How to be a successful teacher

Essay by beccarockholtUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, April 2004

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To truly be a successful teacher, one must be a living example of the conceptual framework of the Riley College of Education. There are five elements of this principal framework: the Learner, the Society, the Curriculum, the Teacher, and the Educational Leader. This paper will deal with the Society framework, which states, "The educational leader possesses an understanding of the historical foundations of schooling and exhibits ethical behavior consistent with the laws and policies governing American education." Three of the four themes contained within the Society framework are ethics, history, and philosophy. The knowledge I have gained from Education 110: Teachers and Society is going to aid in my explanation of the importance of these themes to educators.

Ethics is defined as "a branch of philosophy concerned with principles of conduct and determining what is good and evil, right and wrong, in human behavior." This relates to the framework because an educator must have an understanding of the moral, ethical and social ramifications of teaching in a democracy and must use this knowledge in their work.

Society has extremely high expectations of educators, many times to the extent of being unrealistic. They must be "above reproach." It is for this reason that educators must constantly question how ethical their actions are. They must be able to decide on just consequences even in situations where they were not present or were not able to obtain all of the pertinent facts involved. The following can be cited as an example: a teacher has a student who comes to class with bruised wrists or black eyes. When the teacher asks about the cause of these contusions the student always has an excuse involving clumsiness. The teacher then faces an ethical dilemma. Should she get involved in what is potentially a child abuse...