What is the Role of the Teacher Today

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What is the Role of the Teacher Today?

• Professor Roger Beard
• Institute of Education,
• University of London
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Knowledge and Skills a local issue

• If you can read this, thank a teacher.
• This recruiting slogan takes us to the heart of
  what society has expected from its teachers for
  centuries.
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• Even 250 years ago in England, one of the
  best-known poets of his day, Oliver Goldsmith,
  wrote of the awe in which children held the
  village schoolmaster
• And still they gazed and still the wonder grew
• That one small head could carry all he knew.
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Knowledge and Skills a national issue

• A Review of Curriculum and Assessment in 20
• countries identified a strong trend towards
• frequent and wide-ranging reform, covering
• governance,
• management,
• organisation,
• content,
• assessment of learning.
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Social inclusion a societal issue

• an understanding of children
• addressing different special needs
• accommodating different first languages
• managing para-professionals (e.g. teaching
  assistants).
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Pedagogical knowledge an international issue

• How as well as what to teach.
• Underpinned by the availability of sophisticated
  computing techniques, there has been a growing
  interest in school and teacher effectiveness.
• National strategies for improving literacy and
  numeracy performance, have been partly based on
  international meta-analyses of research findings.
  
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Public accountability a related international
issue

• informed professionalism
• or
• delivery of established good practice
• or
• re-professionalisation?
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A wider responsibility than the single classroom

• the school,
• the wider educational system
• other students
• the broader profession
• the wider community
• a broader social agenda.
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Sustainability a global issue

• A collective human effort to keep human use of
  natural resources within the sustainable
  development aspect of the Earths finite resource
  limits is now an issue of utmost importance to
  the present and future of humanity.
• The teachers role may soon be further
  diversified to include the global concerns of
  sustainability.
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The professional development of the teachers
role a continuing issue

• Teachers need to develop knowledge and skills
  them continuously throughout their careers.
• It is necessary to have both high-quality initial
  teacher education and a coherent process of
  continuous professional development throughout
  their careers.
• Evidence has consistently shown that investing in
  teachers is the most productive investment for
  increasing school effectiveness and improvement.
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Teacher Quality Does it really matter?

• Yes, really, really.
• Teacher quality matters more than ever before.
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Thank you. 12