Walter Geerts & René van Kralingen - The Teachers' Handbook

TheTeachers’ Handbook

point, the quality of the teacher is determined by his persistence in providing opportunities for students with learning difficulties. The government will continue to modify the school’s role, since it serves es sential purposes within our society: students should become active citizens and acquire basic skills needed to maintain a position in society as well as achieve qualifications to secure a job. All these forces can be considered a nuisance by the teacher. Clearly, how ever, no single teacher can freely teach the same old lessons for forty years. Nor would this be beneficial. The impact of various forces on the educational system induces changes, after all. These changes, in turn, offer teachers the opportuni ty to create their own routines. The teacher’s ability to make deliberate choices amidst all these forces is key. It is therefore important to be well-informed and to be able to communicate about new developments – whether desirable or not – as a fully-fledged participant. This part of the book provides an overview of the dif ferent types of schools and how they are organised. We describe the cooperation between teachers and the added value of teachers’ meetings. In Chapter 9 we take a closer look at the Dutch educational system. It is es sential as a teacher to know what type of school you are affiliated with and how this school is positioned in relation to other school types. This also enables you to judge whether a specific type of school and school culture are a good fit and to what extent you would be able to flourish there. In Chapter 10 we cover themes related to the student’s neighbourhood and home situation. We explain the type of task the school assigns itself in order to offer their students opportunities and how social workers cooperate with schools. This chapter also discusses challen ges which are associated with our modern multi-cultural society. PART D  How do I develop my teaching skills? The fourth part of this book focuses on the question of how you can develop your skills as a teacher. Many factors are of concern. Future teachers should expand their knowledge of various aspects of teaching. Professional knowledge is char acterized by three aspects: ■■ Subject : the actual content of the subject to be taught; ■■ Method : knowing about examination procedures, types of education, and learning objectives as well as didactic methods and models such as teaching forms, lesson planning and coaching strategies; ■■ Students : knowing about adolescents in general, and styles of upbringing and behavioural differences in particular. Apart from the fact that this helps us to explain behaviour, it also allows us to anticipate behaviour. Moreover, it facil itates strategic group formation, requesting support from the right people or coming up with appropriate assignments. It is important that this threefold knowledge about subject, method and students is either applied in the field of education or originates in the field. In other words,

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