Professionalism in Practice - Term Paper Example

1. Teaching is a noble profession in that all the other careers develop from the hard work of teachers who tirelessly groom each individual, both educationally and academically from the grassroots level of infancy throughout primary and secondary levels where the students would now be ready to take up different professional qualifications from colleges and universities. However, the profession of teaching requires a high degree of commitment in ensuring that the children can achieve their full educational potential as well as trying to establish a fair, respectful, constructive relationship with them. Therefore, taking up a teaching profession is not by chance in most cases. Most practicing teachers believe that to become a teacher is a ‘calling,’ where one just feels indebted to take up a socially responsible profession that would help shape the society in a positive and generally accepted way. Thus according to Howard Sharron (1987), by virtue of being a teacher, one would have committed him/herself to answer the calling of helping others gain knowledge. In most cases, it is out of love of doing good things that would promote peace and tranquility in the society. Basically, one main reason for an individual to decide to take up the teaching profession is the need to instill good morals and values in pupils so as to create a habitable environment comprising of knowledgeable people who use the power of reasoning in conducting themselves in their daily lives. Instilling discipline among children is one of the core tenets of teaching as this would contribute towards the development of a generation that can distinguish between what is wrong and good. This would be the stepping stone of creating a crime free environment as in most cases people are redeemed by education from behaving in a rogue manner. Haim Ginott, (1972:9), sums it all when he says, “school is a perfect preparation for the world.” Another reason of becoming a teacher is the commitment to be part and parcel of developing the educational background of pupils hence improving the country’s literacy rate. A country that has got a higher literacy rate stands better chances of economic development and growth because educated people are enlightened in most of the things hence they are able to make informed decisions that would benefit them. 2. A teacher in every school is expected to uphold some values that define the profession. First and foremost, a teacher has a great responsibility of molding the values of children since they spend a great deal of time together at school. In other words a teacher acts more like a parent hence there is need to be a role model and also being exemplary to the children. Usually young children of primary school age children often imitate their elders, hence if the teacher behaves badly in front of the pupils, he would set a bad precedent as the children would likely to copy him thinking that it is the right way of doing things. A teacher therefore ought to be disciplined and exemplary where he is supposed to lead by example. Another very important value that should be recognised by teachers is the aspect of punctuality. A teacher must always set a good precedence of keeping time as a way of showing the significance of time in every aspect of our lives. A teacher should also show a high level of knowledge of teaching content so as to avoid negative perceptions by the pupils. 3. As a teacher, one would expect a high level of discipline among students. In actual fact, discipline among students forms the back born of the teaching profession. If the children lack discipline, it would be very difficult to control them. All the pupils in school are expected to uphold the laid down rules and regulations that spell out clearly the expected kind of behaviour from each and every pupil. Fostering discipline among children is the greatest responsibility of teachers as they spend most of the time with the kids. Teachers are the ‘second’ parents of the children they teach hence they should strive by all means necessary to instill discipline among the students. Thus according to Hain Ginott, (1972:60), “a teacher’s best antidote to misbehavior is willingness to be helpful.” A teacher should be willing to help others do good things. As teachers, we would certainly expect improved performance of pupils in their school work as our competence would be determined by the results of the children. Poor results would undermine our credibility as effective teachers. Teachers are generally mollified by the beautiful passes of their students hence high expectations of their success. 4. We really need to accept and tolerate different values due to differences in backgrounds where we come from. People have different levels of needs as outlined by Abraham Maslow (Ben Swanepoel et al 2003). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is probably the best known version of the self actualization model of human behaviour. According to Maslow, we all wish to fulfill our needs in one way or the other and people have different needs at a particular given time. These values mentioned above include the physiological, safety, social, self esteem and self actualization which basically make up the human behaviour. In this case, it can be noted that each and every individual has his own needs and values which ought to be respected. It is therefore, very important to accept other people’s values given that we have different backgrounds. The environments where we hail from also dictate one’s values. Indeed, we come from different cultural persuasions and this speaks volumes about the fact that we do have different values that are culture specific. It is against this background that we must learn to tolerate different values of different people as we hail from different societies. 5. Team work is always important when working with others. The main objective of teaching is basically achieving good results from pupils, morally, socially and academically especially. Therefore, working in a team requires acceptance and tolerance of different views and values of other workmates as a way of establishing a coherent team that is bound by sharing the same vision and goals. In this regard, the spirit of cooperation must exist as a way of safeguarding the interests of education for the benefit of children. Failure to cooperate would result in unnecessary misunderstandings that are detrimental to the provision of education to the pupils. Team work refers to the process of pulling the resources together in one direction with the aim of achieving one goal. It is very important to work together and cooperate in an organisation in an effort to achieve different objectives. The ability to work with others in a team is a reflection of discipline which is a pre-requisite in the teaching industry. 6. Observation refers to the process of monitoring something then gather the results for interpretation as a way of trying to establish the areas that would need attention. Therefore, one can actually assess performance of pupils through observation as they play or perform other educational activities. Observation therefore is a requisite skill that allows teachers to monitor performance of the children as well as progress if there is any. By observing the pupils, a teacher might be better positioned to quickly identify the areas of weakness in every child and take the appropriate action that would seek to rectify the anomaly or problem if there is any. Observing the child’s behavior gives a clear picture of his or her true character as it would reflect a clear picture of how he behaves. A teacher should be able to observe and gain true knowledge of his pupils so as to have a controlling authority based on the results from general observation. 7. As a new profession, teaching seems to be a very interesting and challenging job which requires mastery of interpreting the curriculum and high level of teaching content. Teaching is not an easy to do job but requires total commitment and a broad understanding of a wide range of things. Usually it is not a very easy task to impart knowledge to other people given that there would be very likely chances of encountering some form of resistance from the children. As a teacher you ought to be prepared to meet a lot of challenges especially in instilling discipline to the children. A teacher is also likely to meet different challenges in his dispensation of duties. One of the challenges is that other children are slow learners and some have different incapabilities but at the end of the day, they ought to gain knowledge in one way or the other from the teacher. Therefore a teacher has to be committed and try to treat all the children fairly without favour. A teacher also has to be patient with all the children as they develop differently hence this a bit challenging profession. On the other hand, the teaching profession gives the opportunity to different individuals to asses their level of performance through the reflection of previous results. These results would motivate the individuals to improve their skills and keep on doing the good job of educating other people to know good things. Over and above, teaching is a noble profession that requires true commitment to achieve the goals of producing high results among the learners which in turn help the growth of a healthy country with knowledgeable citizens. References 1. Hain Ginott (1972), Teacher and child: A book for parents and teachers, McMillan Company, New York. 2. James Mannion (2004), The Everything: Alternative Careers book. Leave Office behind and embark on a new adventure, Adams Media, Avon Massachusetts. 3. Howard Sharron (1987), Changing Children’s Minds: Feuerstein’s revolution in the Teaching of Intelligence, Souvenir Press, Great Britain. 4. Marie Stubbs (2003), Ahead of the class: A story of triumph over adversity through determination and hard work. John Murray Publishers, London. 5. Ben Swanepoel et al (2003), Human Resources Management: Theory and Practice, 3rd Edition, Juta & Company Ltd, S.A. ; Read More