Competences

Opportunity or Constraint?

Sterling Presentation

28 May 2009

‘Teaching: the Reflective Profession’

Presentation

This presentation will cover:• Background• Introduction and the approach taken by the

Council• Teaching: the Reflective Profession• The Competences• Teaching as an evidence informed profession• Conclusion

The Approach Taken

Teaching is all about mastery but is never far from mystery

Teaching is a daily exercise in vulnerability

Teaching transcends the acquisition of competences and is rooted in values and emotional connectedness

The Nature of Teaching

Teachers, in discharging their responsibilities, engage first and foremost as individuals with a sense of moral purpose and responsibility and it is in the interaction between mission, ethical understanding, and professional knowledge that the mystery that is never far from the heart of good teaching, is to be found.

Teaching can never be reduced to a set of discrete skills to be mastered

in some mechanical process of assimilation. To adopt such a

reductionist approach would be to deny the intellectual basis for our

work and the richness of the ongoing dialogue and learning that enhances our professional practice.

Quality

Reflection

Competences

Evaluation

School Improvement/Enhanced Pupil Performance

Teaching: the Reflective Profession

Teaching: the Reflective Profession

• Provide a basis for collaborative planning within a school-based community of practice

• Support the development of an evidence informed profession

• Support the development of a whole school teaching and learning strategy

The Reflective and Activist Teacher

Overview of the Teacher Competences and the

Competence Statements and Phase Exemplars

Overview of the Teacher Competences

Professional Competences: 27 in number

Professional Values and Practice Professional Knowledge and Understanding

Professional Skills and Application:Planning and Leading

Teaching and LearningAssessment

Reflective Practice

‘The Reflective Teacher’ (ETI)... the teacher’s role is to:

• reflect on the provisions made for pupils;• assess the quality of provision within their

own classroom; and• decide how the quality of teaching is

contributing to improvement throughout the school.

Augmenting ‘The Reflective Teacher’

‘In this context, reflective practice needs to be internalised as part of a teacher’s identity; it cannot be bolted on as an additional skill, rather it becomes part of the professional mind-set and is integrated within all the competences in a holistic way’. (Teaching: the Reflective Profession pg. 12)

Competence 6

Teachers will have developed a knowledge and understanding of the factors that promote and hinder effective learning, and beware of the need to provide for the holistic development of the child

Dimensions of Development Evidenced by

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• greater complexity in teaching e.g. in handling mixed-ability classes, reluctant learners, classes marked by significant diversity, or inter-disciplinary work;

• the deployment of a wider range of teaching strategies;

• the ability to adduce evidence of one’s effectiveness;

• basing teaching on a wider range of evidence, reading and research;

Dimensions of Development 2

• extending one’s impact beyond the classroom and fuller participation in the life of the school;

• the capacity to exercise autonomy, to innovate, to improvise; and

• a pronounced capacity for self-criticism and self-improvement; the ability to impact on colleagues through mentoring and coaching, modelling good practice, contributing to the literature on teaching and learning and the public discussion of professional issues, leading staff development, all based on the capacity to theorise about policy and practice.

‘Making Educational Research Accessible: A survey of stakeholder views on the potential for creating a Northern Ireland repository for education – related research’ by Bryn Holmes, John Gardner, Debbie Galanouli and Ruth Leitch 2005.

Recent Developments

Research Lesson Studies A peer-to-peer approach which has

recently attracted considerable interest in schools in the UK (see for example Dudley, P. 2005)

• Teaching: the Reflective Profession a seminal document

• The ‘Teacher Competences’ are situated and embedded within the concept of a ‘Reflective and Activist Professional’

• Career-long and only meaningful in context, never fully mastered

• Aligned and supportive of the ‘School Improvement’ agenda

• Is a ‘living document’ will develop ‘in use’

Competences

Opportunity or Constraint?

Building Dynamic Professional Communities