Ethics of the Teaching Profession

By Nurulhana binti Hussain

Teachers affect eternity; they can never tell where their influence stops.
Henry Adams

What is ethics?
Moral rules or principals of behaviour for deciding what is right and wrong.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a particular society requires of its members.

Ethics of the Teaching Profession

Responsibility

Attitude

Personality

RESPONSIBILITY
Towards the profession Towards students Towards parents Towards community and country Towards colleagues

Responsibility towards the profession

Be a dedicated teacher Uphold the profession even outside the school environment. Continue to improve knowledge by attending courses and seminars. Observe the integrity as a teacher.

What is integrity?
The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; the state of being whole and undivided.
Oxford Dictionary 2nd edition, 2003

The quality of being honest and strong about what you believe to be right; the state of being united as one complete thing.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2003

Responsibility towards students

Students welfare and safety always come first. Be fair to each student regardless of physical, mental, emotional, political, economical, social, racial or religious differences. Treat students information as confidential. Educating students in the classrooms without hoping for compensation or monetary gain.

Responsibility towards parents

Respect parents domain towards their children. Treat all the information conveyed by parents with regard to the family problems as strictly confidential. Be wise in releasing information to parents with regards to their childs behaviour. Do not be influenced by the social status of the parents. Do not do things or say words that will tarnish the credibility of the parents in front of their children.

Responsibility towards the Community and Country

Stay away from any movements that are against the aspiration of the country. Nurture the students so that they would become great assets to the country. Respect the local community and take part in the community programmes.

Responsibility towards Colleagues.

Do not make any statement that could spoil the credibility of other teachers in front of the students or parents. Willing to help co-teachers and supervise new teachers. Acknowledge your colleagues expertise and willing to learn from them. Willing to work as a team.

ATTITUDE
Be sensitive towards the school environment and able to adapt to the working culture. Be positive and see problem as opportunity . Be open to criticism. Be concern towards problems faced by students, colleagues or administrators. Always willing to learn from others.

PERSONALITY
Have pleasant personality Observe high moral values Patient and calm Motivated to improve oneself Friendly and maintain a healthy relationship with everyone around.

Some examples of unethical behaviour of a teacher.

Tardy and fail to inform the office Leave school early Skip classes without valid reason Does not do / fail to complete work Involve in doing sales during working hours Inefficient / pretending to be inefficient Overly proud of own capability Impolite and temperamental Selfish and dishonest Hypocrite and back stabbing fellow teachers Fail to comply to the dress code

Sample Situation
Situation 1 A student confide in you the problem he has in a History class. He complains that he does not understand the lesson and the teacher likes to scold him for no reason. How would you react to the situation?

Sample Situation
Situation 2 You bring students on a field trip. Upon reaching the school many parents are waiting to fetch their children. However, there are still about five students left whose parents are not there yet. What should you do?

Sample Situation
Situation 3 A student tells you that her classmate admires you so much and has a crush on you. What would you do?

Sample Situation
Situation 4 You overslept one Monday morning to find out that it is already 7.30 a.m. You call a friend to punch the attendance for you.

Suggest the ethical way to solve your problem.

Sample Situation
Situation 5 A student came to you and told you that your lessons are boring and how he wished that his former teacher would be able to teach him instead of you.

How would you react to the students frankness.

A TEACHER TAKES A HAND OPENS A MIND TOUCHES A HEART SHAPES THE FUTURE

THE END
WELCOME TO REALITY