Could anyone be a teacher?

Nialler15 wrote: »

I know that was just highlighting a fact that SNA's dont need to be qualified like someone had said how highly trained and educated SNA's were

I'm pretty sure they meant teachers who have diplomas in teaching those with special education needs as well as teaching degrees. SEN diplomas are specialised in comparison with the general training during teacher training.

Nialler15 wrote: »

I am not talking about teachers here. I am talking about SNA's. They dont need a qualification to be a SNA.

Yes and that is why they have nothing to do with the thread title. They are not responsible for the child's learning by any stretch in comparison with the teacher.

Nialler15 wrote: »

I didnt say EVERYONE....I said ANYONE. Everyone would suggest every single person on the planet. Anyone would suggest in theory that somebody who doesnt have the qualifications but can deal with the situation could in theory teach a class.

Well then no - if they have not been properly trained they would not be able to deal with the situation satisfactorily

Nialler15 wrote: »

And that is where I disagree. Take a sports coach coaching kids. Majority of them will not have done a coaching course and are volunteering to coach and give up their time. But yet they manage to deal with all situations in a satisfactory way. They teach, they can discipline and they can keep order on large groups of kids with no training.

A: a coach isn't a teacher
B: most coaches would not be thrown in at the deep end on their own they would be given some sort of training first - not necessarily a course but they would be given on the spot training

Coaches have options that aren't allowed to teachers. If you don't do something for a coach, you are off the team. If someone is a problem for a while they are requested to leave. They can also get away with harsher punishments as the kids want to be there and physical (kind of) punishment by making them do laps or whatever.

Coaches don't have to deal with kids that are too troublesome, teachers are expected to deal with troublesome students and the students don't want to be in the class.

Having said that the question was could anyone be a teacher, how do you mean? Do you just want the job title to count, or do you mean a good teacher?

It's less a question of "could anyone be a teacher", and more a statement of "we are all teachers really".

Institutionalised teaching distills the amazingly developed affinity humans have for teaching eachother into a form which works for everyone, at the cost of it NOT working at all for some, and working VERY well for some.

The effects of this kind of education are seen in the majority of youths of today: they see it as something which they must and can do, but that they absolutely hate. It is an animal which is at times unsatisfying (depth of questioning not encouraged as there is so much to cover), and at other times overwhelming (due to the range of information which needs to be studied.)

We are all teachers because every time we interact we are teaching another person. If we even tell someone a story about something which happened last night, we are teaching them about it.

Then you have what we would more commonly call teaching; a father teaching a son how to fish, or a daughter how to ride a bike. There might be 4 different fathers; one might teach the son how to fish by making him watch, another might teach him by explaining to him the reasons why the lure is shaped a certain way and why it attracts the fish. One might let the daughter work out how to keep her own balance while holding the bars for her, another might get her some training wheels for a while. And, so too the children will all react differently to all the different teaching styles.

Everyone is a teacher, but it takes special training to do the industrial style stuff that "teachers" do in school.

THE most important attribute to have today as a teacher is the ability to engage outside the curriculum, but is that something they learn in their training?

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Got it one.

Anyone can read information out of a book. It takes skill to get kids and teenagers to actually engage with a subject and learn something valuable from it.

I only meet one teacher in my entire life that could be described like that.

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Anyone could be UFC heavy-weight champion.

As long as they are over a certain weight.

Afroshack wrote: »

A teacher is someone with detailed knowledge of their subject topic,

We had teachers swapping and changing on us all the time and teaching something that they were learning at the same rate as the students. I also don't see how someone coming out of college could really be considered as having a detailed knowledge of their subject when they're teaching something like engineering. We've had plenty of college student come to our place of work that needed a whole load of real world experience to knock some of the college out of them before they became productive.

