The Teacher Education Program is dedicated to educating teachers who will become responsible and effective professionals. Our graduates will be distinguished by the knowledge, skills and values expected of educators in the contemporary classroom. Our program values inform the goals of our program.
Program Values
Our Program is informed by these values:
Pedagogical Sensitivity
TEP supports a pupil-centered view of teaching. Educators must develop an understanding of the primacy of the pupil-teacher relationship and its ethical underpinning while honouring and respecting the needs of each pupil. Educators must have the knowledge, skill and confidence to adapt and develop curriculum to meet the specific needs of the pupil.
Reflective Practice
TEP believes that educators must engage in reflective practice, the ability to reflect in a thoughtful way on the significance of different teaching situations and on their role in defining a learning environment. Educators must demonstrate self-knowledge by openly identifying personal biases and projections. Reflective practice, guided by the principles of self-evaluation and self-directed learning, is considered the foundation of continuous professional growth.
Critical Mindedness
TEP believes that educators must understand the complexity, subtlety, and difficulty of contemporary educational questions and issues. In an attempt to solve problems, educators must show a high degree of flexibility in comparing various perspectives and alternative solutions.
Social Justice
TEP believes that educators must be open to and respectful of diversity and difference. Educators require the ability to see beyond their own ways of defining the world and to be advocates of social justice and the inclusive classroom. A high value is placed on the ethical responsibilities of educators.
Integration of Knowledge and Practice
TEP supports the seamless connection between knowledge (academic disciplines), educational theory, and practice (methods for achieving educational ends). Educators must constantly engage in the recursive interplay of knowledge, educational theory and practice throughout their professional lives.
The twelve goals that follow do not include all the competencies of effective teachers, but they do represent those competencies that we in TEP consider extremely important.
PROGRAM GOALS
The Teacher Education Program goals are broken into three key areas as follows:
A strong, professional teacher presence in the classroom and school demonstrated by:
1. A clear commitment to the valuing and caring of children. Professional educators must act in the best interest of pupils at all times in order to develop the love of learning while establishing and maintaining the boundaries of a professional relationship.
2. The ability to be a thoughtful, sensitive, and responsive observer of what goes on in schools and the classroom.
3. Responsibly upholding the values of the profession, acting at all times in ways that maintain the dignity, credibility, and integrity of the profession.
4. A clear commitment to life-long learning through reflective practice, professional development, and through collaboration with colleagues, students, parents, and others in the educational community. Professional educators constantly need to engage in the recursive interplay of knowledge, educational theory, and practice throughout their professional lives.
The essential knowledge and skills of an educator demonstrated by:
5. An understanding of how children develop as learners and social beings. Educators need to have the basic knowledge that supports the purpose of skill development in the education of individual pupils.
6. A broad knowledge base and an in-depth understanding of the subjects they teach.
7. The utilization of effective teaching practices. Professional educators must develop the ability to put educationally sound curriculum ideas into well-organized practice. Educators need to develop an ability to be flexible about curriculum, discarding practices that have been observed, upon reflection, to be ineffective.
8. Communicating clearly with pupils and parents/guardians.
9. The implementation of valid and reliable assessments, evaluations, and reporting. Professional educators need to determine the best methods of assessment and evaluation and maintain accurate and comprehensive records of pupil achievement.
The ability to individualize instruction to maximize the achievement of every student within the school system demonstrated by:
10. A clear understanding of, and commitment to, the principles of social justice and the inclusive classroom.
11. The establishment and maintenance of ethical working relations with all members of the educational community.
12. An understanding of the educational system in which they work.
