Competencies of Vocational Teacher

Figure 1 Competences of vocational teacher (FNEB)

Practical working experience:

In Finland, a vocational teacher should has at least three years of work experiences and to know how things done practically. Teachers with lacked of practical work experience and outdated knowledge & skills threat the quality of vocational education and training. A competitive vocational teacher should have practical working experience to teach learners practical knowledge.

Vocational knowledge and skills:

Generally teachers are expected to be experts, but the main traits that teachers missing are technological competences, new working methods for their fields, entrepreneurial teaching, ecological focus and wellness services.

Field development and continuing training:

Teachers were supposed to have the will to develop their own field and sense of responsibility for development of their own specialization area. The future prospects of different fields were not seen clearly and the economic recession was perceived to weaken the attractiveness of certain fields and to reduce willingness to study. Continuing training and development are essential for vocational teacher in order to teach his/her learners an updated information and knowledge. 

Development of personal competence and cont. training:

The challenges for change in the world of work were considered to require continuous studying, updating of knowledge and skills in the relevant vocational field, organization of professional development placements at workplaces and participation of teachers in working life projects and international exchanges. Working and training are both needed to develop personal competences of vocational teachers.

Vocational Teachers are in charge of delivering the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills to their learners. They also have main responsibility for the learners and their overall progress. The question is how a teacher without the some above four components can ensure the progress of learners. The four competences of vocational teacher are interrelated to each other and cannot be separated. 

A good teacher needs to possess a wide and deep knowledge and understanding of the professional field, personal and human growth and development and how to handle this growth by means of education and training. Furthermore, teachers need to have adopted the ethical responsibility of the profession. Finally, a teacher operates in a multi-dimensional context and must understand the dialogue and interlink between education, labour market and society to be able to promote the learners progress in life.

Traits of Good Teacher

Verbal ability:

Studies show that students taught by teachers with great verbal ability learn more than those taught by teachers with lower verbal ability (Rowan, Chiang, & Miller, 1997; Strauss & Sawyer, 1986). Therefore a great link exists between effective teachers’ vocabulary and verbal skills and student academic success, as well as teacher performance, because communication skill is a part of verbal ability, teachers with better verbal abilities can more effectively convey ideas to students and communicate with them in a clear and compelling manner.

Here are some characteristics of good teacher:

• Qualification
• Content Knowledge
• Teaching Experience 
• Caring, knowing students
• Listening, understanding 
• Fairness and respect 
• Social interactions with students
• Enthusiasm and motivation 
• Attitude towards teaching 

Much of the recent research on teacher effectiveness focuses on relating teacher behaviors to student achievement. Studies suggest that instructional and management processes are keys to effectiveness, but many interview and survey responses about effective teaching emphasize the teacher’s effective characteristics, or social and emotional behaviors, more than pedagogical practices. These affective characteristics are difficult to quantify; however, characteristics such as love of children, love of work, positive relationships with colleagues and with children contribute to a teacher’s feeling of happiness. Noddings, (2005) explained that a teacher’s happiness could affect the classroom climate and therefore affect students. Moreover, the teacher’s psychological influence on students has been linked to student.

My reflection

Teachers are not machines, therefore it hard to quantify the characteristics of effectiveness. A good teacher is capable to recognize his/her own emotions as well as emotional atmosphere in the class. A good teacher is good a psychologist, who can see beyond the words said. Teacher should give the feeling of being cooperative and fair. With the respect of all other characteristics, I strong agree that social and emotional behaviors of teachers emphasize the students’ performance more than pedagogical practice. These characteristics include communication, listening, emotional intelligent, caring, respecting, cooperative, and fairness etc. The activities of teachers vary from sector to sector.

References

James H., 2007. Qualities of Effective Teachers. 2nd Ed. Virginia: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD)

http://teaching.about.com/od/Information-For-Teachers/a/Twenty-five-Essential-Qualities-Of-A-Good-Teacher.htm

https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/teaching/planning-your-approach/characteristics-effective-teachers

Volmari, K., Helakorpi, S. & Frimodt, R. 2009. COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK FOR VET PROFESSIONS: Handbook for practitioners. Available at: http://www.oph.fi/download/111332_Competence_framework_for_VET_professions.pdf