R Core Proposition #4: Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience. By: Leslie Martin, NBCT and Kirsten Russ, NBCT Summary: As with most professions, teaching requires practitioners to remain open, eager for, and dedicated to the pursuit of continuous growth. Because they work in a field marked by evolving questions and an expanding body of research, teachers possess a professional obligation to become perpetual students of their craft. Accomplished educators seek to expand their repertoires, deepen their knowledge and skills, and become wiser in rendering judgments. They remain inventive in their teaching, recognizing the need to welcome new findings and extend their learning as professionals. Accomplished teachers are ready to incorporate ideas and methods developed by other educators to support their instructional goals—namely, the advancement of student learning and the improvement of their practice. What exemplifies excellence, then, is a reverence for the craft, a recognition of its complexities, and a commitment to lifelong learning and reflection. (What teachers should know and be able to do. p. 31) Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience. (The Five Core Propositions together are the basis for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do in order to improve student learning.) à Teachers who implement the Five Core Propositions within the Architecture of Accomplished Teaching and using subject specific standards will positively increase student learning. à Students change; student learning styles changes; in certain courses, content changes; events during a day change student learning potential. “The only constant in life is change” according to the ancient Greek Heraclitus. à Accomplished teachers are academically curious and possess the grit and resilience to reflect and to change in response to evidence presented to them and based on their experience. à Teachers use research, collaboration, and professional development to improve their practices. à The systematic practice of reflection and focus on student learning as a part of continuous improvement is a key element of what good teachers do on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. à Experience with reflection of student learning will become second nature, automatic, and constant. Teachers become lifelong learners who inherently know to reflect on and evaluate their practice.
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