A Practical Guide to Successful Teaching - Essay Example

Topic: PTLLS Assignment Theory – Level 4 Affiliation: Essay The teaching and learning environment continues to exhibit diversity and dynamism as the education sector grows and develops to the best interest of all the stakeholders involved. The role and responsibilities played by each stakeholder are unique to that stakeholder’s position in the teaching and learning environment. For teachers, tutors, or trainers, the underlying role and responsibilities are embedded in ensuring that they serve the learning and education needs of the differentiated groups they manage. As a teacher, the key role and responsibilities revolve around enhancing student welfare. This means that the sole concern for a teacher is to ensure that students’ needs remain checked and appropriately addressed. To do this, facilitating the learning process becomes vital. This is because it is the role of the teacher to interact and professionally relate with the students in a manner that enhances their educational welfare. In so doing, the teaching-learning roles of a teacher are met. To complement this process, teacher responsibilities are factored in. This is done by ensuring that the teacher constantly monitors changes in the teaching and learning environment, so that any vital changes are adopted in a timely manner. Most importantly, ethics and professional conduct crowns the teacher’s responsibilities. The discharge of the teacher’s role and responsibilities inform the completeness of the teaching cycle. Of course, the cycle is characterized by critical boundaries that have to be observed at all times. While the teaching-learning environment requires student-teacher interaction and professional relations be maintained, the process is subject to boundaries that outline the extent to which such interactions and relations can go. Striking a balance between the issues, concerns, interests, goals, and objectives of teaching and learning maintains a professional perspective of the role, responsibilities and boundaries of a teacher in terms of the teaching cycle (Ingleby, Dawn, & Powell, 2011, p.92). Essay 2 The educational setting is broad in scope and practice. As a result, the applicable legislations and codes of practice vary across differentiated fields of specialization. The education fraternity is made up of numerous subjects, all of which contribute significantly to the success of the education sector. The education organizational setting is regulated and/or governed by numerous current legislations, among them: Equality Act 2010, Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, Data Protection Act 1998, Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, and Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (LSC, 2007). Moreover, in specific fields like social sciences, there are applicable legislations that regulate, monitor, and govern training and execution of examinations. The Equality Act addresses the entire education sector. It outlines individual and institutional rights that regard access and pursuing of education. In terms of Health and Safety, the applicable Act enforces a favourable teaching and learning environment for both teachers and students. The Racial Relations Act addresses racial needs and concerns among stakeholders in the education sector, including both teachers and learners. In the education sector, educational data is safeguarded by the Data Protection Act. Special groups in the teaching and learning environment are also accounted for. This is done through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act. Each area of specialization in education is subject to specific codes of practice. At a personal level, teaching and learning is guided by specific codes of practice that enhance teacher-teacher and teacher-student interaction and relations, and consequently influence their welfare in the education context. Codes of practice essentially guide relations in the education context. Here, teachers and students are expected to interact and relate on professional basis, and so is the required mode of communication. Practices like manual handling and corporal punishment of students by teachers constitutes violation of educational codes of conduct. Unethical relationships in the teaching and learning environment are also monitored, meaning that codes of practice are designed to enforce coherence and professional relationships between various stakeholders in the educational environment. Essay 3 Equality and diversity factors are critical in the educational setting. This is because the teaching and learning environment is made up of differentiated personalities and characters, all of which exhibit differences in race, sex, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability, and gender (Gravells & Simpson, 2012, p.103). Emerging issues relative to equality and diversity revolve around the highlighted aspects. One of the most critical issues in that regard is discrimination. Discrimination can be spread across the aforementioned aspects, varying in extent and outright practice. To address the underlying issues, the Equality Act 2010 comes into play. Inclusion with the learners is an aspect that every teacher, tutor, or trainer should strive to achieve and promote. Personally, engaging the learners as much as possible marks a critical step in the promotion of learner inclusion. The mode of communication is essential to consider, especially in respect to the learning environment where learners from different races, nationalities, sex, gender, and social and economic backgrounds interact. Promotion of inclusion with learners can also be achieved through ensuring that equality and diversity policies in the educational setting are adhered to. Learner needs and interests vary from one individual to another. Potential learner needs and interests can be met through other avenues other than the teacher-learner mechanism. Referral points like student-based groups, mentoring offices, and peer counselling services can work to the best interest of learners. The reason why these referral points are likely to operate successfully in the teaching and learning environment is because equality and diversity factors are accounted for at the time they are being constituted. As a result, they act as representative avenues for both teachers and learners. Essay 4 The establishment of ground rules is designed to streamline the learning process and enhance learning