Professional Goals, Inquiry, Support Networks, And Development Planning Are Crucial For Essay Success.

This assignment requires you to develop a professional development plan that demonstrates your understanding of how to enhance and support your own professional learning and development.

Part 1: Professional goals

• Outline three professional goals.
• Explain how your goals are aligned to the Aotearoa New Zealand Standards for the Teaching Profession.
• Prioritise your goals giving reasons for your prioritisation.

Part 2: Inquiry

In the course you learned about teaching as inquiry as a way of improving teaching practice. Once you’re teaching, you will define professional learning goals related to the outcomes of your learners. For this assignment, you will focus on the professional goals you have outlined in Part I, which will prepare you to succeed in the teaching profession in Aotearoa New Zealand.

1. Write two inquiry questions that would support the achievement of your goals.
2. For one of your inquiry questions, outline the steps you would take to complete your inquiry.
3. Describe at least two different perspectives you would seek to strengthen your inquiry and discuss the insight each perspective could provide. (Perspectives may include but are not limited to: learners, wh?nau, colleagues.)
4. Conduct a preliminary literature search for one of your potential inquiries and explain how three pieces of literature you have found could be used to support the inquiry.

Part 3: Support networks

1. For each professional goal outlined in Part 1, list an individual, group, organisation or information source you can connect with that could support you to achieve your goal.
2. Outline the specific benefits you hope to gain from association with each support you listed that will move you closer to achieving your professional goals.

Part 4: Development planning

a. Use the template provided to outline a development plan that will enable you to meet the Standards for the Teaching Profession with support. Include in your plan the actions you will take across a timeline that spans your Teacher Education Refresh programme up until your entry into the teaching profession.

Part 1: Professional Goals

1. Professional Goals

First, increasing the involvement of students in the education process by respecting the cultural diversity

Second, encouraging and supporting the role of the parents and the whanau in the education process of the learner.

Third, increasing the communication skills in the class to address the educational needs of the students

1. Aligning the goals with Standards of Aotearoa New Zealand

The educational system of Aotearoa New Zealand is governed by the standards set by the education council of the country. The curriculum is believed to build on a two-way system where the teachers and the students both learn from each other. The culturally diverse New Zealand has students of diverse races. The indigenous people of Aotearoa are the Maoris and the schools and colleges have students from Asia, Europe and other parts of the world.

The first goal is to enhance the students’ learning experiences and involve them in the process of respecting cultural diversity in the educational system. This is the part of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi which is the founding document of New Zealand education council. The elaborations of the to te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership stands for the understanding of the histories and acknowledging the heritage, languages and cultures of the partners to te Tiriti o Waitangi.

The second goal is connected with the standard of “Establish and maintain professional relationships and behaviours focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner”. According to the regulation of the education council, the secondary education boards have the representatives of the student’s family or relatives (Gibbons et al., 2018). The importance of families in building the future and education of the students would be associated with this aim.

The third goal is directed in building effective communication ability in teaching. As a teacher, I think there is a constant scope of developing new abilities and skill which would help in developing professional expertise. According to one of the standards of professional learning in New Zealand, the inquiry and reflection on the practice of teaching are needed. Effective communication building would help in professional capability development so that the students could be influenced to achieve their learning goals.

1. Goal prioritisation

The most important goal of these three is increasing the involvement of the students in education and providing a positive work environment for the learners. This is the core objective of a teacher’s profession. The second important goal would be developing various communication skills and performance improvement. Communication in the classroom has various methods and is the main medium for inspiring students and sharing knowledge with them. This goal, therefore, comes before the outer world involvement in the classroom. The last prior goal would be to engage the family and the extended family more in the educational decisions of the students. The overall impact in the teaching profession could be achieved if the goals are prioritised in this manner.

Part 2: Inquiry

1. Inquiry Questions

Question 1: How can I influence the mind-set of the students through incorporating the idea of ‘respect to diversity’ in the classroom?

Question 2: How can I include the families and whanau in the education process to benefit the learners?

