Roles_&_Responsibilities_of_an_Fe_Teacher

TASK 5 The purpose of this task is to explore my roles and responsibilities as an FE teacher as well as other teachers within my organisation and also discuss the impact of my professional and personal skills on my learners. Before embarking on my PGCE program, I was under the impression that the teacher’s role is mainly to teach their subject specialism and that was it. I later found out from the program and particularly from my teaching practice that there is much more to being an FE teacher than I thought. My roles and responsibilities as an FE teacher is numerous, varied and wide ranging. My roles and responsibilities as an FE teacher start with perhaps the most obvious; the development of my learners’ education to the less obvious or less known responsibility of ensuring and maintaining the well being of my learners and being a role model. Others include; writing schemes of work and assignment portfolios, liaising and communicating with employers and parents as well as pastoral duties. The responsibility of developing my learners’ education begins with an initial assessment of my learners; the process of assessing and recording the existing skills of my learners to enable me identify the level of achievement and also plan for their future needs. The next stage in my role of developing my learners’ education is the conduct of diagnostic assessment to identify any gaps in learning that the learners might have. This information enables me and other teachers on the team to design appropriate program of study for the learners and also develop suitable lesson plans and activities to encourage and facilitate learning. Record keeping (administration)is another responsibility of mine as an FE teacher. This involves keeping records on a wide range of issues and areas such as teaching, attendance, punctuality, achievement and retention. This enables me as a teacher and also other members of the team to monitor learners’ progress on their respective courses and also where applicable enter them for exams and tests. My responsibilities also include teaching my subject specialism (Accounting and Finance)and other related specialisms (human resources, marketing and economics) and ensuring that core skills are incorporated in my lessons to enable my learners develop the capabilities they need to be full, active and responsible members of society. Last but not the least of my responsibilities as an FE teacher is the need to review and reflect on my teaching methodologies to assess the impact my lessons and general teaching practice have had on my learners. The outcome of this assessment enables me to identify any weaknesses and or strengths that I can use to develop both my lessons and teaching. In carrying out all these roles and responsibilities, it is also my duty to act within the professional codes of conduct issued by my institution, the IFL and my professional accountancy body (ACCA). As a professional teacher, there are some essential personal and professional qualities and competences that I am required to possess, these include; * Content competence * Pedagogical competence * Dealing with sensitive topics or issues * Student development * Dual relationship with students * Confidentiality * Respect for colleagues * Valid assessment of students * Respect for institutions At the heart of all the roles and responsibilities discussed above is the challenging but equally exciting role of interacting and communicating on many different levels with people from various backgrounds, cultures and upbringing including learners, parents, the police, social services and employers Personally, I believe that teaching offers me the opportunity to be a role model and this enables me to make an impact on the lives of many people that I come into contact with during my profession as a teacher which is likely to stay with them forever or at least assist them to move on to their next level of development in both their personal, academic or professional lives. It is therefore important that in executing my role as a professional teacher, particularly in developing my learners’ education, I ensure that I do not only limit my teaching to my subject specialism, but also enable them develop their core skills in numeracy, literacy and ICT. I have come to realise during my short practice as a professional teacher that, teachers are usually too quick to make assumptions and they are the very last people to change their minds on issues concerning their learners. I am guilty of this behaviour myself. For instance, most teachers including myself, who encounter challenging behaviour with a learner or a class, automatically assumes that learner or class is difficult instead of reflecting and investigating the possible causes of those behaviours. As Dalemont, (1976) and Hargreaves et al (1975) wrote, we cannot dispute the existence of “grapevines” among both students and teachers that can establish reputations of students as likely trouble makers. I have learnt as part of my reflective practice, research and personal experience of dealing with a very “troublesome” class at my placement college that, every learner needs to be given a chance and teachers should endeavour to investigate the causes of the so called “troublesome” behaviours and find solutions to them rather than just labelling them.