Professionalism
The Essay
Teaching is a profession which may not be appealing to most students nowadays. Nonetheless, it is one of the most important jobs for one to have. To educate the young minds is not an easy job as it requires skills and knowledge. One may have the natural ability to learn to be a skilful teacher but some requires courses or seminars. To attain professionalism in the teaching profession nowadays may be quite hard, because there are some flaws in our today’s system. Different points of views and different ways to overcome with are discussed through forums and also articles. Professionalism in the teaching profession is important as any other job in this world. A teacher needs to be professional while doing their job and should not be …show more content…
influence by their feelings towards the environment or the students.
Why should we be professional in teaching? There are a lot of reasons to these questions. For a teacher, we are not only dealing with the students but we are dealing with the parents, the community and the school board members. Having favours in classes may not be the best way for a teacher to act. Some teachers are easily influenced by their feelings and in some cases; they may want to take revenge on their students by lowering their marks and grades. This is the act of unprofessionalism. This shouldn’t be happening in our community. Teachers should be fair to their students. Therefore they need to learn to be professional. Besides that, professional is not only based on their personalities towards their work, but also their knowledge on their profession. Having an extra knowledge rather than basic knowledge on their subjects may contribute to be professional in their work. Rather than knowing the basic things in their book, they should have extra out-of-the-box knowledge for their students as it shows their commitment and their interest in that subject.
Other than that, professionalism can be defined as the high standard that you expect from a person who is well trained, having great skills and abilities in a particular job. And professionalism in teaching refers to that peculiar nature of a specific occupation which entails, for 3 commencement as well as continuation, maintenance, individually and collectively, of certain standards in relation to knowledge, skills and behaviour, which standards are such that they ensure the user of the services the profession provides a high, expected and usually objectively measurable level of competence and commitment, and which standards afford the profession a legitimated status, established right to privileged communication and relatively great autonomy, on the basis of the general confidence in the individual and collective maintenance of standards in the profession, from societal supervision or control. These words are from Asif Iftikhar who is a teacher training institute in Lahore. If the definition of ‘professionalism is accepted, there is no doubt that it is in acute shortage in the profession of teaching’. From this article number one, we could see that the problem of attaining professionalism in the teaching profession is not only in our country but it is also in other country like Pakistan. By sharing their points of views on this matter, we could compare and contrast on the differences of how they tackle this subject and what is their opinion on why this matter occurs.
According to her, there are a number of factors that contribute to the lack of professionalism including the absence of any effective system of accreditation, licensing and certification; absence of appropriate standards for the above mentioned system; lack of appropriate pedagogy, curricula, didactic resource base and personnel for teacher training and development; lack of incentives for competent and dedicated people to join the profession; inadequacy of work environment, that is of schools and colleges in order to provide a congenial atmosphere and appropriate set-up for the growth and development of ‘professionalism’; multiplicity of prevailing systems of education and the lack of interaction, which hinder standardisation in the teaching profession; inappropriateness of the pedagogy, curricula and examination techniques used for the education of students; non-availability of funds for dealing with many of the above mentioned problems; socio-cultural constraints and lack of seriousness and concern by policy makers in the government.
Basically, there are several reasons why there are problems in attaining professionalism in the teaching profession. Standards that were set by the government have not been followed by the institution that is giving the professionalism to the teachers. We need to maintain the standard to have professionals at work. By not following the standards that has been stated, it will only corrupt the system even more. Besides that, lack of funds that are needed to improve the quality of the system, contributes to the problem as well. Governments may find that this matter is not important, therefore they’ll take it easy and may not be concern on the effects of it. They should realise that we need professional teachers to boost our education level and at the same time preparing teachers to be professional in their profession. With excellent teachers, they will be producing higher and better educated students which will improve the qualities of their grades and marks. At the same time, we can develop students with first class mind rather than students with third or second class mind. Teachers, themselves should also take serious about this matter as it concerns them. They should be taking courses or any other initiative to be a better teacher in other words to be professional in their field. Why wait for the government to do something or in other words to spoon feed you, when you can do your own research and having the imitative to learn new things and new ways on teaching to be a professional? By having this personality, it may help you in the future to be a better teacher and you will be looked up by your students and they may as well follow your footsteps. Being a teacher should have the passion for knowledge and the passion to change to be a better person as we are the role models for the students.
