The UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching

THE UK PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING
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The UK professional standards framework for teaching
Name
Institution
Date

THE UK PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING
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A1. DESIGN AND PLAN LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND/ OR PROGRAMS OF STUDY
As a concerned learner I set out on a path to make sure that gender is given the respect and the
understanding it deserves. I teach gender and women’s studies which is a field that uses
interdisciplinary methods so as to shed light on women’s experiences and lives. My work in this
field focuses on how students can understand gender and how it is constructed culturally and
socially, as well as identifying the relationship between gender and power (k1, v1, v2).
My aim in this subject matter is to equip learners with the knowledge of human rights and social
justice while analyzing the relationship between cultural and social identities with gender in
terms of ethnicity, origin, race, nationality, class, religion and sexuality; which are all a matter of
great concern in the modern day in terms of disciplinary growth of the society. (Thoonen, 2011)
(k1, k3, k6, v1, v2).
I ensure that my courses have clear objectives and proper Planning by summoning feedback from
students continuously to identify the learning gaps if any. One way I receive feedback is through
Summative assessment which allows me to find out whether learning outcomes are being
achieved. Another way is through Peer feedback method which also helps the students learn
from each other’s work and motivate them to work harder. These methods are very effective as
students respond positively to them and one of my students even commented: “Thanks teacher,
you provide me with good path to understand these concepts and make my study easier” (K2,
K3, V2, V3). As my course has many theoretical concepts in find that I need to divide the
students into groups and ask them to build knowledge of different concepts they have chosen.
Then on each lesson where they learn additional theories, they need to refer to their work and
build on it and after four weeks students present their findings in the class. I have received many

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positive feedbacks from students regarding this approach and students achieve high performance
on Midterm and Final exams comparing to previous years (K2, K3, K5, V2, V4).
Taking a page from the research University of Helsinki which is the only member of the league
of European research universities (LERU) in Finland, I devised a method of research to help my
scholars relate more to the subject. First, I make sure the students go through training in research
methods before they are engaged in the actual research, Later on I require them to collect data
either as individuals or in groups (K2, V4); this also have has had a major success as students
with each other tend to be proactive during classes and more enthusiastic about the course. After
the research has been completed, I engage them in motion debates where they can present their
facts and findings and argue them accordingly (Gest, 2011) (K2, K3, V3, V4), this also has
resulted to students asking more questions everyday as they all want to be on the winning team
during these debates. My work encourages female students to become prosperous especially in
male-dominated fields and teaches on the importance of incorporating all genders in all fields of
work (Algan, 2013) (k6, v1, v2, v4). When Kelsey first joined my class she was having troubles
coping with the rest of the class but now she is my top student and at times I let her even lead the
class debates. She even once wrote on her Facebook timeline “My greatest mentor and teacher
have opened my understanding the world and now I thrive in areas where the society has marked
as the male playground; what a man can do a woman can do better.
References
Algan, Y., Cahuc, P. and Shleifer, A., 2013. Teaching practices and social capital. American
Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 5(3), pp.189-210.

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Gest, S.D. and Rodkin, P.C., 2011. Teaching practices and elementary classroom peer
ecologies. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 32(5), pp.288-296.
Thoonen, E.E., Sleegers, P.J., Oort, F.J., Peetsma, T.T. and Geijsel, F.P., 2011. How to improve
teaching practices: The role of teacher motivation, organizational factors, and leadership
practices. Educational administration quarterly, 47(3), pp.496-536.
A2. TEACH AND/ OR SUPPORT LEARNING
In order to ensure that students remain motivated and involved in the program I believe it is
important to ensure that there is interaction between them and me both inside and outside the
classroom. It lets them learn from each other’s background and in turn they respect the diverse
differences in and outside the classroom. I find that knowing the students by name goes a long
way in creating a good relationship as well as Sharing attitudes, values, and experiences with the
students. I encourage the students to use social platforms to interact such as Facebook and
Whatsapp to interact with me and this has really helped me gain the students confidence and trust
(k2-k4, v2, v3). One of the students sent me a message on Whatsapp saying; “you boost my
confidence by interacting with us as a class on social media. I thank you sir for wanting to
interact with us and creating a safe space all around as we learn.”
It goes without saying that collaboration and social work in the form of teamwork enhances
learning among students while trying to achieve a common goal towards creating a good learning
environment. I have further devised methods to encourage active learning and participation. In
order to achieve this, I encourage the students to apply what they learn in their daily lives by
giving them assignments that involve application to real-life situations like surveys. Moreover, I
urge them to use secondary sources of information such as journals instead of solely relying on