Nialler15 wrote: »

I didnt say EVERYONE....I said ANYONE. Everyone would suggest every single person on the planet.

aah

Nialler15 wrote: »

Anyone would suggest in theory that somebody who doesnt have the qualifications but can deal with the situation could in theory teach a class.

so basically your question is......could anyone who has the required skills to do the job (without the piece of paper to back it up) actually do the job

well I suppose barring the department of education/gardai etc objecting or finding out you are not qualified the answer is a self evident yes then isn't it..........If I somehow acquired the skills to drive a car without actually getting the license then i could drive it on the road until I got caught driving without a license.


Likewise if you somehow acquired the knowledge to control a classroom of teenagers (some of whom don't want to be there - and have little or no real consequences for any bad behaviour they engage in to worry about) or at least minimise the disruptive element as much as possible without first gaining some experience in a teacher training course and through teacher training practice you could "teach" ......at least for the first five minutes of your first class......then of course you would have to have some background knowledge of your chosen subject area so if you somehow gained this without getting a 3rd level degree/qualification you could proceed

then of course to be effective you would somehow have to have some sort of grasp on ways to motivate (sometimes the unmotivateable or downright antagonistic) your students (at least as many as you can) and how best to explain and develop their ability to form concepts/theories/analyse/synthesize etc and of course how best to assess performance (with one eye on the exam and in theory one eye on their personal development) --- assuming you taught this to yourself or were somehow gifted with it without having to be taught it or trained in it to some degree you could then proceed (at least proceed effectively)

Naturally of course you would then need to have a certain amount of tolerance and patience and understanding of the students with SEN and what each of their particular learning difficulties is and how beast they learn (audio/visual/kinaesthetic) - but if you already came preloaded with this then of course off you go

Then (and this isn't really covered in teacher training to the best of my knowledge) you would need to understand that the system isn't perfect and that there is really only so much you can do when you are an authority figure with only a very small quantum of authority, really only that which the students perceive you to have....because ultimately very troublesome students can and in some cases will continue to disrupt and undermine every class they come into no matter what you do...then you will have to be ok with the constant carping and attacks on your profession (I shouldn't really call it that should I because hey anyone could do it) by individuals you can only presume think this way simply because they went to school and sat in some classes and thought it was easy without seeing the extra work/commitments and no small measure of departmental and organisational bullsh1t that goes on behind the scenes etc


So I suppose if anyone somehow comes preloaded with that and probably some more items (like being used for tons of extra curricular in order to get a contract) that don't come to mind right now then they could walk in off the street and start teaching straight away

On the off chance that you don't just have all these experiences/abilities it might be an idea to get the qualifications and experience like "anyone" else who is a teacher nowadays.

if you are saying could you fake it if you didn't have the qualifications or training but somehow got a job then maybe you could for a while but it would be much more difficult than you would imagine I'd say.....my dad pretended to be a qualified carpenter back in the day...he said his foreman looked at him like he had two heads and no arsehole when he couldn't hang a door square.....there are just things you would be expected to do or know that you wouldn't and you would stick out like a sore thumb after you were at if a while and basically you wouldnt be able to do it without being trained or instructed.....could you fake your way through 35 minutes (maybe if you were in a school with well behaved students and you had a fairly large set of balls and some acting and improvisation skills.

just sayin! as "they" say.

Afroshack wrote: »

Yeah, as a teacher I totally disagree with that, I have to say. The very least the kids deserve is someone with a relevant degree in the subject.

Teachers are now more of a facilitator of learning (where ICT is used) rather than the fountain of knowledge from the traditional conception of teaching. A teacher than can teach any subject is probably at the highest level a teacher can reach and obviously requires a lot of experience and knowledge.
Ultimately a student should be a confident, independent and critically thinker by the time they leave secondary school.

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

In fairness I think the teachers in todays schools would be interested in helping the students.

I can think of a few from my own schooldays who should never have been teachers, way too handy with their fists.

Teacher training pre-1990 was dreadful. Even older teachers admit that.

I could be a doctor if I could just google what to do all the time.

I could be a formula one driver but I doubt I'd ever win.

Teaching is a skill you have to learn.