1. Steps Outline
2. In this discussion, we would take the first inquiry question, i.e. how the idea of diversity could be included in the classroom and what impact it would have on the students’ educational achievements. The scanning process for the inquiry question would have two steps- first is to evaluate the idea of diversity in the classroom and the second is to determine what steps could be taken to address the idea in educational set up. For the scanning, we would conduct a survey among the students to know- what is the idea of the students about classroom diversity and what stance they have in it. The second step in the inquiry spiral is focusing. We would focus on curriculum building and classroom decorum maintenance. The students would follow the behaviour they see in the class. Therefore, as a teacher, I would prefer to teach the importance of diversity to the students and arrange activities where the students could work together. Thus the teachers could develop a hunch in diversity learning and inclusiveness (Hogan, Reid & Furbish, 2017). In the new learning phase on the teacher would be able to promote diversity learning to the students for whom they have responsibility. Taking actions for the collaborative work among the students and the teachers would help to have a better outcome. Both the teachers and the students would learn from the activities.

Perspectives of Inquiry

The inquiry perspectives would vary from the individual point of view. There could be multiple perspectives to judge and strengthen the inquiry. I would like to highlight two main perspectives- one is of the students, and the other is of the colleagues.

Students’ Perspectives: the inquiry question discussed here is cantered around the learning process of the students. Therefore, the student's perspective is the strongest component to strengthen the premise of the inquiry. The Ministry of Education in New Zealand has designed the curriculum to make the students confident, connected and active learners in the life path. Therefore, amendments in the strategy of teaching would influence the learning process. The outcome of the changes must enable the students to learn in adverse and positive educational culture in their school's colleges and outside the campuses.  

Colleagues Perspectives: Any institution thrives on the performances of the professional. The education system needs teamwork. As stated in the standard regulations of the Aotearoa New Zealand education council, professional relationship development is one of the important aspects of the teaching-learning binary. Therefore, the colleagues could play an effective role in strengthening the inquiry premises.

1. Literature Review

There are ample instances of literature in education that confirms the role of the teachers in managing the cultural diversity in the classroom and improving learning qualities in diverse environments. According to Tesar (2015), the history of children education in the Aotearoa is complex because of its culturally diverse students. The study shows how the teachers could develop their individual planning and strategies for the learners so that they could improve the education quality. Another study by Santoro & Kennedy (2016), talks about the position of diverse perspectives in the professional teaching standards. On the other hand, the research of Siteine (2017), talks about the policy requirements of the educational system of New Zealand that is reacted to learner diversity in the education system. This qualitative study states the various aspects of the policies and how these could be implemented in the teaching so that both the students and the teachers would have an elevated experience.

1. Support sources

First goal: The support could be taken from the internet and websites on diversity education.

Second goal: The support for the second goal could be taken from the colleagues and the families (Troupe et al., 2018).

Third goal: The use of technology like audio-visuals and teaching-learning materials would be beneficial. The peer review on my communication skill in the class is another important source.

1. Benefits

Internet and learning websites are a great medium of gaining knowledge and information. The website “nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz” has good information on diversity education in New Zealand. As a teacher, I could use the internet and the websites to take teaching ideas, knowing things and recording students’ performance. The help of families and extended families are compulsory to fulfil the second goal. Other than that taking support from the colleagues would be instrumental in completing the tasks. Counselling professionals would help to communicate with the families effectively (O’Neill, 2017). The counselling professionals could be helpful to communicate with the families in a better way than the teachers if needed. At last, for the last goal, the peer evaluation sheets would be beneficial.

Name: Vandana Grover

References

Gibbons, A. Tesar, M., Steiner, S., & Chan, S.(2018). Silent policymakers in Aotearoa New Zealand: reflections on research of early childhood teacher views on policy, practicum and partnership. Open Review of Educational Research, 5(1), 43-55.

Hogan, V., Reid, L., & Furbish, D. (2017).A Comparison of the Motivations of Pre-Degree and Degree Education Students for Becoming Teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42(11), 81-95.

O’Neill, J. (2017).A biographical experience of teacher education in Aotearoa New Zealand. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(5), 589-600.

Santoro, N., & Kennedy, A. (2016). How is cultural diversity positioned in professional teacher standards? An international analysis. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 44(3), 208-223.

Siteine, A. (2017).Recognising ethnic identity in the classroom: a New Zealand study. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 26(4), 393-407.

teachingcouncil.nz, (2019), teaching Council, retrieved from: https://teachingcouncil.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Tsar,M (2015). New Zealand perspectives on early childhood education: N?ku the rourou n?u te rourou ka ora ai te iwi. Journal of Pedagogy, 6(2), 9-18.

Torepe, T., Macfarlane, A. H., Macfarlane, S., Fletcher, J., & Manning, R. (2018). Leading schooling in Aotearoa New Zealand: Understanding and supporting the weight of culture for Maori teachers. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 33(2), 48