not be imparting the correct learning either in content or to the required level of detail. It is also very important to remain aware at all times of the boundaries of your role as a teacher and what would be expected of you in this role. For instance, if you became aware of a student with personal problems which were affecting their studies it would be appropriate to refer them to the relevant support whether that is learning support, student services, healthcare services or any other appropriate service, but it would be inappropriate to try to resolve those issues yourself. Bibliography Gravells, A. 2008, Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, Third Edition, Exeter, Learning Matters Websites: DUNN, L (2000) Theories of Learning. Oxford Brookes University. Available www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/2_learntch/theories.html. [Accessed 26 September 2010] Institute for Learning, available www.ifl.ac.uk [Accessed 26 September 2010] The Training Cycle Model, available www.thetrainingcycle.co.uk/overview.html [Accessed 26 September 2010] VAK learning test, available www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm [Accessed 26 September 2010]