Introduction: What does it take to be an effective teacher in the year 2010 and beyond?

Times are changing rapidly and as such, the effective teacher of today needs to continuously evolve; new teaching considerations need to be reflected upon and constantly assessed as the affects of globalization, environmental issues and new technologies, change the shape of society and in-turn the classroom. The students of today will have to be flexible, creative, techno-savvy, preferably multilingual and open-minded. School leavers will need to be adaptive to new situations, with the average number of jobs for today’s graduate being 16 (Yahoo! HotJobs & Robert Half International, 2007, p. 10). The teacher of today is preparing students for jobs that currently don’t exist and for a futuristic society with infinite potential. As such the teachers’ role of maximising learning and preparing students as the citizens of tomorrow has never been so important or exciting as today.

This video provides a good summary of the rapidly changing times:



The aim of this blogspot is to provide new teachers with an overview of what it takes to be an effective teacher in today’s environment and the future. The topics in this blog will highlight the various teaching and learning theories available, whilst also considering the impact of classroom management, student motivation, teaching for assessment and reflective practice in the classroom. Each topic covered in this blog cannot “provide a complete picture of learning and its implications for teaching” (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 247), but provides a working knowledge base for the effective teacher to understand and consider when making decisions in his or her classroom.

At the end of each topic in this blog, comments have been added as points of discussion and you can find a crossword to check your understanding. Right click on the link and select “Open link in new tab”, so you can go back to the text for reference.

References

Eggen & Kauchak P. & Kauchak D. (2010). Educational psychology: Windows on Classrooms (8th. Ed.). French's Forest: Pearson.

Yahoo! HotJobs & Robert Half International, 2007, as retrieved 30th January 2010.