Standard V

The teacher candidate has a clearly defined sense of professional identity (roles, responsibilities, ethics, and dispositions), professional purpose, and affiliation with the professional community.

Knowledge

·         The candidate understands societal expectations for public school educators.

·         The candidate knows and understands various codes of professional ethics, including the NC Code of Ethics.

·         The candidate understands why teachers must be committed to helping all students learn and why teachers need to accept, respect, and care for all children and youth.

·         The candidate understands that teachers are highly influential role models for children and youth.

·         The candidate understands that teachers are expected to enjoy learning, model productive learning processes and habits of mind, and express enthusiasm for the subjects they teach.

·         The candidate knows that critical reflection on the connections between beliefs and practice is a source of new knowledge and understandings about teaching and learning.

·         The candidate understands that his or her personal values, beliefs, life experiences, various cultural affiliations, and knowledge constitute a conceptual framework that influences his or her perceptions and interpretations of all teaching and learning endeavors.

·         The candidate understands the dynamic relationship between critical self-reflection and one’s emerging conceptual framework for teaching and learning.

·         The candidate knows that a clearly defined sense of professional purpose or mission provides meaning and direction to professional endeavors, including the authority to function as an agent of change in schools and the profession.

·         The candidate knows the national, state, and local professional organizations with which he or she may choose to affiliate, especially those related to his or her content are and/or grade level.

·         The candidate knows various sources of professional information, scholarship, and research.

·         The candidate understands that professional development in education is continuous and ongoing and knows the resources (inner and outer) needed for future success and continued professional growth.

Dispositions

·         The candidate possesses the disposition for lifelong learning.

·         The candidate possesses the disposition to respect and value the dignity of all persons.

·         The candidate possesses a sense of professional self-efficacy and integrity

·         The candidate values critical thinking and self-directed learning as habits of mind.

·         The candidate possesses the disposition to reflect critically on cycles of teaching and learning.

·         The candidate possesses the disposition to integrate new knowledge and experience into his or her conceptual framework for teaching and learning.

·         The candidate possesses the disposition to make principled decisions about teaching and student learning

·         The candidate is flexible in his or her approach to solving problems and accommodating the complexities of teaching and learning.

·         The candidate embraces opportunities to transform by interaction in various professional communities.

·         The candidate is culturally responsive to the realities of diverse learners.

·         The candidate is proud to be a professional educator and sets high expectations for self and others in honor of that calling.

·         The candidate respects the confidentiality of information about students.

Performances

·         The candidate’s professional purpose is clearly defined in a written mission statement.

·         The candidate aligns his or her behavior with professional codes of ethics and conduct.

·         The candidate conducts him or herself professionally in interactions with students, parents, and professional colleagues.

·         The candidate is judicious in sharing personal life experiences and viewpoints with impressionable children and youth.

·         The candidate nurtures learner self-esteem and respect for self and others.

·         The candidate uses knowledge of diversity to strengthen students learning and uses the principles of culturally responsive teaching to guide practice.

·         The candidate models learning processes and shares enthusiasm for the subject(s) taught.

·         The candidate asks questions about what is learned, observed and experienced in oral/written reflections on class and clinical experiences.

·         The candidate’s written reflection evidence the integration of new knowledge, understanding, and technical terminology into his or her language system and frame of reference.

·         The candidate’s decision about teaching and learning are referenced to his or her emerging conceptual framework.

·         The candidate seeks opportunities for professional development, belongs to professional organizations, and subscribes to or reads professional journals.

·         The candidate keeps abreast of recent research and scholarship related to professional education and the academic discipline(s) taught.

·         The candidate constructs plans for continued professional development.