Walter Geerts & René van Kralingen - The Teachers' Handbook

TheTeachers’ Handbook

■■ Student oriented : Your main focus of attention is the students. You consider the subject you teach, for which you earned a degree, to be a means to an end. You supervise students, are a student counsellor and attend meetings concerning special needs. In addition, you teach a few hours a week. You also decide to take counselling or mediation courses in order to offer students op timal social-emotional support. ■■ Organisation oriented : You have great enthusiasm for organising and coordi nating things among colleagues. Your work ethic is characterized by a strong sense of responsibility towards students, colleagues and parents. You are keen to speak at meetings and conferences. Colleagues acknowledge your organi sational talent and interpersonal skills. No doubt there are other types of orientation, but the ones mentioned above are perfectly aligned with the competency profile as described by the Education Cooperative. These orientations can, therefore, be considered a formof profiling, a specialisation which can be developed and honed. Again, self-reflection in rela tion to your school and school environment is essential. Modern schools take an active approach in this. The teacher is not merely active in the classroom. Investments are also made in collegial exchanges, con tinuing education and internships (Kessels, 1993; Hulsbos, Andersen, Kessels & Wassink, 2012). There is room for input, the return on investment for the school is high with respect to additional continuing education for teachers, and the school as a whole can present a successful image. Chapter 11 is concerned with gaining insight into how student teachers them selves actually learn. Typically, in the early stages the learning curve of new teach ers seems to consist mainly of survival (Boter & Van der Veen, 1997), as they are concerned with questions like ‘How do I remain in control of these students?’ Only in later stages can they apply themselves to the lesson and how to adapt their teaching style to their personal needs. The focus of attention tends to shift gradually towards a student-centred approach. Teachers often question why intended strategies are effective sometimes but not at other times. These kinds of questions indicate an increasing interest in the learning process of both individual students and groups, also in different settings. This coincides with a shift of focus in the educational field: less focus on merely the teaching perspective and more incorporation of the learning perspective, en couraging teachers no longer just to assume the role of ‘babysitting’ students but to fulfil a highly influential role instead. This requires a variety of competencies which can be used as tools by the teacher as required. Maybe you feel overwhelmed reading what is expected of you. This is com pletely understandable: all teachers tend to have these concerns. The fourth part of this book addresses the issues teachers face and how you can tackle problems by employing peer-to-peer learning. Ultimately we would like you to maximise

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