Certification In Education And Training Essay

Task 1 1, Explain what your main role & responsibilities are as a teacher/trainer in Education and Training (1.1) My role as a Teacher  As a teacher, one of my main roles is to motivate my learners, to develop their ability to learn also to develop my learner’s aspiration to learn. When you train to teach you read about delivering training and how to facilitating learning, but in reality you do much more than that, your role as a teacher is not just about teaching your subject or preparing learners for assessment. The focus of your role as a teacher I feel relates very much to inspiring your learners to change and develop their personal, social and professional skills to the best of their ability. My ultimate aim is to enable my learners to understand how to take responsibility for their own development. I would do this by planning and preparing teaching and learning activities that take account of the needs and well-being of individual learners as well as groups of learners. Some key aspects of my role as a teacher may be: Carrying out initial and/or diagnostic assessments. Clear communication with learners, other professionals. Promoting appropriate behaviour and respect for others. Identifying and meeting individual learner’s needs. Being aware of the support available. Being organised. Being reflective, (which means learning from successes as well as mistakes). My responsibilities as a teacher?  As a teacher, my responsibility is to ensure that learners are enrolled onto the correct course that is suited for them and to make sure of meeting their needs and abilities, also i need to ensure that my learner is on the appropriate course in terms of meeting their award and organizational requirements. To do this you I will probably have to be responsible for the following: Promoting a safe and supportive learning environment. Promoting equality and diversity. Adhering to legislation and codes of practice. Modelling professional behaviour at all times to inspire my learners. Ensuring my own professional development.  Working with a team of professionals in order to improve the experience and achievement of my learners. Designing or contributing to a design of the course curriculum. Negotiating appropriate learning targets for groups and individuals and make sure their appropriate to their needs and aspirations as well as the course aims. Planning learning activities based on the needs of your group and specific individual needs within the group. Amending or designing learning resources that are varied or appropriate to the award aims, to intellectually challenge my learners. Keeping accurate records to contribute to your organisations quality improvement strategy. This will include keeping accurate records of recruitment, retention, achievement and progression of your group, as well as evaluation of how these can be improved; Keeping accurate records of individual learners’ progress and future needs. (This is often recorded in the form of an individual learning plan). Providing learners with appropriate points of referral as required. (Word count 467) 2, Explain how your role involves working with other professionals and what the boundaries are between your teaching role and other professional roles. (3.1, 3.2) â€Å"Professionalism requires us to maintain appropriate standards and fulfil our responsibilities to learners, institutions and colleagues† (Francis and Gould, 2009). This can be achieved by setting professional and personal boundaries which will enable us to be clear about what our limits are and what our professional role involves. It is our responsibility to identify areas outside of the professional boundaries of a teacher, either because of lack of necessary skills or expertise or because it is inappropriate for the teacher to deal with it. This is when external support from other professionals will be required and it is important to identify the appropriate colleague to which to refer the matter. For example a student who is having financial problems should be referred to the appropriate colleague within the institution. With personal matters it is important not to given preferential treatment to one or a group of learners and to treat  everyone equally. Teachers should not give out personal information or get personally involved with a student e.g. not join social networking sites etc. You should avoid touching students inappropriately or give preferential treatment to some students and not others. These boundaries could have a negative effect on us as teachers as well as other professionals within the organisation. We therefore need to deal with these boundaries by referring to the Institute for Learning’s Code of Practice (2008) which outlines the behaviours expected of teachers. (Word count 234) 3, Summarise the key aspics of legislation, regulatory requirements and codes of practice relating to your role and responsibilities as a teacher/trainer. (1.2) . Teachers always have to protect themselves and the best way to do it is to follow the rules of the code of practice. Being a teacher makes me automatically an example for my students so therefore I must not discriminate, abuse (physically or verbally), dress inappropriate, and be late or turn up for teaching intoxicated. The Code of Professional Practice comes in support of all teachers as guidance to how to be a good teacher. In a continually changing society the profession of teaching is becoming more complex and important and in order to keep up with the changes, I need to ensure that I meet the highest possible standards. Following this, I must be committed to my own professional learning, seeking to expand my skills and to deepen my knowledge as a teacher. Confidentiality and Data protection Act (1998) are very important legislations for a teacher, learners expect us to respect and protect confidentiality, this duty extends to any information relating to a learner which we acquire in the course of our work. Confidential information includes personal details. â€Å"Confidentiality can be defined as when one person receives personal or sensitive information from another person, then that person who receives the information has a duty not to pass it on to any other person without the consent of the person who confided in them.