What is the Role of the Teacher Today?

Professor Roger Beard

Institute of Education,

University of London

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Knowledge and Skills – a local issue

‘If you can read this, thank a teacher’.

This recruiting slogan takes us to the heart of what society has expected from its teachers for centuries.

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Even 250 years ago in England, one of the best-known poets of his day, Oliver Goldsmith, wrote of the awe in which children held the village schoolmaster:

‘And still they gazed and still the wonder grew

That one small head could carry all he knew’.3

Knowledge and Skills – a national issue

A Review of Curriculum and Assessment in 20

countries identified a strong trend towards

frequent and wide-ranging reform, covering:– governance, – management,– organisation,– content,– assessment of learning.

4

Social inclusion – a societal issue

• an understanding of children

• addressing different special needs

• accommodating different first languages

• managing para-professionals (e.g. teaching assistants).

5

Pedagogical knowledge

– an international issue • How as well as what to teach. • Underpinned by the availability of sophisticated

computing techniques, there has been a growing interest in school and teacher effectiveness.

• National strategies for improving literacy and numeracy performance, have been partly based on international meta-analyses of research findings.

6

Public accountability – a related international issue

• ‘informed professionalism’

or

• ‘delivery of established good practice’

or

• ‘re-professionalisation’?

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A wider responsibility than the single classroom

• the school,

• the wider educational system

• other students

• the broader profession

• the wider community

• a broader social agenda.

8

Sustainability – a global issue

‘A collective human effort to keep human use of natural resources within the sustainable development aspect of the Earth’s finite resource limits is now an issue of utmost importance to the present and future of humanity’.

The teacher’s role may soon be further diversified to include the global concerns of sustainability.

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The professional development of the

teacher’s role – a continuing issue

• Teachers need to develop knowledge and skills them continuously throughout their careers.

• It is necessary to have both high-quality initial teacher education and a coherent process of continuous professional development throughout their careers.

• Evidence has consistently shown that investing in teachers is the most productive investment for increasing school effectiveness and improvement.

10

Teacher Quality: Does it really matter?

• Yes, really, really.

• Teacher quality matters more than ever before.

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Thank you.

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