Therefore, there are some ways suggested by her in order to attain the professionalism in teaching profession that may work which is professional teaching institute for teacher training need to be set up. Nowadays, there is very little realisation by employers of teachers that even a high level degree is not guarantee that person is an effective teacher. Other than that, the surrounding and the environment of the school or colleges are not conducive to professionalism. This is because the curriculum and pedagogy do not require a professional approach and are rarely updated. Besides, the performance and competence of teachers is rarely used as an effective basis for remuneration and promotion; and in-service training programmes are usually not encouraged in the real sense of the world. Thus, accreditation standards should be include existence of programmes in educational institutes to deal with the problems and to ensure that the teachers are committed to students and their learning and know what the subjects that they teach and also know how to teach as well. Teacher also must be able to manage and monitor students learning. Instead of could think systematically about their practices, they also should have regularly contribute papers or hand-out on their subjects, curriculum development and pedagogy. In addition, teachers also should periodically attend approved teacher training programmes and are involved as protégés or as mentors with their peers and colleagues for professional development. Another way is, qualified people in the government and among celebrities should take part in voluntary teaching and in training programmes so that the existing disdain in our culture for teaching as a profession can be replaced with the highest regard for this ‘nation making’ profession. Gradually, more funds should be allocated for making teaching a highly paid and rewarding career. Moreover, teachers who have received a high level in their profession must not be ‘cut off’ from their real work. Despite of teaching, teacher training and development of curriculum, texts and pedagogy but by involving them more in administrative jobs and positions could help in attaining the professionalism. For countryside or rural areas, better didactic, educational and informative resources base may be communicated through television, radio, internet in order to enable the teacher to catch up without actually coming to the city to update their knowledge. Other than that, seminars and course must be conducted in order to increase the awareness and enhance the sense of responsibility in the public and government regarding professionalism in teaching.
There are different ways on how to tackle these problems. However the most important thing would be to take note on how to fix the problems and to take it serious. Rather than, just discussing and taking suggestions but not doing anything about it, we should take some actions on the matter. There are other ideas on how we should solve this matter but it will never be done unless the governments take it seriously. It is our responsibility to upgrade the system and to produce better qualities students. We should not hesitate to make changes in our education system as we are talking about moulding the future generations that are going to lead the country some day. Their future should be taken in consideration and we shouldn’t jeopardise their future just because we are too lazy to make changes for the better. In conclusion, we should be able to fix this problems rather than just doing nothing about it and take it lightly.
There is also a fresh view from the Aspen Institute that claims the professionalism should not be measured only by standardised test; preparation is paramount to ensuring that every student has a qualified teacher.
All students, in order to meet the business community’s demands for higher academic standards (fuelled by our 21st century global economy); need smart, well-prepared teachers who not only know their subjects, but also how to teach them. Professionalism advocates call for well-paid teachers who are empowered to make decisions in the best interest of their clients, students and families, not the textbook and testing industry and the narrow interests of politicians and administrators “far removed from the classroom.” (Senior Fellow Judy Wurtzel, 2006). She also said that “Teachers (need to) exercise professional judgment about how to carry out their teaching each day in order to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for their students. In exercising professional judgment, teachers base their decisions on evidence about what works for students in general as well as for the particular students in their classroom that year. Where evidence is not compelling, teachers work in their own classrooms and with others to test out and evaluate the effectiveness of practices in improving student outcomes. When student performance is weak in essential building blocks of learning or where student mobility is high, teachers are particularly rigorous about using agreed upon practices and protocols to accelerate learning and ensure consistency for
students.”
