How Reflective Practice Promotes Personal And Professional Development Essay

How Reflective Practice Promotes Personal And Professional Development of Teachers - Essay Example ing nature of the basic learning needs of children, youth and adults requires a broadening of the scope of basic education and redefining it to meet the needs of changing times. The changing dynamics of the social fabric in multicultural societies across the globe have increasingly become major challenges within the education system, especially in UK secondary school system. 2. Need for teacher development The quality and standard of teaching considerably influences students’ performance. The teachers need to evolve and develop appropriate skills to suit the changing needs of the pupils and raise their achievement level. It is important to understand the nature of teachers’ learning in order to exploit their competencies and promote new initiatives in teaching methodologies. Moreover, the key objective of a teachers’ development program is to challenge the status quo of existing knowledge to evolve a more creative way of teaching effectively (Craft, 1996). Teache rs’ teaching is also influenced by their beliefs, ideas and their life experience (Borko, 2004). Moreover, teachers should also be able to communicate effectively to transfer knowledge. Their ability to communicate and their expertise in the subject are a critical paradigm that must be constantly updated to include new approaches and ideas. Effective communication promotes the retention of knowledge and the development of a critical outlook amongst the students. Effective teaching is contextual as its efficacy can only be tested in the context of learning and the environment and support within which it is imparted. Thus, environmental changes vis-a-vis advancing technology, globalization, demographic changes etc. become challenging issues for teachers that significantly impact teaching. Though,... This paper approves that the need to identify and evaluate various parameters of reflective practices becomes an essential ingredient for teacher development. At the same time, many other issues like socio-psychological factors have significant impact on the metacognitive responses of the teachers. Thus, the behaviour, attitude, beliefs, value system etc. of the teachers have increasingly emerged as crucial elements within teaching process for eliciting positive responses from the students. Teachers learn what type of behaviour and attitude motivates students for higher achievement. When they change their behaviour to suit the needs of the students, they improve their teaching. This report makes a conclusion that the role of teachers is important within the field of education as they are proactively involved in the development of children and students into responsible citizens. Their professional development becomes necessary due to the evolving dynamics of the external environment. Reflective practices in the professional development of teachers help to identify shortcomings and promote wider understanding of the various methodologies that can be used to enable teachers to become more articulate and effective in teaching. Reflective practices therefore have gained popularity due to their active learning processes that constantly motivate teachers to improve. The various facets of reflective practice as discussed, reveal their importance in the overall development of teachers and how they contribute in adding value to the teaching.

Legal Systems in the Civilized World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legal Systems in the Civilized World - Essay Example An oft-heard justification is that you cannot treat hardened criminals with kid gloves or you will be perpetrating crime even further. But this argument has no regard for the fact that even hardened criminals are covered by the human rights guarantees in the Constitution and in human rights conventions. Human rights are inalienable and imprescriptible, and they apply to everyone. The parliament is vested with the power to create laws that have coercive effect. It is essentially in their province to come up with regulations to maintain order and peaceful conduct in the society, while ensuring that a human rights framework is always in place. Over the past two decades, there has been a steady stream of legislation, marking the evolution of Criminal Justice as it is known in the present time.2 Indeed, the constant changes in the Criminal Justice Act reflects the constantly changing public mindsets on crime and its concomitant issues. The Criminal Justice System as it stands now appears to be biased against the accused. For example, Sections 34-39 would effectively allow law enforcement agents to draw inferences from the silence of a person undergoing custodial investigation, as for instance, when the accused "at any time before he was charged with the offence, on being questioned under caution by a constable trying to discover whether or by whom the offence had been committed, failed to mention any fact relied on in his defence in those proceedings."3 This provision whittles down considerably the right of the accused to maintain his silence, and shifts the burden of proof on him. Fundamental and crucial indeed is the basic precept in criminal law that the burden of proving the guilt of the defendant resides on the prosecution.4 The statement of Viscount Sankey LC5 in Woolmington v DPP rings loud and clear: 'Throughout the web of the English criminal law one golden thread is always to be seen, that it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner's guilt subject to ...the defence of insanity and subject also to any statutory exception'. It is fundamental because it is rooted in the Constitutional guarantee of due process.6 An accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and his silence should not be taken against him.7 The importance of the presumption of innocence is discussed in the case of State v Coetzee8, where it was stated: '...the more serious the crime and the greater the public interest in securing convictions of the guilty, the more important do constitutional protections of the accused become. The starting point of any balancing inquiry where constitutional rights are concerned must be that the public interest in ensuring that innocent people are not convicted and subjected to ignominy and heavy sentences, massively outweighs the public interest in ensuring that a particular criminal is brought to book...Hence the presumption of innocence, which serves not only to protect a particular individual on trial, but to maintain public confidence in the enduring integrity and security