ASSIGNMENT No. 2
Q.1 Explain how code of ethics contribute to professional development of school teacher?
Because they have a daily influence on the lives of children, teachers are often held to high standards. In the midst of all of their responsibilities, they’re required to serve as strong role models and demonstrate ethical behaviors as they interact with students, colleagues, parents and others. Developing and following a professional code of ethics helps make sure teachers act in a professional and ethical manner at all times. The code of ethics for teachers is designed to protect the rights of the students, all the students. It is important that teachers understand that when they get a teaching position they are agreeing to follow the code of ethics. I hadn’t realized some the things that were in it so I am glad we went over it. Teachers are expected to be fair to all their students and not to take advantage of their position in any way. For example, you can’t accept expensive gifts from students because it might appear to bias you. You can’t push your personal beliefs on students because they are a “captive audience”. You need to have a professional relationship with all students and not let it get too casual and familiar. Apparently, there is quite a bit of abuse that is happening in the school. You need to protect your students’ safety and not believe that this is someone else’s job. The main thing is not to abuse the power that your position, over your students, might give you. Think through the implications of what happens. Also, our country separates “church and state”. Whether you agree with this or not, as a teacher you need to respect this and keep religious bias out of the classroom.
Working with Students
A teacher’s job is to provide a quality education to all students. A professional code of ethics must address this fact, stating that teachers must not show favoritism or discriminate against students. Teachers also must interact with students appropriately, not taking advantage of students in any way, bullying students or putting them down. Contact with students outside of the classroom or school building must be kept to a minimum and must focus on school-related activities and events.
Q.2 Discuss Efficiency and Discipline rules in detail.
The following list is a general set of rules that every teacher should live by. These rules encompass all facets of teaching, both in and out of the classroom.
Act in your students’ best interest
Always do what you believe is best for your students because as are your number one priority. Whenever making a decision, ask yourself, “How does this benefit my students?” If you can’t come up with an answer, reconsider your choice.
Build important relationships
Focus on establishing meaningful, cooperative relationships with everyone you encounter. Building strong relationships with your students, peers, administrators, and parents will ultimately make your job easier.
Be explicit about rules and expectations
Clearly establish rules, expectations, and procedures on the first day of school, then discuss and reference them often. Students cannot be expected to be held accountable for their actions if they do not know how they should behave. Be firm, fair, and consistent for a classroom that runs more smoothly.
Be fair and consistent
Your students watch for this and are quick to notice disparities. Do not undermine your own authority and the relationships you have worked hard to build by playing favorites or showing prejudice.
Be prepared
Take a cue from the boy scouts and always be prepared! Preparation will not guarantee success but lack of preparation makes it much less likely. Put in the time to engage your students, craft effectual lessons, and provide useful feedback.
Learn every day
Teaching is a journey that will provide you with many opportunities to learn but you have to be open and willing to take them. You should strive to improve your teaching each and every day, even when you’ve been in the classroom for years.
Leave your problems at the door
Never bring your personal problems or issues into the classroom—leave them at home. Your students should never know when something in your personal life is bothering you.
Involve families
Parents can make or break their children’s education, and as such, teachers must do their part to engage even the most reluctant parents in the learning process. Provide plenty of opportunities for parents and guardians to become involved and feel welcomed into your classroom.
Protect your students
Protect your students at all costs. It is your job to ensure that your students are safe and secure at all times. Practice safety procedures frequently in class and never allow students to engage in reckless behavior. Discuss safe behavior outside of school too.
Protect yourself
A teacher must never put themselves in a compromising situation that will bring harm to their career or person. They should always be aware of their surroundings and never allow themselves to be too vulnerable or have their reputation called into question. Protect yourself from danger by maintaining self-control and staying alert at all times.
Get along with administration
Respect the decisions of administrators and understand that they have many responsibilities. Teachers that have great working relationships with their administrators enjoy a more relaxed and supportive work environment.
Q.3 Explain school records and their significance in effective school management.
School records include books, documents, diskettes, and files that contain information on what goes on in school as well as other relevant information pertaining to the growth and development of the school. As enrollment in schools increases globally on a daily bases, the available resources may become over-stressed. The situation becomes even more frightening when universal education program in Nigeria is been implemented. Therefore, adequate record keeping of the human and material resources is needed to address the issue of ever-increasing enrollment. As well as the need to provide schools with human and material resources that can help them achieve sustainable educational objectives. Additionally, according to Ololube (2012) the rising cost of running school systems leaves some schools with low quality and inadequate human and material resources. This is because there is no cheap education the world over. Thus, the need for alternative ways of utilizing slim resources to attain set objectives makes school record keeping imperative. The complexity in school administration, its constraints, contingencies, and other difficulties also make recording keeping a necessity (Nwaoku, 2005; Obi, 2005; Ololube, 2011). The scarce resources in schools may be wasted if their utilization and underutilization is not properly recorded (Usen, Udofia, & Offiong, 2012; Ololube, 2009).