outcomes. For ground rules to remain consistent with the learning process, both the teacher and the learners need to engage in critical and creative thinking relative to the interests being served by the ground rules that both parties propose. In this respect, the parties involved will be in an understanding that binds to them. In the line of establishing the ground rules, the entire learning team has to be provided for, so that every aspect of the ground rules equally applies to every learner. Appropriate behaviour and respect for others are built on social relations, respect for one another, rules, and regulations. These are critical factors to account for at the time ground rules are established. Ensuring that these factors are provided for lays a vital ground for a work-together environment between the teacher and the learners. Actions taken following violation of the ground rules are also set by both parties; the teacher and the learners, thus enhancing the realization of the said appropriate behaviour and respect for others subject to the ground rules. Essay 5 Embedding functional skills in any given area of specialization is vital. They ensure that individual competitiveness in the area of specialty is maintained. In the contemporary times, literacy, numeracy, and ICT are essentially combined to ensure that professionals discharge their role and responsibilities effectively and efficiently, while learners enjoy a streamlined learning process (Scales, 2012, p.144). To embed these skills in teaching and learning, one has to identify the most critical variables that influence the entire teaching and learning experience. Assessing the links and relationships between the three key aspects of functional skills; literacy, numeracy, and ICT, is vital in the process of ensuring that they are critically embedded in the teaching and learning experience. In this respect, the process of embedding functional skills in the teaching-learning environment can be done in three ways, namely: teacher-based, student-based, and student-teacher interaction. The teacher-based way is valuable due to the professionalism involved. On the other hand, the student-based approach ensures learner involvement. Finally, the student-teacher interaction combines the need for functional skills by both parties and aligns the skills to the interests of both parties. Essay 6 Record keeping and maintenance is crucial to every aspect of teaching and learning. In the educational setting, the need to track progress and changes within the system justifies record keeping and maintenance. The process works in a similar manner to both teachers and students. However, only relevant records should be maintained in order to ensure that the process of record keeping and maintenance is effective and efficient. Another justification in this regard relates to maintenance of proof and/or evidence. Teaching, learning, and achievements have to be documented to serve as evidence that the underlying processes were actually undertaken or realized. Management of the teaching and learning experience is informed and influenced by record keeping and maintenance. Both student and staff affairs are recorded in due course to allow planning and management in the educational setting. Moreover, syllabus coverage in the case of teaching and learning is evidenced by the provision of relevant records. In this respect, there are certain record types that would have to be kept and maintained at a personal level. These are: students register for attendance, mid-semester and final examination results, student assessment and evaluation records, teaching-learning tutorials, schemes of work, lesson plans, and administrative records. All these records are vital in ensuring that the teaching and learning experience is smooth for both the teacher and the learners. Essay 7 Assessment methods are many in number, and they also vary across different areas of specialization in the educational setting. Among the most common are: individual evaluation, reflective work, group assignments, presentations, pair and group discussions, random question and answer sessions, and revisiting work previously covered among others (Gould & Francis, 2009, p.186). Each of these methods is uniquely applied in the learning process. While individual evaluation assesses an individual leaner, group-based assessments focus on the learning team. The choice behind which method(s) to use depends on the specific purpose and interest that ought to be served. For my subject area, individual evaluation, reflective work, group assignments, discussions, presentations, and revisiting previously covered work are essentially applicable. The choice behind these assessment methods is informed by the need to ensure that the learning process provides for equality in learning, while accounting for the diversity exhibited by learners. On the same note, they work to the best interest of both the teacher and the learners, especially by streamlining the manner in which the teacher undertakes the underlying role and responsibilities. In different contexts, the aforementioned assessments would still apply, probably complemented by others that were not mentioned. While individual assessment best suits the learning environment, group assignments, reflective work, discussions, and presentations can be employed in an actual professional practice in or out of the educational setting. For instance, group assignments, reflective work, discussions, and presentations come into play in the corporate world. Most importantly, referring to the initial assessment maintains a trend that allows for the monitoring of progress over time. Reference List Gould, J. & Francis, M. (2009). Achieving Your PTLLS Award: A Practical Guide to Successful Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, London: SAGE Publications. Gravells, A. & Simpson, S. (2012). Equality and Diversity in the Lifelong Learning Sector, London: SAGE Publications. Ingleby, E., Dawn, J. & Powell, S. (2011). Learning to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector, London: Continuum International Publishing Group. LSC. (2007). Single Equality Scheme: Our Strategy for Equality and Diversity. [Online] Available at: http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/lsc/National/nat-singleequalityscheme-30apr07.pdf [Accessed January, 2013]. Scales, P. (2012). Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector, London: McGraw-Hill International. Read More