Students play a part in this matter too. Different students may be different. As a professional teacher, one should know how to approach different students with different techniques or approach. The level of knowledge of students may differ from another; therefore it is important for us to know how to approach every student. Some student may be a slow learner and needs more attention compare to those who could catch up with the lessons much faster. Moreover, teachers should be trained to maintain the standard of the qualities of their students and not forgetting to increase the student’s achievement to a higher level. New things, new approaches are needed to have a successful teaching environment. All of these is to attract the students to be interested in the classes that may not be interesting, example history. Teachers should be trained on different skills and different styles of learning to teach the students. Some subjects may need more action rather than just sitting inside the classroom and listening to the teacher speak. Maybe by asking them to work in groups or making presentation or act will lighten up the mood of the class and this will make teaching easier for the teachers and also at the same time, the lesson that the students learn will be remembered by them. They won’t get easily bored and they will be concentrating on the lesson from the beginning till the end. In addition to that, relationship between the teacher and the student will be closer as they are having a fun lesson in the class. Students will find the lesson is interesting, therefore increase their curiosity and excitement for the class. Besides that, by looking at their teacher teaching them in such a professional way, this may lead to some students having the interest to be a teacher one day. During the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) period, the Government will undertake measures to systematically improve the quality of the new teacher intake and to upgrade the quality and professionalism of all existing teachers in the system. The Government will seek to elevate the status of teaching as the profession of choice by highlighting and reinforcing the following four-value propositions which are financially rewarding, career-building and prestigious and Nation Building. Financially rewarding where the teaching profession is already among the highest paying public sector profession at entry-level; career-building which Under the New Deal for Teachers, the teaching profession will have excellent career prospects, with extensive opportunities for professional development, as well as an accelerated career path for performers; and also prestigious which the teaching profession is a highly selective and prestigious career option with stringent evaluation processes. It is a highly competitive career reserved only for the best candidates; and last but not least the nation-building where the teaching profession is responsible for moulding the future leaders of Malaysia, and is one of the most critical professions to drive Malaysia towards high-income nation status. Steps will be taken to improve the consistency and quality of the practicum experience of teacher trainees in terms of increasing time spent on practicum training, and engaging experienced teachers with strong counselling skills to supervise trainees.
Teaching is a profession which may not be appealing to most students nowadays. Nonetheless, it is one of the most important jobs for one to have. To educate the young minds is not an easy job as it requires skills and knowledge. One may have the natural ability to learn to be a skilful teacher but some requires courses or seminars. To attain professionalism in the teaching profession nowadays may be quite hard, because there are some flaws in our today’s system. Different points of views and different ways to overcome with are discussed through forums and also articles. Professionalism in the teaching profession is important as any other job in this world. A teacher needs to be professional while doing their job and should not be …show more content…
influence by their feelings towards the environment or the students.
Why should we be professional in teaching? There are a lot of reasons to these questions. For a teacher, we are not only dealing with the students but we are dealing with the parents, the community and the school board members. Having favours in classes may not be the best way for a teacher to act. Some teachers are easily influenced by their feelings and in some cases; they may want to take revenge on their students by lowering their marks and grades. This is the act of unprofessionalism. This shouldn’t be happening in our community. Teachers should be fair to their students. Therefore they need to learn to be professional. Besides that, professional is not only based on their personalities towards their work, but also their knowledge on their profession. Having an extra knowledge rather than basic knowledge on their subjects may contribute to be professional in their work. Rather than knowing the basic things in their book, they should have extra out-of-the-box knowledge for their students as it shows their commitment and their interest in that subject.
Other than that, professionalism can be defined as the high standard that you expect from a person who is well trained, having great skills and abilities in a particular job. And professionalism in teaching refers to that peculiar nature of a specific occupation which entails, for 3 commencement as well as continuation, maintenance, individually and collectively, of certain standards in relation to knowledge, skills and behaviour, which standards are such that they ensure the user of the services the profession provides a high, expected and usually objectively measurable level of competence and commitment, and which standards afford the profession a legitimated status, established right to privileged communication and relatively great autonomy, on the basis of the general confidence in the individual and collective maintenance of standards in the profession, from societal supervision or control. These words are from Asif Iftikhar who is a teacher training institute in Lahore. If the definition of ‘professionalism is accepted, there is no doubt that it is in acute shortage in the profession of teaching’. From this article number one, we could see that the problem of attaining professionalism in the teaching profession is not only in our country but it is also in other country like Pakistan. By sharing their points of views on this matter, we could compare and contrast on the differences of how they tackle this subject and what is their opinion on why this matter occurs.
