Good Mentoring

I wanted to share this here for those that may have difficulty with the PDF format of the original document. It is a proposed standard of professional conduct developed by and for educators in Australia, taken from a larger document which describes the background and development of the proposal: Standards of Professional Practice for Accomplished Teaching in Australian Classrooms (September 2000), http://www.austcolled.com.au/Dispaper.pdf, http://www.austcolled.com.au/~pubadmin/page12.html. -- Peter Kaminski, 20010527

The following excerpt is from page 13 of the document.

The qualities proposed below should be seen as inter-dependent: not reducible to a lock-step 'tick-a-box' set of reductionist or decontextualised 'competencies'; not comparatively 'weighted' between or among the various characteristics of accomplishment; and not listed in any necessary order of precedence.

It has been suggested that accomplished classroom teachers in Australia demonstrate their professionalism by:


 * having a broad, deep, and critically aware knowledge understanding of and enthusiasm for the intellectual content, discourses, and values associated with disciplines from which the subjects (or curriculum areas) they teach are derived and as appropriate to the specific contexts within which they teach: by being both transmitters and critical interpreters of the knowledge, understanding, skills, and values associated with their subject areas; by recognising that knowledge is often contestable; and by developing programs that fully implement the aims and objectives of the relevant school curriculum


 * enjoying teaching students and by holding the highest expectations of what each student is capable of achieving: being aware of the individual needs, interests, capacities of their students; and challenging their students accordingly by inspiring, motivating, correcting, and supporting their students, even in the face of temporary or apparent failure


 * treating all students honestly, justly and equitably: recognising and appreciating the range of values held by individuals as well as within families, groups, cultures, and the wider school community; and abiding by all statutory, legal, and ethical obligations incumbent upon them as teachers


 * being able to empathise with students


 * having an appropriate sense of humour


 * exemplifying the qualities and values that they seek to inspire in their students: including authenticity, intellectual curiosity and rigour, tolerance, fairness, ethical behaviour, common sense, self-confidence, respect for self and others, empathy, compassion, appreciation of diversity, and acknowledgment of cultural differences


 * being reflective practitioners who critique the impact of their teaching and professional values upon students, colleagues, and others in the wider learning community: by having a critical awareness of the role played by their own educational, social, cultural, religious, financial and other background experiences; and how these experiences may have helped to shape their own values, their approach to teaching, and their assumptions about education


 * displaying adeptness and discernment in the creative use and critical evaluation of information technologies for assisting their own teaching and in advancing the learning of their students


 * providing regular, accurate feedback to students and monitoring the growth in students' learning: not only to assist in the assessment of students' growth as a basis for reporting each student's achievements against the required learning outcomes regarding what students know, understand, can do, and value as specified by the formal curriculum; but also as a means of judging the effectiveness of their own teaching


 * demonstrating excellence in the practical, pragmatic craft of teaching and in managing a learning environment that is interesting, challenging, purposeful, safe, supportive, positive, and enjoyable: which fosters co-operation and collaboration, independence, responsibility, and creativity


 * exercising high communication and interpersonal skills: being exemplary in their own literacy and numeracy practices; and having the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills, and professional values to exercise the crucial responsibility that all teachers have as teachers of literacy and numeracy


 * being committed to their own professional development: seeking to deepen their knowledge, sharpen their judgment, expand their teaching repertoire, and to adapt their teaching to educationally sound developments arising from authentic research and scholarship


 * exercising educational leadership: working collaboratively with their colleagues to develop instructional and welfare policies, curriculum and staff development; and helping to ensure that the essential goals of the school as a learning community are met


 * taking due account of the educational implications of the community's cultural diversity: in particular, by including within the curriculum those indigenous issues and perspectives necessary to help achieve reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians; and by being sensitive and responsive to the educational issues generated by and within Australia's multicultural society within the context of continuing to develop a socially cohesive Australian society