Campus Session

At last I was able to attend a campus session! It was really good to meet everyone in real life and get to take part in the discussions and tasks on the day. Rosemary asked one person from each group to blog about the session, sorry I am only now getting around to it but I’ve been away all week and only now sitting down at a computer again!

The main theme of the day was Ethics. I found these descriptions of what ethics means at dictionary.reference.com:

1.( used with a singular or plural verb ) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.

2.the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.

3. moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

4.( usually used with a singular verb ) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

At the session we talked about ethics being fair and just ways of working and the way you conduct yourself. Some of the words used to describe ethics were; Morals, Rules, Right and Wrong, Core Values, Good and Bad, Protection.

We were then asked to list some of our personal values, I wrote:

Polite and Courteous

Showing kindness to others

Loving to family and friends

And then some professional ones:

Committed

Hardworking

Ambitious

I think most people saw a distinct difference between their personal and professional values, professional ones being more driven and hardened. Some people had values that they used in both lists for example; loyalty.  But then when discussed further it became apparent that whilst you would always want to be loyal to friends or family you would perhaps only keep your loyalty in a business sense if it was good from the business and you were getting something out of it

We discussed the three types of Ethics

•   Consequential.   The end justifies the means (eg. You would kill 1 person to save 100). Minimise the harm to maximise the good

•  Deontologist. It totally rational. There’s no debate and lying is always wrong

•  Virtue. Character of the person is honest.

In groups we came up with a Code of Ethics for our different practices. My group were the Professional Teachers so we discussed and came up with our code of conduct for teaching. We made quite a long list but then when it came to showing it at the end I think we realised that some of the things we had listed were skills rather than ethics. I have had a rethink and cut down our list so it still includes everything we talked about but now one teaching ethic may cover a number of skills.

  

1. A teacher must be professional at all times.

(Manner in which you speak, look presentable, good time keeping, be reliable)

2. A teacher must be aware of the health and safety of their students

(Be aware of dangers in the workplace, children’s safeguarding)

3. A teacher must stay competent and up to date within their industry.

(Keep up to date with modern technology, fresh ideas, changes to syllabus)

4. A teacher must use suitable material for the students they are teaching

(Suitable music, moves, games, costumes)

5. A teacher must be fair and provide equal opportunities for all.

(Cultures, abilities, disabilities, ages)

6. A teacher should be encouraging and compassionate towards their students