According to her, there are a number of factors that contribute to the lack of professionalism including the absence of any effective system of accreditation, licensing and certification; absence of appropriate standards for the above mentioned system; lack of appropriate pedagogy, curricula, didactic resource base and personnel for teacher training and development; lack of incentives for competent and dedicated people to join the profession; inadequacy of work environment, that is of schools and colleges in order to provide a congenial atmosphere and appropriate set-up for the growth and development of ‘professionalism’; multiplicity of prevailing systems of education and the lack of interaction, which hinder standardisation in the teaching profession; inappropriateness of the pedagogy, curricula and examination techniques used for the education of students; non-availability of funds for dealing with many of the above mentioned problems; socio-cultural constraints and lack of seriousness and concern by policy makers in the government.
Basically, there are several reasons why there are problems in attaining professionalism in the teaching profession. Standards that were set by the government have not been followed by the institution that is giving the professionalism to the teachers. We need to maintain the standard to have professionals at work. By not following the standards that has been stated, it will only corrupt the system even more. Besides that, lack of funds that are needed to improve the quality of the system, contributes to the problem as well. Governments may find that this matter is not important, therefore they’ll take it easy and may not be concern on the effects of it. They should realise that we need professional teachers to boost our education level and at the same time preparing teachers to be professional in their profession. With excellent teachers, they will be producing higher and better educated students which will improve the qualities of their grades and marks. At the same time, we can develop students with first class mind rather than students with third or second class mind. Teachers, themselves should also take serious about this matter as it concerns them. They should be taking courses or any other initiative to be a better teacher in other words to be professional in their field. Why wait for the government to do something or in other words to spoon feed you, when you can do your own research and having the imitative to learn new things and new ways on teaching to be a professional? By having this personality, it may help you in the future to be a better teacher and you will be looked up by your students and they may as well follow your footsteps. Being a teacher should have the passion for knowledge and the passion to change to be a better person as we are the role models for the students.
Therefore, there are some ways suggested by her in order to attain the professionalism in teaching profession that may work which is professional teaching institute for teacher training need to be set up. Nowadays, there is very little realisation by employers of teachers that even a high level degree is not guarantee that person is an effective teacher. Other than that, the surrounding and the environment of the school or colleges are not conducive to professionalism. This is because the curriculum and pedagogy do not require a professional approach and are rarely updated. Besides, the performance and competence of teachers is rarely used as an effective basis for remuneration and promotion; and in-service training programmes are usually not encouraged in the real sense of the world. Thus, accreditation standards should be include existence of programmes in educational institutes to deal with the problems and to ensure that the teachers are committed to students and their learning and know what the subjects that they teach and also know how to teach as well. Teacher also must be able to manage and monitor students learning. Instead of could think systematically about their practices, they also should have regularly contribute papers or hand-out on their subjects, curriculum development and pedagogy. In addition, teachers also should periodically attend approved teacher training programmes and are involved as protégés or as mentors with their peers and colleagues for professional development. Another way is, qualified people in the government and among celebrities should take part in voluntary teaching and in training programmes so that the existing disdain in our culture for teaching as a profession can be replaced with the highest regard for this ‘nation making’ profession. Gradually, more funds should be allocated for making teaching a highly paid and rewarding career. Moreover, teachers who have received a high level in their profession must not be ‘cut off’ from their real work. Despite of teaching, teacher training and development of curriculum, texts and pedagogy but by involving them more in administrative jobs and positions could help in attaining the professionalism. For countryside or rural areas, better didactic, educational and informative resources base may be communicated through television, radio, internet in order to enable the teacher to catch up without actually coming to the city to update their knowledge. Other than that, seminars and course must be conducted in order to increase the awareness and enhance the sense of responsibility in the public and government regarding professionalism in teaching.
