Since part-time work doesn't pay the bills, I have embarked on a Master of Arts in Teaching with an emphasis on Secondary Social Studies. This is an intensive course, which is compressing the work of the degree and teacher certification into just over a calendar year. As part of a course on Inquiry and Professional Development, I have been required to conduct a survey about professionalization in teaching.
The ten questions of this survey are below. I welcome responses from anyone and everyone. If you'd like to start by telling me about yourself (that is, if I don't know you already), that would be great. You don't have to be in education. I'm on a short schedule here, but I only need fifteen responses for this particular project. Be as brief or as thorough as you like, responding with a comment, or by email at mgbazemo@ncsu.edu I'll post my write-up in a follow-up post.
The survey is here.
Below you can get some sense of the thinking. I altered some of these questions when I realized my "essay" format wasn't going to work out.
Thanks!
1. The very first of the standards articulated in the
North Carolina Teaching Standards is that teachers “take responsibility for the
progress of students to ensure that they graduate from high school, are
globally competitive for work and secondary education, and are prepared for
life in the 21st century.” Do
find this vision adequate? Or is it
lacking something? Is there any place in
it that you think too much is being asked of teachers?
2. As a follow-up to question one, regardless of
where you were educated or when (feel free to say a word or two about that),
does this gibe with your own educational experiences? If not, what was the most significant
difference?
3. The second standard states that “Teachers Establish
a Respectful Environment for a Diverse Population of Students.” What are the responsibilities of teachers and
schools in accommodating cultural diversity?
Please say something about the diversity experiences in your own
educational process.
4. Diversity is about more than culture, ethnicity,
and language, it covers different styles of learning and learning disabilities
as well. What is your perception of the
diversity challenges faced by teachers in this realm?
5. North Carolina states that teachers should “recognize
that educating children is a shared responsibility involving the school, parents
or guardians, and the community.” How do
you feel this responsibility ought to be apportioned?
6. Thinking about question five, how does this gibe
with your own experiences?
7. North Carolina makes explicit that teachers
should be experts in their content areas, teaching along the lines of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study. What is your sense of the knowledge teachers
bring to the classroom? Do you expect
that they will be content experts?
8. In regards to expertise, how do you feel the
teaching profession today stacks up against when you were en elementary or
secondary school student?
9. The primary aim of teachers is, of course, to
educate. In order to do this, they must
find ways to approach different kinds of learners. What is your assessment of the way that you
learn? Did you find primary and secondary
education was able to reach you? What
succeeded and what failed?
10. We measure teacher success in many ways—through observation,
through graduation rates, and through testing, of which standardized testing
has become increasingly important. What
is your sense of the importance of standardized testing? Based on what you know, are schools (and
government) relying too much, not enough, or just about the right amount on the
results of standardized tests.
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