Role of a Teacher

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The overall role of a teacher is to impart knowledge to learners in order for them to achieve. However, specific roles and responsibilities are many and varied. A teacher is responsible for ensuring they have an extensive knowledge of the subject which they teach in order to ensure learners receive correct information. An adequately prepared teacher is able to share additional knowledge with their learners and give relevant and up to date examples.

A teacher should remember that they are a role model to their learners and should set a good example by behaving in a professional manner. The Institute for Learning developed a Code of Professional Practice in April 2008 which outlines the behaviours expected of its members including acting with integrity, showing respect and accepting responsibility for their behaviour within a professional role. This should be demonstrated through appropriate dress, using appropriate language at all times and showing respect to learners and colleagues. Ground rules and expectations for both teacher and learner should be set at the beginning of the course and the consequences of failing to adhere to these should be made clear. Boundaries must be in place and teachers should not encourage intimate relationships with learners. A teacher should also outline the complaints procedure for learners should they encounter any occasions when the teacher fails to act in a professional manner.

Learners should undergo initial assessment prior to starting a course in order to ascertain the level they are currently working at. Through discussion within the initial assessment it is possible to identify any specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia or autism if the learner is aware of such learning difficult...

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...ssional Development is met by all teachers on a yearly basis. As laws and teaching methods are constantly being renewed it is essential that teachers realise they will need to update their knowledge.

"All of life is education and everybody is a

teacher and everybody is forever a pupil."

Maslow AH (1970) Motivation and Personality (2nd edition) New York Harper and Row

Lesson plans are one of the most valuable tools a teacher have, however they are rendered useless without a suitable evaluation by both the teacher and the learners’. With completed evaluations this ensures the teacher is adapting to the learners needs. A teacher should record their own evaluation as well as that of their learners as soon as possible after the lesson has finished and record the changes they think necessary in order to improve the lesson while it is still fresh in their mind.

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