There are different ways on how to tackle these problems. However the most important thing would be to take note on how to fix the problems and to take it serious. Rather than, just discussing and taking suggestions but not doing anything about it, we should take some actions on the matter. There are other ideas on how we should solve this matter but it will never be done unless the governments take it seriously. It is our responsibility to upgrade the system and to produce better qualities students. We should not hesitate to make changes in our education system as we are talking about moulding the future generations that are going to lead the country some day. Their future should be taken in consideration and we shouldn’t jeopardise their future just because we are too lazy to make changes for the better. In conclusion, we should be able to fix this problems rather than just doing nothing about it and take it lightly.
There is also a fresh view from the Aspen Institute that claims the professionalism should not be measured only by standardised test; preparation is paramount to ensuring that every student has a qualified teacher.
All students, in order to meet the business community’s demands for higher academic standards (fuelled by our 21st century global economy); need smart, well-prepared teachers who not only know their subjects, but also how to teach them. Professionalism advocates call for well-paid teachers who are empowered to make decisions in the best interest of their clients, students and families, not the textbook and testing industry and the narrow interests of politicians and administrators “far removed from the classroom.” (Senior Fellow Judy Wurtzel, 2006). She also said that “Teachers (need to) exercise professional judgment about how to carry out their teaching each day in order to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for their students. In exercising professional judgment, teachers base their decisions on evidence about what works for students in general as well as for the particular students in their classroom that year. Where evidence is not compelling, teachers work in their own classrooms and with others to test out and evaluate the effectiveness of practices in improving student outcomes. When student performance is weak in essential building blocks of learning or where student mobility is high, teachers are particularly rigorous about using agreed upon practices and protocols to accelerate learning and ensure consistency for
students.”
Students play a part in this matter too. Different students may be different. As a professional teacher, one should know how to approach different students with different techniques or approach. The level of knowledge of students may differ from another; therefore it is important for us to know how to approach every student. Some student may be a slow learner and needs more attention compare to those who could catch up with the lessons much faster. Moreover, teachers should be trained to maintain the standard of the qualities of their students and not forgetting to increase the student’s achievement to a higher level. New things, new approaches are needed to have a successful teaching environment. All of these is to attract the students to be interested in the classes that may not be interesting, example history. Teachers should be trained on different skills and different styles of learning to teach the students. Some subjects may need more action rather than just sitting inside the classroom and listening to the teacher speak. Maybe by asking them to work in groups or making presentation or act will lighten up the mood of the class and this will make teaching easier for the teachers and also at the same time, the lesson that the students learn will be remembered by them. They won’t get easily bored and they will be concentrating on the lesson from the beginning till the end. In addition to that, relationship between the teacher and the student will be closer as they are having a fun lesson in the class. Students will find the lesson is interesting, therefore increase their curiosity and excitement for the class. Besides that, by looking at their teacher teaching them in such a professional way, this may lead to some students having the interest to be a teacher one day. During the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) period, the Government will undertake measures to systematically improve the quality of the new teacher intake and to upgrade the quality and professionalism of all existing teachers in the system. The Government will seek to elevate the status of teaching as the profession of choice by highlighting and reinforcing the following four-value propositions which are financially rewarding, career-building and prestigious and Nation Building. Financially rewarding where the teaching profession is already among the highest paying public sector profession at entry-level; career-building which Under the New Deal for Teachers, the teaching profession will have excellent career prospects, with extensive opportunities for professional development, as well as an accelerated career path for performers; and also prestigious which the teaching profession is a highly selective and prestigious career option with stringent evaluation processes. It is a highly competitive career reserved only for the best candidates; and last but not least the nation-building where the teaching profession is responsible for moulding the future leaders of Malaysia, and is one of the most critical professions to drive Malaysia towards high-income nation status. Steps will be taken to improve the consistency and quality of the practicum experience of teacher trainees in terms of increasing time spent on practicum training, and engaging experienced teachers with strong counselling skills to supervise trainees.