1. What do these competencies mean to you and why do you think they are important?
Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child
In my opinion, nurturing the whole child would mean developing the child in a holistic manner. In Singapore's education context, this would mean not only allowing the child to gain mastery in academics, but also instilling good character qualities and values through CCAs, service learning and other school activities. Besides, the emotional and social competencies of the child must not be neglected as these are life skills that will accompany the child as he or she enters society. Learning takes place both inside and outside the classroom and that would mean giving my students enriching and real experiences to interact with their peers and people in society. It is these experiences that would mould them in becoming who they want to be. By nurturing the whole child, it is also critical not to place judgements on our students based on their academic results alone. Rather, we also need to look at other aspects of their education.
- Personally, I believe firmly that parents are a key stakeholder in a child's developmental growth while schools and teachers mainly play a supportive role. The home-school-community partnerships are pivotal in developing the child holistically. It is not a sheer fallacy to say that a child's learning is not confined in schools alone. Undeniably, a child's learning is heavily influenced by the external societal influences such as the social media. It is thus essential that parents work collaboratively with the school in emphasizing the right values and attitudes to adopt and ensuring that the child remains focused in his or her learning. Furthermore, one cannot deny that a child will also look unto their parents as role models and mentors. While valuing their perspectives, the lack of support from parents can sometimes limit the teachers' and schools' efforts.
Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity
More often than not, students do not simply learn just through teaching. Students are constantly observing their teachers' attitudes, character and behaviourism, treating them as role models. Teachers who do not exercise personal integrity and practise good moral values will inevitably influence their students negatively. Exercising personal integrity at all times is critical in maintaining our professionalism as we are accountable to not only our students' development, but to their parents and the local community at large. With the recent spate of events highlighting some teachers' misconduct, the professionalism of teachers has been put to public scrutiny. This has undoubtedly rubbed off some of the trust that parents have previously placed on their children's teachers. Hence it is of paramount importance to constantly uphold our professional integrity when performing our duties and responsibilities.
Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child
To develop this competency, I have to continually upgrade myself. In order to prepare my students for society and develop their twenty-first century competencies, I would need to develop new and innovative teaching approaches and purposefully instil elements such as Character & Citizenship Education into the curriculum. Besides, it involves a change in mindset in the way I view a child's education. Instead of solely focusing on my students' academics, I would need to broaden up my mind and look for opportunities to develop a child's learning through CCAs and other teachable moments inside and outside the classroom. I see myself having to spend more time with my students, interacting and getting to know them better in order to understand and build on their character and personality.
Leadership Management - Working with others: Partnering Parents
Personally, I would need to go for professional courses that will teach me skills on how to handle parents. Partnering parents must always start by having their trust and support. This would mean investing time and effort to know my students' parents better and keeping them well-informed with their children's learning development. Furthermore, it is also essential to understand their concerns and seek ways collaboratively to address them. Indubitably, partnering with parents effectively requires mutual trust, respect and understanding.
Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity
In my opinion, this competency is really based on one's values and beliefs. More often than not, personal integrity is compromised especially when one falls into a situation and realises that making a morally right decision may seek to disadvantage them. This could result in career stagnation, bad reputation and so on. In situations like these, perhaps one should always remind himself / herself that as a professional teacher, one should always put the interests of our students, parents and community above our very own as they are after all, our primary clientele.
- Professional Practice - Nurturing the whole child
Nurturing the whole child requires an investment of additional time and effort amidst my other responsibilities, to upgrade and develop myself in order to keep up with societal changes. For example, in order to cultivate twenty-first century competencies in my students, I would need to firstly modify my teaching methods. Didactic, chalk-and-talk teaching methods would have to be replaced with more interactive and engaging methods that allow students to stimulate critical thinking. The constant need to learn, unlearn and relearn is definitely a challenge as it involves moving out of my familiar comfort zone.
Leadership Management - Working with others: Partnering Parents
While recognising the importance of partnering parents, challenges arise when faced with unreasonable and demanding parents. There has been recent news about disputes between parents and teachers, putting the latter in a very difficult position. Looking from the parents' perspective, it is perfectly understandable that they always seek their child's best interests at heart. However, at times, no matter the circumstance, there are still parents who always believe that their child is right and have no qualms in pointing the blame to the teacher. It is such situations that teachers would find it a challenge to partner with parents.
Personal Effectiveness - Knowing self & others: Exercising personal integrity
Especially in recent times, there have been several cases of teachers' professional conduct being put into question. Sometimes, such cases occur as a result of unclear boundaries between teachers and students. To some of them, there is nothing wrong treating students as their friends. However, this could potentially create temptations and can cause the teacher's personal integrity to be vulnerable. It is also important to avoid showing favouritism and passing biased judgements. Notably, it can sometimes be a challenge to remain impartial and objective, especially when there are specific students who don't get into your favour.
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