Analyse the Boundaries That You Would Need to Maintain as a Teacher and Evaluate These Responsibilities with Other Professionals.

Analyse the boundaries that you would need to maintain as a teacher and evaluate these responsibilities with other professionals.

I will be teaching Pre-Entry to Entry level 3 learners with mixed learning abilities, backgrounds, ethnic origins and gender. The age range will be 18 years to 65 years old. The class can consist of native and non-native speakers.

As a teacher it is extremely important to have a boundary as this keeps professionalism.

A teacher needs to maintain a strong and confident example to learners and at the same time be a role model.

If a teacher comes across as weak and vulnerable, the learners will most likely take advantage of him/her and also not be confident of their ability to teach.

Younger learners may test the teacher’s ability to handle misbehaved learners e.g. try to be disruptive so that the teacher cannot take charge of the class and teach.

However, if the teacher demonstrates a strong and confident image and conducts him/herself positively from the start, the likelihood of learners causing problems is less.

A positive image allows the teacher to be portrayed as robust and poised which in turn gains respect from their learner. In return the teacher has to respect their learners and give them their respect where it is due.

It is vastly important that the teacher maintains the learner’s confidentiality at all times and deals with any matter professionally and sensibly. Authority can also give a person the opportunity to abuse another.

Similarly teachers should keep personal perspectives/opinions to themselves. This includes any prejudices they may have to any cultures or people etc. The teacher’s personal views must not at any time affect their relationship with the learner or reflect in their teaching.

Teachers should not bias to an individual/group. They must treat all learners equally and respect and value them equally. If they do not do this then they are not complying with the equality and diversity policy in their organisation. Further they are not being professional and are being discriminating.

Teachers should not have private relationships with students as this is inappropriate and against most teaching organisation’s policy.

This follows a similar rule to GPs who are not allowed to have a relationship with a patient who is registered in their practise. The reason behind this is that they may prescribe a medication incorrectly due to their personal relationship being good or bad. GPs may also be negligent to the patient due to incidents they have had in their relationship. Hence to avoid this GPs are not allowed to have relationships with their patients.

Similarly a teacher can mark his/her learner’s work biasedly if they are in a relationship. Further keeping a professional conduct in classrooms may also become difficult due to circumstances in their private life e.g. if the couple are going through divorce/break-up this may impact on their performance as a learner in class activities and in teaching for the teacher.

In conclusion, it is important that teachers maintain a professional boundary with their students and work colleagues in order to practise their teaching career in a professional manner and impartially.