Why is being a professional something worth working towards?

In the case of any professional, you have chosen to strive to achieve and succeed in a specific field.

Don't force your kids into sports. I never was. To this day, my dad has never asked me to go play golf. I ask him. It's the child's desire to play that matters, not the parent's desire to have the child play. Fun. Keep it fun. Tiger Woods.

I think in any work place the desire to succeed drives you, be it for the money or the experience. Plenty of “Teachers” will say I want to influence kids and mentor adolescents through activities and all and all make a difference to the education of anyone who is involved with me. The stark realisation is that the reality of achieving that goal is dependent on your own satisfaction within your profession. That same satisfaction you hold, inadvertently affects the greater learning outcomes of your students who are dependent on your attitude toward any amount of influencing techniques you can portray in their learning environment.

I think “Teaching” as a profession has always been seen an upstanding role in the community, but that is really due to the Chalk and talk stigma of what and who a “Teacher” portrays. In today’s society, fast paced and diverse, who, and what is the “Professional teacher”?
Aside from Curriculum content, the ever increasing roles and responsibilities pinned to educators within the system, and the educational psychology of perspectives and theories, what does it all boil down to? The kids and you.

There is ever increasing opportunities for individuals to connect with their interests and unknowns, this web of opportunity, be it technology based, or community based is fostered on the idea that choices are made available for you to choose who you want to be on many different levels of acceptance. For me to be a “Teacher” in today’s and the futures educational environment means I need to be embedded in the possibilities of change and have a firm grasp of how I can use my knowledge of content with that change and choices to better suit my learners needs.

The theory of Constructivist perspectives of cognitive learning/development are in my opinion becoming more apparent in the social side of constructivism. With the broadening of resources available “Learning Managers” can make explicit links to possibilities that never before have presented themselves. Content and curriculum can be scaffolded still in the traditional theories of delivery yet through approaches explicitly emphasising interpersonal dimensions of learning. As a student “Teacher”, this excites me, and encourages me to pursue possibilities for myself, my subject area and my learner focused outcome capabilities.

Mclnerney and Mclnerney (2006) suggest that Knowledge is not obtained directly from one knower to another, but is actively built upon by learner determined discovery rather than direct teaching, this learning challenges the pre conceptions of learners, encouraging them to pre determine and reorganise their own personal theories.

If striving toward and achieving this makes me a commendable educator, does that make me a professional? I just want to be a “Teacher”.

Best,

Shaun.

References.

Mclnerney,D.,M., Mclnerney,V.(2006), Educational Psychology, Constructing Learning, 4th edition, Frenchs Forest, Nsw, Pearson Education Australia.