There is a need to keep record of all school activities as part of effective school administration. Record keeping and the management of records is a vital responsibility of the school administrator because of the indispensable role of records and information in the day-to-day activities of the school system. School managers rely on the short and long-term data captured in records to make effective decisions about immediate issues and more comprehensive school policies (Okpetu & Peretomode, 1995).
Ibara (2010) asserts that without records there can be no accountability. He further maintains that quality performance, task accomplishment, and measurable outcomes are increasingly important responsibilities, all of which depend on the accessibility of usable records. Without access to records, it is virtually impossible to determine responsibility for actions and to hold individuals accountable for their actions. According to Osakwe (2011), school records are official documents, books and files containing essential and crucial information of actions and events which are kept and preserved in the school office for utilization and retrieval as needed. Such records are kept by principals, teachers, counselors and administrative staff.
The purpose of record keeping for effective school management is to ensure that accurate and proper records are kept of student achievement and growth, school activities and matters that will promote school efficiency and effectiveness (Akanbi, 1999). Record keeping other wise known as storage of information is important functions of both the administration and teaching staff of a school. Additionally, school records include those pertaining to personal details of pupils, along with those of their academic performance; assessments and examination results; school policies; minutes of school-based meetings; including information received from Ministries of education and other education bodies, solicitors, press organisations and public bodies (Department of Education, n.d). According to Ololube (2013), school records can thus be said to comprise all existing and accessible records, books, files and other documents containing useful information that relates to what goes on in the school system. These records may also be in the form of reports, letters, memos, pictures, films, journals, diaries, and so on.
Q.4 What are practice of indiscipline in elementary schools? Give suggestions to overcome these practices.
Discipline is paramount for every learning . It is very essential for any teaching. It is also very important for peace and harmony in any learning environment: peace between students, teachers and administration. That’s why it is always necessary for discipline to be instilled in the classroom to get the best out of your students.
In its most general sense, discipline refers to systematic instruction given to a disciple. To discipline thus means to instruct a person to follow a particular code of conduct “order.”
In the classroom discipline is regarded as a code of conduct that both teachers and students agree upon and cooperate in its enforcement. I insist on cooperation and agreement in classroom management. Once the rules are set by all learning and teaching participants, it will be hard for them to deny or refuse disciplinary action in case of any transgression of the rules.
Causes of indiscipline
There are many causes of indiscipline. Here are a few:
- Favoritism:
Indiscipline may be caused by teachers who favor some students in their teaching and classroom management. The other students may see this as a sign that everything is allowed in spite of the rules. Other students may also see this favoritism as an offense against them which leads to rebellion.
- The rules are not enforced:
- When a student is not punished for an offense , s/he goes on to commit more offense.
- Lack of Communication:
- The rules are not clearly communicated
- Teacher-student relationship:
- The teacher and students relationship is essential for any learning process. If there is a breakdown in this relationship, indiscipline emerges.
- Lack of leadership:
- When the teacher doesn’t fulfill his role as a leader, there will certainly be students or students who will be glad to take this role. Thus indiscipline appears.
- Lack of motivation:
When students are not motivated, they tend to work in an undisciplined manner.
Bad habits:
Some students may have acquired bad habits from previous teaching experiences. Once a student, for instance, has formed the habit of coming to school late, it will be hard for him or her to change this behavior.
Q.5 Discuss audio visual aids as effective and essential component of teaching in school.
Audiovisual education or multimedia-based education (MBE) is instruction where particular attention is paid to the audiovisual or multimedia presentation of the material with the goal of improving comprehension and retention.
According to the Webster dictionary, audio-visual aids is defined as “training or educational materials directed at both the senses of hearing and the sense of sight, films, recordings, photographs, etc. used in classroom instructions, library collections or the likes”.
The concept of audiovisual aids is not new and can be traced back to seventeenth century when John Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a Bohemian educator, introduced pictures as teaching aids in his book Orbis Sensualium Pictus (“picture of the Sensual World”) that was illustrated with 150 drawings of everyday life. Similarly, Jean Rousseau (1712–1778) and JH Pestalozzi (1746–1827) advocated the use of visual and play materials in teaching.[2] More recently, audiovisual aids were also widely used during and after World War II by the armed service. The successful use of picture and other visual aids in U.S armed forces during World War II proved the effectiveness of instructional tools.[3] There are various types of audiovisual materials ranging from filmstrips, microforms, slides, projected opaque materials, tape recording and flashcards. In the current digital world, audiovisual aids have grown exponentially with several multimedia such as educational DVDs, PowerPoint, television educational series, YouTube, and other online materials. The goal of audio-visual aids is to enhance teacher’s ability to present the lesson in simple, effective and easy to understand for the students. Audiovisual materials make learning more permanent since students use more than one sense. It is important to create awareness for the state and federal ministry of education as policy makers in secondary schools of the need to inculcate audiovisual resource as main teaching pedagogy in curricula. The outcome is to promote the audiovisual material in secondary schools because they lack the resource to produce them. The visual instruction makes abstract ideas more concrete to the learners. This is to provide a basis for schools to understand the important roles in encouraging and supporting the use of audiovisual resource. In addition, studies have shown that there is significant difference between the use and non-use of audiovisual material in teaching and learning.