To reflect on your own decision to become a primary school teacher

Aim

To reflect on your own decision to become a primary school teacher.

Evidence and reflection

In Section 1.1 we explored the importance of initial feelings in relation to motivation, aspiration and determination. Write a short piece for yourself, recollecting why you decided to train to become a teacher (you may wish to consider intrinsic and extrinsic motivations). If appropriate, also record your feelings at the point of qualifying.

Extension

Read what you have written and highlight where you have made reference to specific value commitments. List these, and try to identify personal experiences that informed why they were so important.

Share your thinking with colleagues and discuss the range of motivations which inform ‘becoming a teacher’.

More in this chapter

• To reflect on your own decision to become a primary school teacher
  
• To compare your personal values with the statements developed by the Teaching Councils and/or by government education departments
• To identify general aims which you hold for your pupils' learning
• To identify value commitments and ideologies through consideration of educational policy statements
• To analyse dimensions of our 'selves'
• To enhance your awareness of how social situations impact on your sense of self
• To adopt a courageous approach to risk-taking in our teaching
• To explore one of the features of 'growing up'
• To identify how children feel about themselves in a school context
• To find out young people's criteria for a 'good primary school teacher'
• To find out children's views on school
• To begin to construct a biographical understanding of a pupil
• To attempt to 'get into the shoes' of your pupils
• To understand our perceptions of 'pupils'
• To develop your knowledge and understanding of children's peer cultures
• To consider the influence of relationships on the sense of identity and learning of a child
• To identify some needs of a selected number of children in one's class
• To review the learning of a pupil in the light of Susan Hart's Framework for Innovative Thinking
• To encourage children to evaluate themselves and to review their work
• To develop insight in our identity and work as a primary school teacher
• To provide an opportunity for children to analyse the teaching they experience