† As a professional teacher, I won’t share any information regarding my students unless the situation requires it. I’ll do my best to keep safe the information they are sharing with me and to gain their trust, if they will trust me then they’ll feel safe in my classroom. (Word count  272) 4, Explain how to maintain a safe and supportive learning environment. (2.1) â€Å"Good classroom management depends a lot on how you establish the ground rules at the beginning of a course. Students need to know what you expect from them and what they can expect from you during the course. They need to know where the boundaries lie and what will happen if they step over the boundaries.† (http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/language-assistant/teaching-tips/establishing-ground-rules) I feel that ground rules are useful strategy to help set the expectations of how a group can achieve a organized and pleasant approach when working together in the class room. When the ground rules have been established and agreed with the group you are working with, this then provides a frame of reference for the future. It can be useful at times for the ground rules to mainly be suggested by the students to give a sense of ownership, however teachers, might at times, wish to include suggestions in the ground rules if not thought of by the group. This is particularly important for teachers of adults, as it is an accepted way of looking at how students will agree appropriate behaviour, and be respectful during the learning process. When there arises some difficulties in the classroom related to behaviour and respect, the teacher can use the ground rules as one way of opening a dialogue or indeed to bring order back to the learning environment. A way of promoting appropriate behaviour and respect is to keep the established ground rules as an existing agreement, so it may be added too during the duration of learning with the group and learn from it and adapt it to other groups for future learning. (Word count 270) 5, explain why it’s important to promote behaviour and respect for others. (2.2) One of the most effective ways to promote appropriate behaviour and repect for others is to model the behaviour yourself. Create a learning environment where people feel comfortable in expressing their interpretation of what they believe appropriate behaviour to be. This may vary slightly or considerably depending on who is involved  within my case. An open discussion at the beginning of proceedings allows an opportunity for everyone to contribute. This may bring up cultural or behavioural differences which can be expressed and may raise issues not previously considered by some. It is important to do this to promote equality and diversity within the learning environment and not to raise issues and complicate learning for my students. (Word count 116) 6, Explain why it’s important to identify and meet individual learner needs and describe the points of referral to meet these needs. (1.4, 3.3) It is important that you identify the needs of your learners so you can design the course to reflect individual differences. Although this is usually described as the first stage in the teaching/training cycle it is a process that may have to be deferred until you meet your learners for the first time and usually should be a continuing requirement throughout the learning journey. However, some organisations interview their learners before the course, or there may be an application process where learner needs can be identified. The range of learner needs can be described by a variety of acronyms – one of which is used is; SPICE: Although inclusion is about supporting learner’s needs, it is not always possible for teachers to do this without support themselves. You should be aware of the limits of your responsibility and know when and where to access support both for yourself and your learners. If you have a line manager, he or she should be your first point of contact for referral. If you have team meetings or contact with other teachers, your colleagues may also be able to help through their own previous experiences. Support may be available in your own organisation, through a learning support department or from Skills for Life specialists. Some organisations have specialist resources for supporting disabled learners or may be able to provide a learning support assistant. It may be appropriate to refer a learner for an Information, Advice and Guidance session either within your own organisation or to an external organisation. Many of the voluntary and charitable organisations have websites with advice about teaching strategies to support people with sensory or physical disabilities or may be able to supply resources. Points of referral will differ according to the type of organisation you work in; it is your responsibility to find out what support is available locally. (Word count 433)