Teaching as a profession
I can see how society’s value of teaching can make a significant difference to the type of reforms that are possible. It’s crazy that after a year of teacher’s college we are supposed to be able to teach effectively. I know that my teaching ability is growing exponentially and I haven’t even been teaching for three years yet. I’m also very lucky to be at a school where I have a great number of resources and time for professional development. I also think that once there is more push for people to recognize that teaching is a profession, there will be more pressure on all teachers to act like professionals. I think many of us are doing a great job and are looking to grow and challenge ourselves (like those of us in this master’s program), but there are a few teachers who are getting through on the minimum. If we are expected to grow every year and are recognized for it, there will fewer of this type of teacher.
“economic enfranchisement”
This phrase really stood out to me as a way to explain the importance of learning math. If students don’t have the opportunity to learn math, they are cut off from a number of possible careers and as the article talks about, from the highest paying jobs. Without the appropriate skills in math and technology, students are denied equal opportunity. I like the fact that Schoenfeld makes the connection between the fight for Black rights in the 1960’s and our need to fight for the right of all students to have access to meaningful mathematics education.
Half-life of math students
Another part of this article that shocked me was the quote that referred to the half-life of students in mathematics classes. I had a discussion with a friend over the weekend about two philosophies of math teaching – that all students have the ability to learn and enjoy math or that we should whittle down the number of math students until we get just the really keen ones in senior math. I started my teaching career in the second group and am now firmly in the first. The application of the term half-life makes it all too clear how trying to find the keen students really means looking at the numbers instead of the people.
"I also think that once there is more push for people to recognize that teaching is a profession, there will be more pressure on all teachers to act like professionals."
ReplyDeleteCould you, Beth (or anyone else reading this), elaborate on what it means for a teacher to act as a professional? I read this part of the article and I'm having trouble understanding what it means for a teacher to be a professional. I always thought the two went hand in hand but now I am not so sure. Does it mean that, in many cases, teachers are simply not seasoned enough to be considered professional? Or are there issues that lie within the teaching profession with how teachers view themselves and their work (i.e. do we not consider ourselves professionals)? It seems that I hear a similar comment from fellow teachers about how they feel, for example, that the school administrative staff does not treat them as "professionals." Such comments usually come out when there are tasks that we need to complete that some see as "being policed" - for example, leaving Learning Targets and Success Criteria on the lesson plans for on-call and supply teachers, or having to submit exams for a second review before being approved. I think I've been (wrongly) assuming that the title of teacher automatically includes professional...
"It’s crazy that after a year of teacher’s college we are supposed to be able to teach effectively. I know that my teaching ability is growing exponentially and I haven’t even been teaching for three years yet. I’m also very lucky to be at a school where I have a great number of resources and time for professional development."
This part of the article also caught my attention as I just completed the New Teacher Induction Program last semester. Being NTIPed is like being evaluated as a seasoned teacher, but in some ways the evaluation is even more rigorous because (understandably, I guess) administration would like to pinpoint new teachers' weak spots in order to better support them. Although I understand that the process is supposed to help me grow as a new teacher, it feels very forced and artificial; for example, everyone comments on how their binders are perfectly organized and in pristine condition until the day after their evaluation. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to me, too!
The reality of teaching is that between getting the lesson along with handouts and resources prepared for each day's class is a struggle for a new teacher...not to mention constantly keeping in touch with parents, keeping track of students' formative and self-assessments, and creating DI lessons all the while trying to keep students engaged during each period...
A more experienced teacher told me that the first year is all about taking, the second year is all about maintaining, and the third year is all about starting to give as much as you took in your first year. The more I think about how little time teachers spent in teacher's college and how much is expected of them right from the start, the more I have trouble understanding how so many of them have managed to stay in teaching! :)
I agree with what both of you said about the kind of preparation that teachers get. I actually felt like my year in teachers' college did me a disservice. It was such a low-stress year for me that when I started teaching (part time) the following year, I felt completely unprepared for how busy and stressed I was going to be.
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation of Schoenfeld's comments about being treated like professionals was that it had to do with people's perceptions of what it takes to be a teacher. Successfully implementing the standards is a big job that clearly took (and is taking) a long time. I think some people expect teachers to be able to teach students and solve whatever problems they encounter in no time at all.
Teachers need time for serious and meaningful professional development, but it seems like most of them barely have enough time to relax at the end of the day. If they aren't given this time, any curriculum changes that need to be made will only be implemented half-heartedly.
Thoughts as Teachers as Professionals
ReplyDeleteIn other professions, practitioners are responsible for their own PD. They choose the conferences they need to go to, book the time away from work and go. Sometimes this is paid for by work, but not always but then it is a tax deduction. (Can teachers claim their PD if there is this assumption in the contrat that everything is provided for you?)
While many teachers do some independent PD, others wait until the board provides something and then claim that it is not relevant to the classroom. Many teachers ignore educational research, claiming it is not relevant to the classroom. Professionals learn from research! While some research may not be relevant or is simplified to the point of losing the essential features when presented to teachers, there is still a lot of research out there that is relevant and meaningful, and the challenge then is for teachers to work together to learn the essentials of the interventions and to adapt the research to their unique teaching situations.
Japan is often cited as an example- teachers there have made huge gains in student math and science achievement through the collaborative process of lesson study that was instigated by teachers and now affects all areas of education including curriculum development.
I really liked Schoeldfeld’s line that teachers must demand to be treated as professionals- I think rather than saying we need time to collaborate – we need for ask for it. The ministry of Ontario has Teacher Learning and Leadership Grants that groups of teachers can get to work collaboratively on these types of issues.
At a lesson study discussion group I was invited to, I had the sense that the ministry is very interested in these types of collaborations but is approaching them very carefully, trying to build the teacher skills in collaboration and examining student thinking- They have Collaborative inquiry and learning in mathematics groups in small and Northern boards.
In "The reflective practitioner" Donald Schon wrote about the idea of "egg crate" schools and classrooms - each teacher isolated in his or her classroom, like eggs in a crate. I think we need to find ways for teachers to collaborate, and be supported in that collaboration so that there's consistent opportunity for growth and reflection.
ReplyDelete-Alan Schoenfeld