Seminar 6

Seminar 6:

The Role of a Teacher

From your experience of so far in your degree and from your last placement, reflect upon what you consider to be your role as a teacher? What are the expectations of students, parents, school leaders, school community upon you?

Undeniably, teachers play a vital role in influencing a pupils schooling experience and achievements. Australian research by John Hattie suggests that teacher quality accounts for 30 per cent of the variance in student performance (Hattie 2014). Further researchers have reinforced that teacher quality is among the most influential factors on a student’s academic achievement (Churchill et al. 2013). As a result, I believe a teacher’s role is intrinsic to student outcomes.

Throughout my degree, and particularly during my recent practicum experience, it was evident that teacher impact drives and nurtures motivation in the classroom. However, this also indicates that students, parents and stakeholders in school communities rely heavily on teachers for the success and achievements of the students. With such influence, teachers are expected to channel the personal, emotional and social pressures to help students thrive both in the classroom and among a changing society. For this reason, an effective teacher must establish positive professional relationships with students to customize a fruitful learning process for all pupils. However, the academic objectives of schools cannot be met unless teachers provide students with a caring and supportive classroom environment. There must be a focus on scaffolding that is appropriate to cater to students’ needs and abilities to support both weaker and highly able students.

The word map figure below highlights the principal elements and characteristics involved in the role of an effective teacher:

Figure 1 – Word Map characteristics of an effective teacher - created by Sasha Kostovic

What do you consider to be the crucial characteristics of the changing role of a teacher particularly in relation to assessment?

There is little doubt, in a globalised world, the expectation for teachers has increased and will continue to evolve. The most immediate relationship between the impact of globalisation and the role of teachers are the tools by which society monitors the development of student skill and knowledge base (Brady & Kennedy 2019). Brady’s argues that national economic development links to an educated population, and thereby assessment provides indicators and skills required to contribute to national growth and development. As a result, governments around the world have focused on raising the standards of learning, assessment and reporting to achieve this aim. As reflected upon earlier, learning is driven by what teachers and pupils do in classrooms. Therefore, the role of the teacher must help develop both meaning and understanding of content, rather than merely reciting it. To achieve this, a teacher must deeply know the pupils’ progress and difficulties with learning so they can adapt their work to meet the pupil’s needs (Black and Williams 2005). One useful measure is through formative assessment. This form of assessment involves observation, class discussion, peer-reviewing activities and reading of pupil’s written work, all of which provide information to be used as feedback to modify teaching and learning activities. Black and Williams highlight the importance of this argument, stating a focus on standards that ignores the process of teaching and learning in classrooms will not provide the direction that teachers need in their quest to improve (Black and Williams 2005). Therefore, the reform initiative for assessment and reporting must provide adequate support and direct help to support the work of teachers in classrooms.

REFERENCES

• Black, P. and Wiliam, D., 2005. Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Granada Learning. Vancouver.