Thinking about professional standards
The following excerpts from the Professional Standards for Further Education Teachers and Trainers in England (2014) provide a useful guide to for thinking about how you might articulate and evidence your developing teaching and pedagogical expertise over time.
Evidencing Area 8 of the Professional Standards for Further Education Teachers and Trainers in England: Maintain and update your knowledge of educational research to develop evidenced-based practice.
This area is concerned with the enhancement of teaching and learning through the maintenance and updating of subject specialist knowledge through engaging in continuing professional development in subjects/disciplines/vocational areas and in their pedagogy. It also involves using research and scholarship to evaluate and improve your own practice.
Question: How might you draw on these elements of the standards to demonstrate that you have become a better teacher through continuing professional development, research and the critical evaluation of your teaching and learning practices?
Evidencing Area 1 of the Professional Standards for Further Education Teachers and Trainers in England: Reflect on what works best in your teaching and learning to meet the diverse needs of learners.
This area is concerned with your ability to think carefully about the impact of your teaching upon learners and their learning in the light of evidence from your practice and engagement with ideas from your own research and that of others to arrive at principled, informed and carefully considered judgements about what to do, when and why. This area foregrounds the importance of direct professional involvement in inquiry into teaching and learning practices to support the individual’s own professional development and to enhance teaching and learning.
Question: What evidence can you provide to demonstrate that your teaching is informed and characterized by the values in Area 1?
For example, you might consider and apply the findings from studies, reading, personal research possibly in collaboration with a colleague and/or with your own students to identify how you might enhance your practice and improve student learning.
On the other hand, you might decide to use research in your own subject/discipline/vocational area to enhance the curriculum. This might include reading research, theory and practice in the field of curriculum design in order to provide a rationale for the design and development of the curriculum and its delivery.
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